Description: Annual or perennial prostrate or decumbent herbs, often hairy and glandular.
Leaves opposite, simple to trilobed or toothed or pinnately dissected.
Heads on long naked peduncles, solitary and terminal or in cymose inflorescences; heads hemispherical or campanulate; involucral bracts 2-seriate, inner bracts broader and longer than outer, innermost often transitional to receptacle scales; receptacle conical or convex, scales scarious, persistent, partially enclosing the achenes. Ray florets few in 1 row, female, fertile, ligulate; ligules usually 3-lobed; pappus often reduced. Disc florets numerous, tubular-funnelform, bisexual, fertile, 5-toothed. Anthers saggitate at the base, apical appendages spoon-shaped. Style branches filiform.
Achenes turbinate, terete or angled, hairy or glabrous; pappus of numerous plumose scales, rarely absent.
Distribution and occurrence: World: 26 species, Mexico to tropical South America. Australia: 1 species (naturalized).
Text by L. Murray
Taxon concept:
| One species in NSW: Tridax procumbens |
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