Greek kallistos — most beautiful, stephos — crown, an allusion to the crown-like outer part of the pappus.

Annual herb, aromatic. Stems erect, branching. Leaves along stems, alternate, toothed or lobed, petiolate. Capitula radiate, terminal, solitary. Involucral bracts in 3 overlapping rows, outer large and leaf-like. Receptacle sometimes with short scales, pitted, flat. Ray florets female, fertile, red-purple. Disk florets bisexual, yellow. Achenes narrow-elliptic, compressed, many-ribbed, hairy at apex. Pappus double, the outer a short membranous crown, the inner of long bristles.

Large, leaf-like outer involucral bracts; large 2-coloured capitula; double pappus of bristles and a crown.

1 species from China.

Source: Jeanes, J. (2002). Asteraceae. In: Spencer, R.. Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 4. Flowering plants. Dicotyledons. Part 3. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.