Sigesbeckia is a genus of annual plant

Annual plant

An annual plant is a plant that usually germinates, flowers, and dies in a year or season. True annuals will only live longer than a year if they are prevented from setting seed...

s in the aster family

Asteraceae

The Asteraceae or Compositae , is an exceedingly large and widespread family of vascular plants. The group has more than 22,750 currently accepted species, spread across 1620 genera and 12 subfamilies...

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Origin

Sigesbeckia is named for a a botanist Johann Sigesebeck, who was a strong critic of Carl Linnaeus's botanic classification system. He was known to refer to it as "Loathsome Harlotry" because of the focus of the system upon the presence (or lack thereof of) of sex organs in plants and their locations and groupings.

Classification

Sigesbeckia is related to a group of South American plants variously known as subtribe Espeletiinae or the Espeletia complex, which include genera such as Axiniphyllum

Axiniphyllum

Axiniphyllum is a genus of flowering plants in the daisy family....

, Espeletia

Espeletia

Espeletia, commonly known as Frailejón or Fraylejón is a genus of perennial subshrubs, in the family Asteraceae. The genus, which is endemic mainly to Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador, was first formally described by botanist Alexander Von Humboldt in 1801...

, Polymnia

Polymnia (genus)

Polymnia is a genus of flowering plants in the daisy family....

, Smallanthus

Smallanthus

Smallanthus is a genus of flowering plants in the Asteraceae . By 1997 there were at least 21 species.Species include:*Smallanthus apus*Smallanthus connatus*Smallanthus fruticosus*Smallanthus glabratus...

, Rumfordia

Rumfordia

Rumfordia is a genus of flowering plants in the daisy family....

, Trigonospermum

Trigonospermum

Trigonospermum is a genus of flowering plants in the daisy family....

, and Unxia

Unxia

Unxia is a genus of flowering plants in the daisy family....

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Some African Sigesbeckia species were transferred, at least by some authors, to Guizotia

Guizotia

Guizotia is a genus of six species of native African herbs. They are often known as sunflecks. The species G. abyssinica is occasionally found outside of cultivation in North America and Asia....

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Species

Partial list:

• S. fugax, native to Queensland, Australia.
• S. jorullensis, native to South America
• S. orientalis, introduced to a variety of places around the world, for example by Polynesians to New Zealand.
• S. serrata, native to South America, introduced in Germany (Hamburg) at least since 1920.

External links

• Sigesbeckia L. Subordinate Taxa