Skip to main content
  1. Family: Asteraceae Bercht. & J.Presl

    1. Launaea Cass.

        2. This genus is accepted, and is native to Asia-Tropical, Europe, Africa, Southern America, Western Australia and Asia-Temperate..

    [FZ]

    Compositae, G. V. Pope. Flora Zambesiaca 6:1. 1992

    Habit
    Annual perennial or biennial herbs (spiny subshrubs), glabrous, with or without stems, sometimes caespitose, occasionally stoloniferous.
    Stem
    Stems or flowering stalks 1-several, branching above or simple.
    Leaves
    Leaves cauline and alternate, or radical and rosulate, entire or sinuate-dentate to runcinate-pinnatipartite, often acicular-denticulate on the margins.
    Capitulum
    Capitula few to numerous, subsessile or shortly stalked, often in lax irregular corymbs, sometimes solitary, or in clusters along the branches.
    Receptacle
    Receptacle epaleate.
    Involucre
    Involucres narrowly cylindric-campanulate.
    Phyllaries
    Phyllaries 2-several-seriate, becoming ± swollen and corky towards the base; the innermost subequal, usually greatly exceeding the outer.
    Florets
    Florets few to many, yellow, or the ligule sometimes purplish or red outside; anthers sagittate at the base with the auricles shortly setaceous-acuminate; style branches long slender, sweeping hairs long.
    Fruits
    Achenes pale-brown to black, subterete or somewhat angular, or compressed, sometimes apically attenuate or beaked, ribbed; ribs 5-many, uniformly narrow or somewhat inflated, smooth or muricate, glabrous.
    Seeds
    Pappus many-seriate, of setae only or of setae intermixed with numerous down-like hairs.
    [FTEA]

    Compositae, H. Beentje, C. Jeffrey & D.J.N. Hind. Flora of Tropical East Africa. 2005

    Habit
    Herbs or spiny sub-shrubs, sometimes acaulescent, sometimes scapose; stems simple or branched, glabrous
    Leaves
    Leaves in a rosette or cauline, entire to pinnatipartite
    Capitulum
    Capitula subsessile or shortly stalked, in lax irregular corymbs, or in clusters along the branches; involucre cylindric becoming campanulate; phyllaries in few series, the outermost smallest, becoming swollen and corky, often with scarious margins; receptacle epaleate
    Florets
    Florets few to many; anthers sagittate; style branches with long sweeping hairs
    Fruits
    Achenes cylindric or fusiform, sometimes beaked, ribbed, usually dimorphic with the outer darker and rugose, the inner pale and smooth; pappus of setae only, or of mixed setae and downy hairs.

    Images

    Distribution

    Native to:

    Afghanistan, Algeria, Andaman Is., Angola, Baleares, Bangladesh, Benin, Botswana, Burkina, Burundi, Cameroon, Canary Is., Cape Provinces, Cape Verde, Central African Repu, Chad, China North-Central, China South-Central, China Southeast, Comoros, Congo, Cyprus, Djibouti, Dominican Republic, East Himalaya, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Gulf States, Hainan, Haiti, India, Inner Mongolia, Iran, Iraq, Ivory Coast, Jawa, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, KwaZulu-Natal, Laccadive Is., Laos, Lebanon-Syria, Libya, Madagascar, Madeira, Malawi, Maldives, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nepal, Nicobar Is., Niger, Nigeria, Northern Provinces, Oman, Pakistan, Palestine, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sicilia, Sierra Leone, Sinai, Socotra, Somalia, South China Sea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Swaziland, Tadzhikistan, Tanzania, Thailand, Togo, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, West Himalaya, Western Australia, Western Sahara, Xinjiang, Yemen, Zambia, Zaïre, Zimbabwe

    Introduced into:

    Aruba, Bahamas, Belize, Cayman Is., Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Florida, Guatemala, Jamaica, Leeward Is., Marianas, Mauritius, Mexico Southeast, Netherlands Antilles, Nicaragua, Peru, Puerto Rico, Réunion, Seychelles, Suriname, Texas, Transcaucasus, Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuela, Venezuelan Antilles

    Accepted Species

    Synonyms

    Other Data

    Launaea Cass. appears in other Kew resources:

    Bibliography

    First published in Dict. Sci. Nat., ed. 2. 25: 321 (1822)

    Accepted by

    • Roskov Y. & al. (eds.) (2018). Species 2000 & ITIS Catalogue of Life Naturalis, Leiden, the Netherlands.

    Literature

    Flora of West Tropical Africa

    • —F.T.A. 3: 460.

    Flora Zambesiaca

    • C. Jeffrey in Kew Bull. 18: 463–477 (1966).
    • in Dict. Sci. Nat. 25: 321 (1822).

    Flora of Tropical East Africa

    • N. Kilian in Englera 17: 1–478 (1997)
    • K. Bremer, Asteraceae Clad. & Class.: 188 (1994)
    • C. Jeffrey in K.B. 18: 463 (1966)
    • in Dict. Sci. Nat. 25: 321 (1822)

    Sources

    Flora Zambesiaca
    Flora Zambesiaca
    http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0

    Flora of Tropical East Africa
    Flora of Tropical East Africa
    http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0

    Kew Backbone Distributions
    The International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Selected Plant Families 2020. Published on the Internet at http://www.ipni.org and http://apps.kew.org/wcsp/
    © Copyright 2017 World Checklist of Selected Plant Families. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0

    Kew Names and Taxonomic Backbone
    The International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Selected Plant Families 2020. Published on the Internet at http://www.ipni.org and http://apps.kew.org/wcsp/
    © Copyright 2017 International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Selected Plant Families. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0