Annual herbs with linear, filiform, entire leaves. Capitula 5-12-flowered, homogamous, borne in a diffuse synflorescence. Involucre cylindrical. Phyllaries 2-seriate; outer phyllaries 2, very short; inner ones 5-7, much longer, accrescent in fruit. Receptacle flat, usually naked. Ligules yellow, turning pale on drying. Cypselas linear-cylindrical, incurved, annular or sometimes little straight, stellately spreading, ribbed, usually dorsally with stout, hooked prickles or tubercles, and with hooked spines (pappus?) at the apex,  spreading stellately.

A small genus of 5 species (Mabberley, 2008), distributed in South European Russia, Crimea, Ukraine, Spain, North Africa and SW and Central Asia to China. Represented in Pakistan by 3 species.