Elephantopus 地膽草屬
型態特徵
Perennial herbs, rigid, pubescent. Leaves alternate or basal, simple, pinnately veined. Heads long peduncled, homogamous, discoid, of 2–5 florets, collectively forming a head-like cluster. Involucre compressed, oblong; bracts ca. 8, dry, stiff, alternately flat and conduplicate, in 2 series, outer 4 bracts shorter; bracts of glomerules large, foliaceous; receptacle naked. Corolla 5-lobed, cleft on one side, lobes somewhat palmately spreading. Base of anthers obtuse. Style arms subulate. Achenes truncate, 10-ribbed; pappus bristles rigid, persistent, equal in length, slender, dilated near base or palea-like, in 1 or 2 rows.
About thirty species. Pantropical, mainly in South America, with two widespread species in Taiwan.