These plants are sometimes cultivated for their handsome large heads with pale to deep reddish purple rays and dark (maroon to purple or brown) disk. The receptacular bracts have conspicuous slender rigid tips that extend to and beyond the tips of the disk flowers.

1. Leaf blades oblanceolate to long-elliptic (ca. 8-15 times as long as broad, tapering into the petiole), entire.

E. pallida

1. Leaf blades ovate to ovate-lanceolate (ca. 2-4 times as long as broad, on distinct petioles), with at least a few teeth.

E. purpurea