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FAMILY ASTERACEAE (COMPOSITAE) = Aster, Daisy, Sunflower Family
Description: wikipedia./Asteraceae The Asteraceae or Compositae (commonly referred to as the aster, daisy, composite,[4] or sunflower family) are an exceedingly large and widespread family of flowering plants (Angiospermae).[5][6] The group has more than 23,000 currently accepted species, spread across 1,620 genera (list) and 12 subfamilies. In terms of numbers of species, the Asteraceae are rivaled only by the Orchidaceae.[5][7] (Which of the two families is actually larger is unclear, owing to uncertainty about exactly how many species exist in each family.) The main feature of the family is the composite flower type in the form of capitula surrounded by involucral bracts. The name "Asteraceae" comes from Aster, the most prominent genus in the family, that derives from the Greek ἀστήρ, meaning star, and is connected with its inflorescence star form. As for the term "Compositae", more ancient but still valid, it obviously makes reference to the fact that the family is one of the few angiosperm ones to have composite flowers.[8] This family has a remarkable ecological and economical importance and is present from the polar regions to the tropics, colonizing all available habitats. The Asteraceae may represent as much as 10% of autochthonous flora in many regions of the world. Most members of Asteraceae are herbaceous, but a significant number are also shrubs, vines, or trees. The family has a worldwide distribution and is most common in the arid and semiarid regions of subtropical and lower temperate latitudes.[9] The Asteraceae are an economically important family. Some members provide products, including cooking oils, lettuce, sunflower seeds, artichokes, sweetening agents, coffee substitutes, and herbal teas. Several genera are popular with the horticultural community, including marigold, pot marigold (also known as calendula), cone flowers, various daisies, bright flowersfleabane, chrysanthemums, dahlias, zinnias, and heleniums. Asteraceae are important in herbal medicine, including Grindelia, Echinacea, yarrow, and many others.[10] A number of species have come to be considered invasive, including, most notably in North America, dandelion, which was originally introduced by European settlers who used the young leaves as a salad green.[11] From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The inflorescence is a basket made up of numerous small flowers and surrounded by a sheath of petals. The modified cup is composed of hairs, scales or donkeys, sometimes fused to varying degrees, which help to disperse the fruit. The calyx is sometimes completely reduced. Petals are 5 and fused. The stamens are also 5 and are inserted into the corolla tube. The stamens are fused along the anthers in a tube that covers the column. When the anthers ripen, the stigma is not yet open and the pollen falls into the tube formed by the anthers. Subsequently, the column sprouts through this tube, the pollen sticks to the outside of the lollipop and from there to the insect. The outer flowers open in the basket first.
There are several types of colors. The most common are tubular flowers, usually bisexual, sometimes with staminodes or sterile, with a tubular corolla with 5 (rarely 4) apical lobes or teeth. Another type of color, close to the tubular, are the bicuspid, in which the lower lip has three, the upper with two lingual teeth. They are wrong. A third type of color is pagan. Tessa bisexual, with the appearance of a tongue with 5 apical teeth and are most characteristic of the subfamily. Cichorioideae. The false pagan colors are irregular, but the lower lip is reduced and only the upper three-part lip remains. They come from the pagan - bilingual. The fourth type are funnel-shaped flowers that resemble tubular flowers, but the 5 teeth are not uniform and the colors are irregular. Female funnel-shaped flowers have a short, usually narrow funnel. Sometimes there are greatly reduced funnel-shaped flowers.
All colors in the basket can be bisexual, in other cases the internal colors are bisexual, and the external - female or sterile. In some representatives the flowers in the basket are same-sex or female, or with staminodes. Same-sex baskets can be placed on different plants.
The fruit is monoecious, uncracked, almost always dry. It's called a seed. The seed is without endosperm. The fruit is spread with the help of the modified cup.
From: „Систематика на висшите растения, Е. Божилова, Й. Коева, С. Тонков, Унив. Изд. „Св. Климент Охридски”, Pensoft, (1999) Genera:
Achillea L. - Yarrows
Anthemis L. - Chamomile, Dog-fennel or Mayweed
Artemisia L. - Mugwort, Wormwood, and Sagebrush; Vermooth
Arctium L. (Lappa Adans.) - Burdock
Aster L. -
Bellis L. - English Daisy
Bidens L. - Black jack, Burr marigolds, Cobbler's pegs.
Calendula L. - Marigolds
Carthamus L. - Safflowers, Distaff thistles Centaurea L. - Centaury, Centory, Starthistles, Knapweeds, ... Cota J. Gay - not found a common name
Dorycnium Mill. - Prostrate Canary clover and Badassi
Echinops L. - Globe thistles Hieracium L. - Hawkweed
Inula L. - Yellowhead
Leontodon L. - Hawkbits
Matricaria L. - Dog-fennel, May weed
Petasites Miller - Butterbur
Senecio L. - Ragworts or Groundsels
Tanacetum L. - Tansies, Tansy
Telekia Baumg. - not found a common name
Tragopogon L. - Salsify or Goatsbeard, Tussilago L. - Coltsdfoot,Bull's foot, Winter heliotrope Xeranthemum L. - Asterid dicot genus , Immortelle
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