Herbs, perennial, sometimes subsucculent, rarely subshrubs, glabrous or hispid. Leaves alternate, dentate or pinnately divided, rarely entire, petiolate or sessile. Capitula discoid, homogamous, solitary or few to numerous corymbose. Involucres campanulate or cylindric, with many linear bracteoles at base; phyllaries uniseriate, 9-13, lanceolate, equal, imbricate, with scarious margins. Receptacle flat, areolate or shortly fimbriate. All florets bisexual, fertile; corolla yellow or orange, rarely purplish, tubular, with slender tube and narrowly campanulate limb, lobes 5. Anthers entire or subauriculate at base. Style branches slender, appendages subulate, papillose. Achenes cylindric, 10-ribbed, glabrous or puberulent, truncate at both ends. Pappus white, sericeous.

Besides the species enumerated below, Gynura aurantiaca (Blume) Candolle (Prodr. 6: 300. 1838), a native of Indonesia, is cultivated in gardens as an ornamental.

About 40 species: Africa, Asia, Australia; ten species (one endemic) in China.

(Authors: Chen Yilin (陈艺林 Chen Yi-ling); Bertil Nordenstam)