Diaspananthus Miquel.

Herbs, perennial, rarely subshrubs. Leaves alternate, often in basal rosettes or densely aggregated near median part of stems; blade linear, ovate, elliptic, or orbicular, margin entire, crenate, denticulate, dentate, or lobed. Capitula many in spikes, racemes, or panicles, sometimes nodding, radiate or discoid, homogamous; involucres cylindric; phyllaries often multiseriate, imbricate; receptacle small, glabrous, epaleate. Florets few, (1-)3(-5), bisexual, all fertile, chasmogamous or cleistogamous; chasmogamous corollas open, deeply irregularly 5-lobed, one of slits much longer than others, lobes linear, reflexed and usually coiled; cleistogamous corolla (if present) closed, tubular, shorter than pappus; anther bases long tailed, apex appendages truncate to rounded, sometimes apiculate; styles shallowly divided at apex, style branches short, abaxially with papillae, apices obtuse to acute, rounded, or truncate. Achenes terete or fusiform, ribbed, glabrous or pilose; pappus of plumose bristles or sometimes absent in chasmogamous florets, usually uniseriate, more rarely biseriate. 2n = 24, 26.

See the revision of Ainsliaea by Freire (Ann. Missouri Bot. Gard. 94: 79-191. 2007).

Incompletely known species

Ainsliaea mollis Diels, Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. Beih. 12: 514. 1922.

Ainsliaea mollis was treated by Y. C. Tseng (FRPS 79: 34. 1996) as an accepted species, occurring in Sichuan and Yunnan. It resembles A. fragrans in external morphology. No material of this species was available to the present authors. Its identity is dubious.

About 50 species: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam; 40 species (28 endemic) in China; one additional species is incompletely known.

(Authors: Gao Tiangang (高天刚); Susana Edith Freire, D. J. Nicholas Hind)