Corolla tubular in all the perfect flowers, regularly 5- (rarely 3–4-) lobed, ligulate only in the marginal or ray-flowers, which when present are either pistillate only, or neutral (with neither stamens nor pistil).
Tribe I. VERNONIACEÆ. Heads discoid; the flowers all alike, perfect and tubular, never yellow. Branches of the style long and slender, terete, thread-shaped, minutely bristly-hairy all over.—Leaves alternate or scattered.
1. Elephantopus. Heads 3–5-flowered, several crowded together into a compound head. Involucre of 8 scales. Pappus of several chaffy bristles.
2. Vernonia. Heads several–many-flowered, separate. Involucre of many scales. Pappus double, the inner capillary, the outer of minute chaffy bristles.
Tribe II. EUPATORIACEÆ. Heads discoid, the flowers all alike, perfect and tubular, never yellow. Branches of the style thickened upward or club-shaped, obtuse, very minutely and uniformly pubescent; the stigmatic lines indistinct.
[*] Pappus a row of hard scales.
3. Sclerolepis. Head many-flowered. Scales of the involucre equal. Leaves whorled.
[*][*] Pappus of slender bristles.
[+] Achene 5-angled; bristles of the pappus roughish.
4. Mikania. Flowers and involucral scales only 4. Stems twining.