Annual to perennial herbs, less often semi-shrubs. Leaves herbaceous-membranous, variable in shape and size, sessile to petiolate, runcinate pinnatifid to pinnatisect, lobes linear-lanceolate, oblanceolate-spathulate, lyrate, entire to dentate and often spinulose, glabrous to pubescent, auriculate to semiamplexicaul. Capitula erect, infundibuliform-cylindrical or campanulate, usually many-flowered, laxly corymbose to racemosely arranged or paniculate. Phyllaries 3-5(-6)-seriate, glabrous or hairy, glabrous or hairy, with scarious-membranous margins. Florets yellow, white, blue, violet, lavender or purplish. Receptacle naked. Cypselas yellow-brown or blackish, mostly oblanceolate-obovate, oblong-ellipsoid, narrow to broadly elliptic, 1-many-ribbed, slightly or strongly compressed, winged or wingless, muricate to shortly papillate or pilose with white, greenish or pale, capillary, filiform and stout beak. Pappus uni- or biseriate, white-lemon yellow, off-white or lustrous, fragile or not, persistent.
A moderate-sized, variable genus, comprising c. 75 species (Mabberley, 2008), distributed in Europe, Africa, N. America, and Asia; introduced in Australia, New Zealand and elsewhere. Represented in Pakistan by 15 species.