Perennial herbs, often with a distinctive smell of valerian. Inflorescence a thyrse. Flowers bisexual or unisexual. Calyx developing in fruit into a pappus of 5-15 plumose awns. Corolla slightly saccate at base, with 5 lobes. Stamens 3. Fruit a flattened achene with 6 filiform ribs. Worldwide: c. 200 species, in northern temperate regions, western S America with 3 species in tropical Africa Zimbabwe: 1 taxon. |
|