| leaves: | basal, or cauline, alternate to whorled, simple to compound |
| inflorescence: | a head, each resembling a flower, with one to several whorls of bracts forming the involucre |
| flowers: | perfect, unisexual or sterile calyx may be absent or modified as a pappus of bristles, scales or awns corolla radial or bilateral; lobes 4-5 stamens 4-5 with anthers generally fused into a cylinder around the style pistil 1, ovary inferior, 1 chambered, 1 seeded, style 1 stigmas 2 |
| fruit: | an achene |