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Fls all ligulate and perfect, yellow or purple; invol cylindric or campanulate, its bracts uniseriate and equal; receptacle naked; achenes linear, terete or angled, 5–10-nerved, narrowed at base, slender-beaked, or the outer occasionally beakless; pappus a single series of plumose bristles, united at base, the plume-branches interwebbed, several of the bristles commonly longer than the others and naked at the tip; taprooted lactiferous herbs with alternate, linear, entire, clasping, commonly somewhat grass-like lvs, the heads solitary at the ends of the branches. 50, mainly Eurasia and n. Afr.
Annual, biennial or perennial herbs, branching or not. Hairs simple, eglandular or lacking. Leaves basal and cauline. Inflorescences solitary. Capitula pedunculate; involucral bracts uni-seriate, soft and reflexed at maturity. Florets: ligule yellow or purple. Achenes homomorphic or slightly dimorphic, not compressed, beaked. Pappus of bristles, persistent, usually homomorphic (dimorphic in T. hybridus); bristles plumose or rarely scabridulous, sometimes slightly dimorphic within pappus.
