Description: Annual herbs, 10–130 cm high. Stems erect, simple or scarcely branched, nearly glabrous to densely hairy, hairs straight, strigose and/or glandular.
Leaves simple or compound, when compound 3–5-foliate or biternately dissected, lower ones opposite, upper ones alternate, blades ovate to linear, pubescent, hairs straight or strigose, with or without glandular hairs; petiolate.
Inflorescence terminal, dichotomous or corymbose, 5 to numerous heads. Heads terminal, homogamous, pedunculate. Involucres turbinate. Phyllaries in 1–2 series, equal to subequal, 8–13, green or purplish, margins scarious and often suffused with purple, nearly glabrous to densely pubescent, with or without glandular hairs. Rays absent. Disk florets 6–40, bisexual; anthers 5, sacs rounded at base, apical appendages ovate to obtuse; stigmatic lines terminated by cuspidate appendages.
Achenes obpyramidal, 4-angled, faces smooth or distinctly 3-ribbed, black, nearly glabrous to densely pubescent; pappus of 8–10 ovate-lanceolate scales, sometimes with thickened midribs protuding as a bristle or awn, scales with acute or truncate apex.
Distribution and occurrence: World: 8 species, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northeast, Texas. Australia 1 species (naturalised).
Text by S F McCune (July 2021)
Taxon concept:
| One species in NSW: Florestina tripteris |
|
