9246.000 Galinsoga Ruiz & Pav. - Gallant-soldiers

Annual herbs. Leaves opposite, simple. Capitula less than 1 cm across, radiate, heterogamous. Phyllaries in 2 series, largely herbaceous, the outer much shorter, the inner with membranous margins. Ray florets female, fertile; rays few (usually 5), white, 3-lobed; disk florets bisexual, fertile, orange-yellow. Receptacle conic, with scales. Achenes c. 2 mm, narrowly obovoid, black. Pappus of scales, with or without a terminal projection.

Derivation of name: for Mariano Martinez de Galinsoga, 1757-1797, Spanish physician and botanist.

Worldwide: 13 species in temperate and subtropical parts of Central and South America; widely naturalised in other parts of the world.

Botswana: 1 taxon.