Laggera aurita

Laggera aurita (Wild.) sch-Bip. in Sweinf., Beitr. Fl. Aeth. 151, 1867; Santapau, Fl. Khandala ed. 3, 129, 1967; Hook.f., Fl. Brit. Ind. 3: 271, 1881; cooke, Fl. Pres. Bombay 2: 24, 1904; Almeida, Fl. Savantwadi 230, 1990; Shah, BOBSI 4: 239, 1962.
Vernacular name : Bodillo.

FAMILY: ASTERACEAE

Morphological characters :

Habit: A perennial erect herb.

Stem: Stem erect, cylindric with many ascending branches, striate, hairy, not winged.

Leaves: Leaves simple, alternate, large, crowded, exstipulate, petiolate, membranous, oblanceolate, decurrent, tothed, lower leaves 5 – 10cm long, upper smaller of bracts like on the branches hairy; reticulate venation.

Inflorescence: Corymbose. Heads peduncled, 8 –12mm across; heterogamous, disciform.

Flower: Flower bracteate, involucre bracts many-seriate, linear, acute; the outer one very short, silky-hairy; the inner one much longer, scarious, epigynous. Receptacle flat.

Outer Floret: Unisexual, female, fertile, many-seriate, corolla filiform, shorter than their styles, minutely toothed. Pappus hairs slender. Ovary oblong.

Disc Floret: Complete, bisexual, actinomorphic, tubular, the limb slightly enlarged, shotly 5-fid, gamopetalous, valvate aestivation, pappus slender, 1-seriate, white; imbricate; stamens 5, filaments filiform, anthers linear. Bicarpellary, syncarpous, inferior ovary, unilocular with 1 ovule, ovary oblong; style-arms linear, papillose.

Fruit: Achenes dark-red, glabrous; silky-villous.

Flowering period: December – February.