Greek gyne — female, oura — tail, an allusion to the long, rough terminal appendages on the style branches.
Perennial herbs or subshrubs, glabrous to hairy. Stems erect or procumbent. Leaves along stems, alternate,margins entire to lobed, sessile. Capitula diskoid, terminal or axillary, few to many in corymbs, usually with stalks. Involucral bracts in 1row, overlapping, equal, reflexed in fruit.receptacle pitted or hairy, flat. Florets bisexual, tubular, yellow, orange, red, purple, white or greenish. Achenes cylindrical, ribbed. Pappus of many barbed bristles.
Long, tail-like, warty, sometimes coloured appendages on the style branches.
About 40 species from tropical Africa, Madagascar, Asia and N Australia.
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.