Description: Annual or perennial herbs or small shrubs.
Leaves alternate, toothed or lobed.
Inflorescence terminal on axillary branches, heads solitary or occasionally 2 or 3 clustered together; heads hemispherical, many-flowered; involucral bracts imbricate in several series, outer leaf-like, inner membranous; receptacle naked, flat. Ray florets absent. Disc florets bisexual, tubular, 5-toothed, purple to blue, glandular. Anthers obtuse at the base. Style branches subulate.
Achenes cylindrical to obconical, 8–10-ribbed; pappus a row of stiff, straw-coloured bristles, occasionally absent.
Distribution and occurrence: World: c. 20 species, Philippines & tropical America. Australia: 1 species.
Text by M. F. Porteners
Taxon concept:
Taxa not yet included in identification key
Centratherum punctatum,
Centratherum riparium
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