Greek erion — wool, kephale — head, as the capitula become woolly after flowering.
Perennial subshrubs or shrubs, sometimes spiny, glabrous to hairy, aromatic. Stems erect or ascending, branched. Leaves along stems, alternate, opposite or in whorls, small, simple, margins entire or lobed. Capitula radiate or diskiform, terminal, in corymbs or umbels, rarely solitary, becoming woolly in fruit, with or without stalks. Involucral bracts in 2 rows, overlapping, unequal. Receptacle with hairy scales, convex. Outer florets female, ligulate or filiform, mauve or white. Inner florets functionally male, tubular, yellow or purplish. Achenes compressed. Pappus absent.
One species has become weakly naturalised in Australia.
Woolly fruiting capitula; long-hairy receptacle scales; compressed achenes.
About 26 species from S Africa and Namibia.
Source: (2002). Dahlia. In: . 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.