This is the largest family of vascular plants of the Palaearctic and one of the largest in the world, as it consists of some 1,910 genera and about 32,900 species. It consists mainly of herbaceous species, rarely trees, shrubs and lianas. It is distributed around the world, from the Arctic mountains to tropical rainforests. What all species have in common is their flowers, arranged in capitula surrounded by an involucre of bracts, with a \u00b1 enlarged, flat or convex receptacle on which flowers are inserted, which can be alveolate and have hairs or scales between the flowers. Flowers may be unisexual or hermaphrodite, and the North African species there are of 2 types: ligulate and ray florets, both zygomorphic, with petals fused in a short tube at the lower part and the rest in the shape of a tongue with 5 lobes (true ligulate flowers) or 3 lobes (ray florets), or actinomorphic flowers with a tubular corolla with 5 apical lobes (disc florets). The androecium consists of 5 stamens, free at the filaments, but with coalescent anthers forming a \u00b1 long exserted tube surrounding the style. The ovary is always inferior and the calyx absent or transformed into a pappus formed by hairs, scales or a membranous corona. The fruit is a cypsela (achene produced by an inferior ovary).<\/p>\n
In North Africa, this family is composed of 124 species, the vast majority herbaceous. The species of the genera Pluchea <\/strong>and Warionia <\/strong>can become arborescent, but in general all the woody species are small shrubs or subshrubs. All genera with woody species, whether shrubs or subshrubs with more of 50 cm, have been included in the following key.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"template":"","class_list":["post-10974","family","type-family","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n