Cotula

The habitats, leaves , covering scales of inflorescences , receptacle and achenes of representatives of this genus are very different, so it is difficult to get ahead of the fact that they are representatives of the same genus by comparing their morphology. Their main similarity lies in a disk-shaped inflorescence basket , which has no marginal flowers . Corollas of other flowers are tubular, reduced or completely absent. Another common property is the single arrangement of baskets on peduncles .

Cotula is the largest representative of the tribe Anthemideae in the southern hemisphere . For the first time 4 species were described by Carl Linnaeus in 1753 . George Bentham ^[2] in 1867 , the genus was divided into 3 main parts according to the number of chromosomes :

• Section Cotula : the largest section, includes more than 40 species, distributed mainly in South Africa ^[3] , as well as found in Australia and North Africa . The most common species is C. turbinata ; the section also includes former representatives of the genera Cenia and Otochlamys . The number of chromosomes: x = 8 and x = 10.
• Strongylosperma Section: A total of 8 species found in warm parts of Africa and Asia ( C. anthemoides ), Central and South America ( C. mexicana ) and Australia ( C. australis ). The number of chromosomes: x = 18.
• Section Leptinella : 30 species in South America and the Falkland Islands ( C. scariosa ), New Zealand and the subantarctic islands. The number of chromosomes: x = 13. A characteristic feature is the swollen corollas of female flowers.

David G. Lloyd suggested some species from the Leptinella section, originally from Australia and New Guinea, because of their differences from the other representatives of the section, to separate Oligoleima ( type species C. longipes ) into their own section ^[4] .

According to the database of The Plant List , the genus includes 62 species ^[5] :