Annual or biennial herbs. Leaves alternate, usually cauline, lower leaves petiolate, upper ones sessile and smaller. Involucre hemispherical. Phyllaries 2–3 (–5) –seriate, outer ones large, leafy, ciliate at the margins; inner ones smaller, scarious. Receptalce flat or slightly convex. Capitula solitary, heterogamous, radiate. Ray florets female, ligules, many times longer than disc florets, white or red–purple. Disc florets bisexual, tubular, many seriate, yellow. Anthers bases obtuse. Style branches flat, very finely wooly externally. Cypselas compressed, hairy. Pappus 3–seriate, dimorphic, outer series of short bristles or scales; inner of long bristles, deciduous.

A monotypic genus, distributed in China, Japan, Korea, widely cultivated elsewhere.