Erechtites Raf.
Capitula narrow, ± cylindric, subcorymbosely arranged, heterogamous, discoid. Florets whitish; pistillate marginal, in 2-3 series, filiform, minutely 3-5-toothed; perfect florets fewer, tubular, 5-toothed. Anthers obtuse at base; style-arms of perfect florets elongate, truncate. Achenes ± cylindric, striate or ribbed. Pappus-hairs ∞, soft, very slender, very obscurely barbellate. Phyll. in 1 row, linear, acute, subequal; subtended by a calyculus of a few minute bracteoles. Receptacle ± flat, nude. Annual or biennial herbs, or sts with a short-lived woody crown. Genus of c. 20 spp. of N. and S. America, Java, New Guinea, Australia, Tasmania, N.Z. Of the N.Z. spp. 4 are endemic, 4 occur also in Australia and/or Tasmania. The synonymy is confused.
Key
Flowering us. occurs from November to February and fruiting sts until April.
The application of the epithet prenanthoides is so confused that it had better be abandoned.
Belcher (Ann. Mo. bot. Gdn 48, 1956, 1-85) in an important paper restricts the genus to the American spp. and places the Australasian ones in Senecio. (E. valerianaefolia of tropical America is fully naturalized in northern part of North Id.) His key is:
Style arm with crown of divergent hairs surrounding appendage of fused papillose hairs......ERECHTITES
Style arm with crown of divergent hairs but truncated or bluntly rounded, not appendaged.......erechthitoid species of SENECIO
He makes the consequential nomenclatural changes and includes a full consideration of the synonymy. His paper must be consulted by future workers.
