Perennial herbs; stems erect or ascending, terete, striate. Leaves basal and cauline, alternate, entire to pinnatifid, not spinose. Capitula ovoid or globose, terminal, solitary, large, pedunculate; involucral bracts in several series, unequal, imbricate, herbaceous with a scarious or membranous, entire or lacerate appendage; receptacle flat, bristly. Florets tubular, bisexual, purplish, yellow or whitish; corolla deeply 5-lobed; anthers sagittate at base, with acute appendages at apex; style bilobed, with linear erect branches, apices obtuse. Cypselas obovoid-obloid, compressed, ribbed, toothed at apex, with attachment scar on one side, glabrous or hairy; pappus double, the outer with several series of fine bristles, either united into a ring or free and deciduous, the inner with wider, basally flattened bristles.
c. 30-40 species from southern Europe, northern Africa, Eurasia to Mongolia and Australia. One of only two Australian genera in the tribe Cardueae, the other, Hemisteptia Fisch. & C.A.Mey. occurs in SE Queensland and (now probably extinct) in NE New South Wales.
Leuzea, Rhaponticum Vill., Acrotilon Cass. and Stemmacantha Cass. are now considered congeneric (Hildago et al. 2006; Hind 2016). There is ongoing debate around the use of the names Rhaponticum and Leuzea. Rhaponticum Vill. was invalidly published, attempts to conserve the name Rhaponticum Ludwig in order to retain this epithet remain unresolved. As such we follow Hind (2016) in the use of the name Leuzea.
