Description: Perennial herbs.
Leaves alternate or in basal rosette, simple, ± sessile.
Inflorescence terminal, few-branched, corymbiform; heads in dense clusters subtended by 1–3 leaf-like bracts; involucral bracts in 4 pairs, graduated; receptacle flat, naked. Ray florets absent; disc florets 1–5, bisexual, fertile, corolla 5-toothed. Anthers sagittate at base, with apical appendages. Style branches slender, tapering to acute apex, outer surface hairy.
Achenes columnar-clavate, truncate, mostly 10-ribbed, antrorsely hairy; pappus 5–10 (rarely more) stiff bristles or awns basally dilated.
Distribution and occurrence: World: 10–12 spp., trop. Amer. Aust.: 3 spp. (naturalized), Qld, N.S.W., N.T.
Text by E. A. Brown
Taxon concept:
| One species in NSW: Elephantopus mollis |
|
