Leontodon
Rosetted annual to perennial taprooted herbs, with coarse branched or unbranched hairs. Leaves all basal, entire to pinnatifid. Capitula terminal, solitary or few in loose corymbs; involucre cylindric, bracts 3-seriate, lanceolate, unequal (outer ones smallest), herbaceous; inner involucral bracts embracing outer cypselas; receptacle flat, naked, pitted, pits often with ciliate or toothed margins. Florets ligulate, fertile, yellow to orange; ligule linear to oblong, 5-toothed; anthers sagittate at base, with minute apical appendages; style bilobed, with linear, subacute, papillose branches. Cypselas terete or cylindric, ribbed, muricate; pappus of 1 or 2 series of plumose basally widened bristles, sometimes reduced to scales in outer cypselas.
About 50 species, mostly from the Mediterranean region and south-western Asia; 1 species naturalised in Australia.
Jeanes, J.A. (1999). Asteraceae. In: Walsh, N.G.; Entwisle, T.J., Flora of Victoria Vol. 4, Cornaceae to Asteraceae, pp. 652–666. Inkata Press, Melbourne.
Spinning
