Plants annual or perennial herbs or shrubs. Leaves simple, opposite and connate at the base. Capitula in panicles or aggregated into glomerules, radiate or discoid or with both types on the same plant. Receptacle epaleate; glomerules with scales. Pappus usually absent, occasionally of 2-4 short scales or cuplike; ray florets 1-2, pistillate, fertile, yellow; disk florets 1-15, yellow. Achenes black,± flattened, 10-ribbed.
There are about 21 species of Flaveria. They are native in Central and South America and Australia. Two have become pantropical weeds. Only one species, Flaveria trinerva, is established in Somaliland and Somalia.