Description: Perennial herbs, shrubs or trees or annuals.
Leaves alternate, entire, toothed or lobed.
Inflorescence terminal, heads in cymose panicles; heads campanulate, hemispherical or ovoid; involucral bracts herbaceous, unequal, in few to many series; receptacle naked, ± flat, usually reticulate. Ray florets absent. Disc florets bisexual, tubular, 5-toothed. Anthers sagittate at the base but not tailed. Style branches subulate.
Achenes cylindrical or turbinate, usually ribbed, hairy; pappus 2-seriate, the inner bristles long and slender, the outer short bristles or scales.
Distribution and occurrence: World: c. 1000 species, mostly America, Africa & Asia. Australia: 1 species (native).
Text by M. F. Porteners
Taxon concept:
| One species in NSW: Vernonia cinerea |
|
