Description: Annual or perennial herbs or small shrubs, bristly to cottony with septate hairs, minute glandular hairs also present.
Leaves cauline, alternate, numerous, flat to conduplicate, rarely terete, attenuate bases.
Inflorescences terminal on branches; involucral bracts imbricate, usually linear to elliptic; receptacle convex, naked, pitted. Ray florets female, 1–3-seriate. Disc florets tubular, 5-merous, bisexual, corolla usually shorter than pappus; staminal filaments attached in upper third of tube; anthers and style with terminal appendages.
Achenes flattened, with opposing faces separated by marginal ridge, facial ribbing sometimes present, obovate to oblanceolate, variously hairy but always with a basal hair tuft; pappus of numerous free bristles, usually barbellate and in many rows, far exceeding the involucre.
Distribution and occurrence: World: 29 species, Australia, New Caledonia, New Zealand, New Guinea. Australia: 27 species (25 species endemic), all States.
Text by J. Scott & J. Everett
Taxon concept:
| | Key to the species | |
| 1 | Achenes without facial ribbing | 2 |
| Achenes with facial ribbing | 6 |
| 2 | Achenes with prominent marginal ribs | 3 |
| Achenes without prominent marginal ribs
Back to 1 | 5 |
| 3 | Achenes narrowly constricted in the lower half, truncate at the apex below the pappus; pappus in many rows | Vittadinia eremaea |
| Achenes gradually tapered to the base, constricted at the apex; pappus in 1 or 2 rows
Back to 2 | 4 |
| 4 | Stems and leaves with mainly septate hairs, glandular hairs minute and obscure | Vittadinia hispidula |
| Stems and leaves with mainly glandular hairs, septate hairs mainly restricted to margins and midrib of abaxial leaf surface
Back to 3 | Vittadinia arida |
| 5 | Pappus plumose; achenes evenly pubescent | Vittadinia pterochaeta |
| Pappus barbellate; achenes with hairs denser in the centre or glabrescent
Back to 2 | Vittadinia pustulata |
| 6 | Facial ribs converging below the apex, fusing with marginal ribs, not all reaching the apex, the apex never truncate | 7 |
| Facial ribs not or scarcely converging, almost all ribs continued to the apex, the apex often more or less truncate
Back to 1 | 8 |
| 7 | Achenes with glandular hairs especially at the apex | Vittadinia cervicularis |
| Achenes without glandular hairs
Back to 6 | Vittadinia sulcata |
| 8 | Marginal ribs of achenes glabrous; leaves linear or if oblanceolate then with narrow-acuminate lobes and attenuate base | 9 |
| One or both of the marginal ribs with hairs; leaves cuneate, obovate, oblanceolate or spathulate; lobes when present obtuse or shortly acute
Back to 6 | 11 |
| 9 | Achene faces with clavate or subclavate hairs towards the apex | 10 |
| Achene faces with slender hairs towards the apex
Back to 8 | Vittadinia tenuissima |
| 10 | Achenes with appressed hairs on the lower half, the upper half with subclavate hairs between the ribs | Vittadinia muelleri |
| Achenes without hairs on the lower half, the upper half with clavate hairs on the ribs
Back to 9 | Vittadinia blackii |
| 11 | Hairs on the upper half of the achenes conspicuously clavate, hairs on the marginal ribs much smaller | Vittadinia condyloides |
| Hairs on the upper half of the achenes with acutely bifid apices, never clavate, hairs on the marginal ribs scarcely smaller
Back to 8 | 12 |
| 12 | Heads usually more than 6 mm long; leaves cuneate to oblanceolate, without a very narrow base; the upper part entire or with 2 small lateral lobes | 13 |
| Heads less than 6 mm long; leaves broad-spathulate with a very narrow base, the upper part dissected
Back to 11 | Vittadinia dissecta |
| 13 | Indumentum hirsute or stiffly semi-appressed | Vittadinia cuneata |
| Indumentum soft, white-tomentose
Back to 12 | Vittadinia gracilis |
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