Erigeron L.
Usually annual to perennial herbs, rarely shrubs. Lvs alternate, simple, entire, serrate or lobed. Capitula 1-numerous, solitary or in corymbs or panicles. Involucral bracts in 2-4 rows, imbricate, the outer somewhat herbaceous, the inner mostly chartaceous. Receptacle flat or convex; scales 0. Outer florets ♀, mostly distinctly ligulate, numerous in 1-2 rows, sometimes the inner ♀ florets filiform; ligules white to pink, blue or purple. Inner florets ⚥, tubular, numerous. Achenes usually all similar, sometimes dimorphic, obovoid, compressed, hairy, sometimes with 1-4 narrow ribs; pappus usually of scabrid hairs in 1 row, sometimes with a short outer row of scales or hairs and then rarely the long hairs lacking on ray achenes.
Key
c. 200 spp., mainly N. Hemisphere, extending to Africa and Australia. Naturalised spp. 3.
The common, weedy fleabanes previously treated in Erigeron are now referred to Conyza; they can usually be distinguished by the ♀ florets which have very reduced ligules. As circumscribed here Erigeron includes Stenactis Cass. Other large-flowered American Erigeron spp. are cultivated as ornamentals in N.Z. but have not been collected wild.
