Description: Annual or perennial herbs or shrubs, hairy.
Leaves opposite and/or alternate, sessile, entire.
Heads compound, terminal; general involucre absent or consisting of a few leaf-like or partly hyaline bracts; general receptacle ± entire or branched, glabrous or hairy; bracts of partial heads 2- or 3-seriate, hyaline or scarious (except midrib), upper part of lamina often constricted and differently coloured from lower part, with or without long hairs. Florets 1–22 per head, tubular, bisexual, 5-toothed. Anthers tailed and with an apical appendage. Style branches truncate, with short hairs.
Achenes obovoid, ± glabrous to distinctly papillose; pappus of simple and/or plumose bristles or several narrow-linear scales.
Distribution and occurrence: World: c. 14 species, endemic Australia. Australia: all States.
Text by E. A. Brown
Taxon concept:
| | Key to the species | |
| 1 | Florets 1–3 per partial head | 2 |
| Florets 12–22 per partial heads | Calocephalus platycephalus |
| 2 | Leaves alternate; annual | 3 |
| Leaves mostly opposite; perennials
Back to 1 | Calocephalus citreus |
| 3 | Pappus bristles 6–11 and plumose throughout length | Calocephalus sonderi |
| Pappus bristles 6–8 and plumose at the tip
Back to 2 | Calocephalus lacteus |
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