''Critonia'' is a genus of

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (). The term angiosperm is derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek words (; 'container, vessel') and (; 'seed'), meaning that the seeds are enclosed with ...

s in the tribe Eupatorieae of the family

Asteraceae Asteraceae () is a large family (biology), family of flowering plants that consists of over 32,000 known species in over 1,900 genera within the Order (biology), order Asterales. The number of species in Asteraceae is rivaled only by the Orchi ...

. The most notable trait that characterizes the genus is the presence of pellucid punctations caused by internal secretory pockets of the leaves - to be seen these must be viewed with a hand lens while holding the leaf up to light in most species of the genus. Most species of ''Critonia'' also have smooth opposite leaves, a shrubby habit, unenlarged style bases, relatively few (3-5) flowers per head, and imbricate involucres.King, R. M. and H. Robinson. 1987. The genera of the Eupatorieae (Asteraceae). Monographs in Systematic Botany, Missouri Botanical Garden 22: 1-581. ; Species The genus is native to Mexico, Central America, South America, and the

West Indies The West Indies is an island subregion of the Americas, surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, which comprises 13 independent island country, island countries and 19 dependent territory, dependencies in thr ...

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q5186903 Asteraceae genera Taxonomy articles created by Polbot