Doellia Sch. Bip. in Walpers, Repert. Bot. Syst. 2: 953. 1843; Anderb. in Pl. Syst. & Evol. 176: 162. 1991; in Bremer, Asteraceae Clad. & Class. 299. 1994; emend. in Willdenowia 25: 21. 1995; Boulos & Hind in Boulos, Fl. Egypt 3: 189. 2002.
Perennial herbs or subshrubs. Stem with resin canals but without fibers in the phloem. Leaves alternate, linear-oblong-lanceolate, dentate, serrate or almost entire, hairy or subglabrous, auriculate but not decurrent along the stem. Capitula broadly campanulate, disciform, terminal, solitary or few together in a lax corymb; phyllaries chartaceous, narrowly linear, imbricate in several series. Receptacle flat, epaleate. Marginal florets female, filiform, outnumbering the bisexual florets, corolla yellow or purplish, three lobed; disc florets perfect, corolla yellow or purplish, 5-lobed. Anthers tailed. Cells of the filament collar flattened not mamillate, endothecial tissue radial. Style bifid, style branches with obtuse sweeping hairs reaching far below the furcation. Cypselas oblong, rather stout and somewhat angular, sparsely hairy with very few conspicuous red resin ducts. Epidermis cells without elongated crystals; pappus of free barbellate capillary bristles in one row, each bristle with appressed or erecto-patent teeth and an extremely small inconspicuous coroniform ridge.
A small genus with 2 species, distributed in S Africa, Madagascar, E Africa to Sinai, Iran and Pakistan. Represented in Pakistan by the following speices.
Doellia is distinguished from Blumea s. str. by its style with obtuse sweeping hairs reaching far below the bifurcation, radial endothecium and cypselas without elongated epidermis crystals. The genus differs from all species of Blumea s.l. by its cypselas with conspicuous longitudinal red resin ducts.
