Herbs, shrubs, rarely vines or trees, sometimes cactus-like with succulent leaves or stem. Leaves alternate or sometimes rosulate, rarely opposite, entire, serrate, dentate or lobed. Capitula solitary, cymose or corymbose-paniculate, radiate, disciform or discoid. Phyllaries, mostly 1-seriate, sometimes biseriate then phyllaries unequal, very rarely multi-seriate. Receptacle epaleate mostly naked. Ray florets female, disc florets bisexual, sometimes functionally male, corolla 5-rarely 4-lobed, outer florets in disciform capitula, female, tubular or filiform. Anthers ecalcarate, mostly ecaudate or very shortly to distinctly caudate, apical appendage ovate-lanceolate to oblong-flat, filament collar either dilated with swollen cells (senecioid genera) or the collar slender hardly wider than basal part of the filament (cacalioid genera). Style in bisexual florets with oblong-linear, dorsally glabrous or rarely papillose, branches usually truncate or penicillate, apically sometimes almost glabrous, stigmatic area in two separate bands, sometimes apically fused. Cypsela ± uniform, mostly ellipsoid-oblong and ribbed, pappus bristles scabrid-barbellate, never plumose, sometimes bristles reduced or even absent.