Perennials or rarely annuals. Stem not winged, without resin canals. Leaves alternate, entire or toothed, sessile or petiolate; petioles often winged. Capitula disciform, heterogamous, terminal or axillary, sessile or shortly pedunculate, usually nodding, solitary or few together, or many in spiciform racemes. Involucres subglobose or depressed-globose; phyllaries 3- or 4-seriate, outer ones herbaceous or with leaflike tips, inner ones dry, broad, obtuse. Receptacle flat, glabrous. Marginal florets female, tubular to miniradiate, in 2 to several series, fertile, slender; corollas 3-5-toothed. Disk florets bisexual, fertile, slender, many; corolla limb slightly dilated, 4- or 5-toothed, yellowish. Anthers ecalcarate, with branched tails. Endothecial tissue radial. Pollen spines with a cavity. Style branches with acute sweeping hairs not reaching furcation. Achenes ellipsoid, glabrous, longer than corolla, ribbed, with a short glandular beak, crowned by a cartilaginous ring, with elongated crystals. Pappus absent. x = 10, 18.

About 20 species: Asia, Europe; 16 species (six endemic) in China.