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Heads radiate or sometimes discoid, the rays pistillate and fertile, yellow to orange or occasionally reddish, invol bracts ± herbaceous, essentially equal, uniseriate or subbiseriate, often with some bracteoles at base; receptacle flat or convex, naked; disk-fls perfect and fertile, yellow to orange or reddish; style-branches flattened, truncate, penicillate; achenes subterete, 5–10-nerved; pappus of numerous, usually white, entire or rarely barbellulate capillary bristles; herbs (ours) or sometimes woody plants, with alternate (or all basal), entire to variously dissected lvs and mostly small to medium-sized heads. 1000+, cosmop. Spp. 4–14 ill-defined, their chromosomes also subject to miscount because of B-chromosomes.
Annual, biennial, or perennial herbs, shrubs, trees or climbers. Lvs simple, entire to pinnately or palmately toothed, lobed, or compound, alternate. Capitula in corymbs, panicles, or solitary; involucral bracts in 1 row, usually with shorter supplementary bracts subtending base of involucre. Receptacle ± flat or convex; scales 0. Outer florets ♀ and ligulate, ♀ and tubular, or ☿ and tubular; ligules usually yellow, sometimes white, pink, orange, or mauve to purple; inner florets ☿. Achenes usually ± cylindric, 5-10-ribbed, often with short antrorse hairs, sometimes glabrous, rarely dimorphic with ray achenes glabrous and disc achenes hairy; pappus present but sometimes caducous, denticulate, simple or rarely plumose.
Herbs, shrubs, or climbers, rarely gynodioecious. Leaves sessile, rarely petiolate, pinnately veined. Capitula radiate (with ligules much reduced in Glossanthus group) discoid or disciform, calyculate or ecalyculate; involucral bracts free, rarely connate. Florets: ligule mostly yellow, occasionally pink or purple, rarely cream or white; disc florets with corolla limbs mostly yellow or yellow-green, rarely pink or red; anthers ecaudate; style branches truncate or obtuse, crowned by papillae, without terminal appendage. Achenes homomorphic, rarely slightly dimorphic, obloid or obloid-ellipsoid, sometimes bottle-shaped. Pappus caducous or persistent.
Capitula solitary to paniculate, heterogamous or homogamous; phyll. in 1-2 series with or without minute ones at base; receptacle flat to convex, nude to fimbrillate. Ray-florets ligulate, pistillate or neuter; disk-florets tubular, perfect. Anthers obtuse at base; style-arms of perfect florets recurved, truncate or penicillate at tips; pappus-hairs cop., smooth to barbellate or plumose. Herbs, lianes, shrubs or trees with alt. lvs. A cosmopolitan genus with over 1500 spp. of the N.Z. spp. S. lautus is recorded also from Tasmania, the remainder are endemic.
