Citation: L., Sp. Pl. 133 (1753).

Synonymy: Not Applicable

Common name: Greco-Latin name for some species of this genus.

Description:
Annuals or biennials, with one to several erect stems from the basal rosette, covered with hairs with a broad base or rarely with shorter ones; leaves constantly alternate, densely clustered and usually petiolate at the base becoming sessile and widely spaced above.

Inflorescence terminal, usually with many circinnate monochasia often dichotomously branched, each with sessile flowers densely arranged in 2 rows but often widely spaced in the fruit, with small bracts only on the lower parts of the monochasia; sepals distinctly connate at the base, scarcely elongating after flowering; corolla regular, narrowly funnel-shaped, glabrous except for hairy saccate protrusions in the throat of the corolla tube; stamens inserted below the throat of the corolla tube, with anthers almost sessile, ellipsoid without appendages; ovary 4-lobed, with a style inserted near the base, broadened downwards and with a capitate stigma.

Fruit with 4 mericarps splitting from the central gynobase; mericarps obliquely ovoid with a vertically keeled ridge next to the flat side, bulging on the other, and rugose-reticulate with minute tubercles, with a large raised attachment scar with a swollen rim around it.

Distribution:  About 50 species of this genus are mainly found in Europe extending its distribution in western Asia and North and South Africa; 3 species naturalised in Australia.

Biology: No text

Key to Species:

1. Leaves undulate-dentate; mericarps keeled (not winged), with an attachment scar narrower than the base	A. arvensis 1.
1. Leaves entire; mericarps winged and with an attachment scar as broad as or broader than the base	A. capensis 2.

Author: Not yet available