Common Name: LOASA FAMILY
Habit: Annual to subshrub; hairs needle-like, barbed, occasionally stinging. Leaf: alternate [opposite], generally +- pinnate-lobed; stipules 0. Inflorescence: cyme, raceme. Flower: bisexual, radial; sepals generally 5, generally persistent; petals generally 5, free or fused to each other or filament tube; stamens 5--many, filaments thread-like to flat, occasionally fused at base or in clusters; petal-like staminodes occasionally present; pistil 1, ovary inferior, chamber generally 1, placentas generally 3, parietal, style 1. Fruit: capsule or achene. Seed: 1--many.
Genera In Family: 18+ genera, 250 species: especially America (Africa, Pacific).
eFlora Treatment Author: Larry Hufford & Barry Prigge, except as noted
Scientific Editor: Douglas H. Goldman, Bruce G. Baldwin.

Common Name: BLAZING STAR
Habit: Annual to perennial herb; hairs barbed to needle-like, not stinging; stems pale pink or generally +- white, branched or not. Leaf: linear to ovate, entire to pinnate-lobed; basal in rosettes, generally petioled; cauline generally sessile, +- reduced distally on stem. Inflorescence: generally cyme (or flower 1); bracts green to white, margin green. Flower: sepals lanceolate to deltate, persistent; petals generally 5, free, white to yellow or orange; stamens generally many, +- free, generally unequal, inner filaments generally thread-like; outermost stamens opposite sepal lobes generally modified, +- widened, or petal-like with anther or not; ovary generally cylindric, placentas generally 3, style thread-like, stigma 3-furrowed or -lobed. Fruit: capsule, cup-, barrel-, or urn-shaped to narrowly cylindric, occasionally curved. Seed: generally many, shape variable.
Species In Genus: +- 100 species: western North America, +- tropical America.
eFlora Treatment Author: Joshua M. Brokaw, John J. Schenk & Barry Prigge
Reference: Darlington 1934 Ann Missouri Bot Gard 21:103--226