Perennials [subshrubs or shrubs], mostly 20–40(–100) [150+] cm. Stems usually 1, erect or spreading (branched distally). Leaves basal and cauline; alternate; petiolate (petiole bases sometimes expanded and/or clasping); blades palmately nerved, cordate-deltate to orbiculate or polygonally lobed, margins dentate to denticulate, faces sparsely hairy. Heads radiate, usually in corymbiform to paniculiform arrays, rarely borne singly. Calyculi 0. Involucres cylindric to urceolate, mostly 3–8+ mm diam. Phyllaries persistent, mostly 13 or 21 in (1–)2 series, erect, distinct, ± linear, subequal, margins scarious (tips green to brown or reddish, not blackened). Receptacles flat, foveolate (socket margins membranous), epaleate. Ray florets ± 13 or ± 21, pistillate, fertile; corollas whitish or bluish, pinkish, purplish, or reddish (often proximally pale and distally darker). Disc florets 40–60+, bisexual, fertile; corollas ochroleucous, white, or purplish to reddish or pinkish, tubes longer than funnelform throats, lobes 5, erect or reflexed, deltate to lanceolate; style branches stigmatic in 2 lines, apices truncate [with deltate appendages]. Cypselae ± ellipsoid (sometimes ± compressed), 4–5-ribbed, glabrous or puberulent; pappi readily falling, usually of 20–40+, white, barbellate bristles (discs), sometimes 2 setiform to subulate scales or 0 (rays). x = 30.

Distribution

Macaronesia (Canary Islands, Azores, Madeira).

Discussion

Species ca. 15 (1 in the flora).

The taxonomic status and nomenclature of Pericallis have been treated by B. Nordenstam (1978); the origins of the florists’ cineraria have been reviewed by T. M. Barkley (1966).

Selected References

Barkley, T. M. 1966. A review of the origin and development of the florists’ cineraria, Senecio cruentus. Econ. Bot. 20: 386–395.

Swenson, U. and U. Manns. 2003. Phylogeny of Pericallis (Asteraceae): A total evidence approach reappraising the double origin of woodiness. Taxon 52: 533–546.

Lower Taxa

Pericallis hybrida