天人菊屬

Gaillardia pulchella Credit: HAST

Erect annual or perennial herbs. Leaves alternate or all basal, entire or toothed. Heads radiate, solitary on long terminal peduncles; flowers yellow to purplish or reddish, ray florets in 1 row, disc florets many. Involucre hemispheric, bracts in 2 or 3 series, herbaceous, spreading or reflexed, outer ones larger, loose and foliaceous. Receptacle convex to globose, paleaceous, scales bristle-like or subulate. Ray florets showy, neutral or sometimes fertile; corolla limb 3-5-lobed or -cleft. Disc florets fertile, tubular, lobes 5, acute, usually with long hairs at tip; anthers sagittate or auriculate at base; style arms long, appendages filiform. Achenes turbinate, 5-ribbed, villous; pappus of 5-10 long, thin, awn-tipped scales.

About 20 species in North and South America; one species introduced and escaped in Taiwan.

Lower Taxon

• Gaillardia pulchella Foug.

Related Synonym(s):

• Gaillardia pulchelalla f. flaviflora S. S. Ying = Gaillardia pulchella Foug.