8. Tribe Inuleae Cass.
About 38 genera,
about 480 species, Europe, Asia, Africa.
As currently
circumscribed, most of the genera of the traditional Inuleae that were included
in North American floras are classified into the tribes Gnaphalieae and
Plucheeae (see those tribes for further discussion). Inuleae in the strict
sense is an Old World group represented in North America only by garden
escapes. The larger heads with usually well-developed ray florets serve to
separate this tribe from the North American members of the Gnaphalieae and
Plucheeae.
In addition to Inula,
the other main genus of Inuleae that is cultivated for its horticultural and
medicinal value is Pulicaria Gaertn. (pulicaria, false fleabane).
Species of Pulicaria are grown infrequently in Missouri, have not been
documented outside cultivation in the state, and have only rarely escaped in
California and the northeastern states.