After Mithridates Eupator (d. 63 BC), ancient king of Pontus, said by Pliny (23–79) to have used one of the species in medicine.
Annual or perennial herbs, subshrubs or shrubs, mostly hairy. Stems erect or ascending, simple or branched above. Leaves mostly along stems, opposite or in whorls, simple, margins entire, toothed or 3-lobed. Capitula diskoid, terminal, in corymbs or panicles, with stalks. Involucral bracts in several rows, overlapping, unequal. Receptacle flat or convex. Florets bisexual, tubular, white, pink, purple, rarely yellowish. Achenes 5-angled, warty. Pappus of many barbed bristles.
5-angled achenes with a pappus of many bristles.
About 48 species from N America, the W Indies, Asia and one species reaching Europe and N Africa.
Lamont (1995).
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.