Phagnalon Cass.

Herbs or undershrubs, cottony woolly, rarely glabrous. Leaves alternate, entire or sinuate toothed. Heads yellow, heterogamous, disciform, solitary or fascicled. Involucre campanulate or ovoid; bracts many-seriate, dry, subulate or ovate-lanceolate, tips scarious; outer smaller. Receptacle flat, naked or pitted. Florets all fertile. Ray florets female, many-seriate, filiform, minutely 2 - 3 toothed; bisexual florets slender, tubular; limb obscurely dilated, 5-fid. Anther bases entire or sagittate, sometimes minutely tailed. Style arms of female florets slender, obtuse, truncate or subcapitate. Achenes small, not ribbed. Pappus hairs 1-seriate, slender, rigid, persistent.

Mediterranean, Canaries, C. and W. Asiatic regions; ca 40 species, 3 in India.

KEY TO THE SPECIES

1a. Glabrous undershrubs

2. Phagnalon darvazicum

b. Appressed softly hairy-woolly herbs-undershrubs

2

2a. Stems with lax leaves; leaves 8 - 10 mm broad

1. Phagnalon acuminatum

b. Stems with dense leaves; leaves ca 3 mm broad

3. Phagnalon niveum

List of Lower Taxa