Vicoa

Vicoa is a genus of flowering plants belonging to elecampane tribe within the Asteraceae (sunflower family). It is found in parts of Africa and stretching across Asia to Indochina. It was described by Alexandre Henri Gabriel de Cassini (Cass.) in 1829, but the genus was later absorbed into the Pentanema genus (also within the Asteraceae family) until molecular analysis in 2018 determined it was a separate genus.

==Description== They are annual or perennial herbs, with simple (undivided or unsegmented), or entire (not divided) leaves. The leaves are arranged alternate (at different levels along the stem), with pinnately veining (lateral veins are arranged either side of the main vein) and they are mostly amplexicaule (the base is dilated and clasping the stem) at the base. They have flowers which have solitary, radiate heads (ray floret surrounding disc florets), which are either axillary (beside a leaf joint) or leaf opposed. They have a peduncle (flower stalk), and involucral bracts which are inbricate (overlapping) in several rows. The achenes (one-seeded indehiscent fruit) are subterete (partially circular in cross-section) with a pappus (a tuft or ring of hairs or scales borne above the ovary) of unequal bristles.