Perennial, erect, coarse herbs or shrublets, with shortly–stiped hairs with erect cap–cells. Leaves alternate. Capitula homogamous, discoid, pedunculate, solitary, terminal or many, aggregated in paniculate to corymbose synflorescence. Involucre broadly campanulate. Phyllaries multi–seriate, 25–100, often expanded apically or with white or colored appendages, pubescent to woolly hairy, without spicules along margins. Receptacle epaleate. Florets 25–100 per capitulum. Corollas pink to purple, basally slender–tubular, abruptly widened into a 5–lobed cylindrical limb, lobes erect, as long  as limb, pubescent at the throat of the limb. Anthers calcarate, caudate, tails small, terminal appendages flat, ovate. Pollen echinolophate with polar lacune. Styles without nodes, basally enclosed by tubular nectary, branches apically tapering, with acicular sweeping hairs internally and externally. Cypselas brown to dark brown, cylindrical or somewhat turbinate, 8–20–ribbed, ribs usually setulose, raphids elongated, pappus multi–seriate, bristles broad and flattened outside.

A genus containing ca 25 species, distributed in tropical Africa and southern Asia. Represented in Pakistan by the following species.