Perennials [annuals or biennials], (5-)10-30+ cm; taprooted (sometimes rhizomatous; stolons produced in some taxa). Stems (excluding stolons) 1-5+, erect (often scapiform), usually branched distally, glabrous. Leaves basal and cauline; petiolate; blades elliptic, oblong, orbiculate, or ovate [lanceolate to oblanceolate or linear], margins entire or denticulate to dentate [pinnately lobed] (faces glabrous [± scabrous]). Heads borne singly or in loose, corymbiform [paniculiform] arrays. Peduncles not inflated distally, usually bracteate. Calyculi of 3-10+, deltate to lanceolate bractlets. Involucres campanulate to cylindric, 2-5[-8+] mm diam. Phyllaries 5-10[-13+] in ± 1 series, linear [lanceolate], equal to subequal, margins sometimes scarious, apices obtuse to acute. Receptacles convex, weakly pitted, glabrous, epaleate. Florets 6-12+; corollas yellow [white or bluish]. Cypselae reddish brown [black], bodies ± fusiform, sometimes ± compressed, ribs (or wings) 10, beaks equal to or shorter than bodies, faces glabrous; pappi persistent, of 20-30, white [brown], ± equal, smooth or barbellulate bristles in 1 series. x = 8.

Fls all ligulate and perfect, yellow, blue, or white, the tube one- fourth to one-half as long as the ligule; invol cylindric, mostly calyculate rather than imbricate; achenes somewhat compressed, long-beaked, the 10 nerves ±wing-elevated; pappus of capillary bristles, multicellular in cross-section at least near the base; slender, lactiferous herbs, mostly scapose or subscapose, with solitary or few heads in a corymbiform infl. 50, Asia and E. Indies.

Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

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