Description: Annual or perennial herbs with leafy stems.
Leaves opposite, margins ± entire or toothed.
Inflorescence of heads in loose terminal corymbose panicles; heads campanulate or hemispherical; involucral bracts herbaceous, equal, in 2- or 3-seriate, ± fused at the base; receptacle naked, flat. Ray florets absent. Disc florets bisexual, tubular, 4–5-toothed, white or mauve. Anthers obtuse or ± truncate at the base. Style branches elongate, dilated above, obtuse, sometimes ± petaloid, papillose outside.
Achenes obovoid-oblong, 3–5-angled, gland-dotted or tuberculate; pappus of 3–5 short rigid bristles, each crowned by a round or club-shaped gland.
Distribution and occurrence: World: c. 20 species, tropical Asia, tropical & subtropical America & Africa. Australia: 2 species (native), Qld, N.S.W., N.T.
Text by M. F. Porteners
Taxon concept:
| One species in NSW: Adenostemma lavenia |
|
