Cotula is the largest genus found in the
Southern Hemisphere of the tribe
Anthemideae. This genus was first mentioned by
Carl Linnaeus, who described four species in his first edition (1753) of
Species Plantarum. In 1867 the genus was subdivided by
George Bentham into three sections. Since his account, only a few changes have been made but the number of species has remained more or less stable. The sections possess different basic
chromosome numbers : • section
Cotula : largest section with about 40 species; mostly in
South Africa, a few in
North Africa and
Australia + the cosmopolitan species
C. coronopifolia and the widespread species
C. turbinata; this section also includes the former genera
Cenia and
Otochlamys; basic chromosome numbers x = 8 and x = 10. • section
Strongylosperma (Less.) Benth.: a total of eight species, found in warmer parts of
Africa and
Asia (often lumped as
C. anthemoides),
Central and
South America (
C. mexicana) and
Australia (five species, including
C. australis); basic chromosome number : x = 18 • section
Leptinella (Cass.) Hook f. : the remaining thirty species, found in
South America and the
Falkland Islands (the type species
C. scariosa),
New Zealand, the
Subantarctic Islands (together 24) and five species from
Australia and
New Zealand.; the species in this section have a distinctive characteristic not found in the other sections : inflated pistillate corollas; basic chromosome number : x = 13. See also
Leptinella. David G. Lloyd has proposed that the five species from
Australia and
New Guinea are distinctive enough from the other species from the section
Leptinella to be brought under a new section with the proposed name
Oligoleima (type species
C. longipes). ; Species ==Uses==