Astereae Cass.
Annual or perennial herbs or shrubs, rarely small trees, not usually strongly scented, lacking latex. Lvs usually alternate or basal, very rarely opposite. Involucral bracts in (2)-several rows, herbaceous to chartaceous, rarely membranous at margins or apex. Receptacle usually without scales, very rarely with scales. Capitula usually ⚥, rarely unisexual, sometimes homomorphic-discoid, but usually heteromorphic with 1-several rows of outer, filiform to ligulate, ♀ florets, and few to numerous, actinomorphic, ⚥ or rarely ♂ disc florets. Anther bases usually obtuse, rarely tailed. Style branches each with 2 stigmatic lines. Achenes usually homomorphic, rarely heteromorphic, with 0-few ribs or wings, terete or compressed; pappus usually of long scabrid to plumose hairs, sometimes of short hairs, scales or barbed awns, or rarely reduced to a corona or 0.
Key
135 genera, c. 2500 spp., cosmopolitan but mainly temperate, especially Africa and America.
This large tribe includes many genera cultivated for their showy capitula. As in other tribes, the limits of large genera are not well defined and authors differ in the number of segregate genera they accept. The treatment here generally follows that of Grau, J., in Heywood et al. (op. cit.).
