Description: Annual or perennial herbs or shrubs.
Leaves alternate, variously toothed or lobed.
Heads in terminal panicles, sometimes contracted into spikes or clusters, rarely heads solitary, bisexual; involucral bracts numerous, herbaceous with scarious margins, in several series, imbricate or reflexed, unequal; receptacle naked, flat. Ray florets absent; outer disc florets numerous, female, fertile, filiform, 2- or 3-toothed; inner disc florets few, bisexual, sterile or sometimes functionally female, tubular, 4- or 5-toothed. Anthers with slender tails. Style branches filiform, papillose.
Achenes terete or angled, ribbed, hairy; pappus a single row of numerous barbellate bristles.
Distribution and occurrence: World: c. 75 species, Africa, Madagascar, India, Asia, Micronesia. Australia: c. 11 species (c. 8 species native, 1 species naturalized), Qld, N.S.W., N.T., W.A.
Text by M. F. Porteners
Taxon concept:
| | Key to the species | |
| 1 | Leaves often lyrately lobed; florets yellow | Blumea lacera |
| Leaves not lobed; florets purple to lilac | Blumea axillaris |
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