Leaves
opposite, sessile or with 2 ± widened and clasping petioles, lobed or 1-3-pinnatisect
Capitula
radiate, solitary on terminal and lateral branches, long-peduncled
Involucre
subhemispheric; bracts in 2 rows, connate basally, membranous
Receptacle
flat
Ray florets
neuter; corolla white, pink, lilac or orange, strap-shaped, entire or subdentate
Disc florets
many, bisexual, fertile; corolla yellowish, cylindric but widening slightly near apex, equally 5-toothed terminally
Style
with branches slender, thickened above, hirtellous, tipped with short and acute appendages
Stamens
with hirsute filaments
Cypselas
linear, ± fusiform-tetragonal, usually compressed, apically usually attenuate into beak
Pappus
of 2-4(-8) barbellate or scabrid awns
x = 12 (11, 13, 17) (aneuploids, polyploidy, B-chromosomes)
Nomenclature:
*Cosmos
Cav.
Cavanilles: 9 (1791)
Henderson & Anderson: 356 (1966)
Correll & Johnston: 1664 (1970)
Karis & Ryding: 615 (1994)
Distribution & Notes:
Global
: Species 26, in tropical and warm regions of America, especially Mexico
Southern Africa
: Species 2, weeds: *
Cosmos bipinnatus
Cav. known from the Northern Province, North-West, Gauteng, Mpumalanga, Free State and Lesotho, and
*C. sulphureus
Cav. from KwaZulu-Natal
References:
CAVANILLES, A.J. 1791.
Icones et descriptiones plantarum
1. Typographia regia, Madrid
CORRELL, D.S. & JOHNSTON, M.C. 1970. Fam. 174.
Compositae
.
Manual of the vascular plants of Texas
. George Banta Company, Wisconsin
HENDERSON, M. & ANDERSON, J.G. 1966. Common weeds in South Africa.
Memoirs of the Botanical Survey of South Africa
No. 37
KARIS, P.O. & RYDING, O. 1994. Tribes
Helenieae
and
Heliantheae
. In K. Bremer,
Asteraceae
, cladistics and classification
. Timber Press, Portland, Oregon
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Biodiversity Advisor, developed by the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) and its Data Partners, is a system that will provide integrated biodiversity information to a wide range of users who will have access to geospatial data, plant and animal species distribution data, ecosystem-level data, literature, images and metadata.
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