Flowers

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The most obvious and outstanding general feature of Asteraceae is that the flowers are grouped characteristically into compact inflorescences (heads) that superficially resemble individual flowers. Each such head is ordinarily subtended by an involucre of small modified leaves (bracts). Furthermore, in more than half the members of the family, the flowers in the outermost row or rows of the head have a modified, mainly flat and elongate corolla that resembles an individual petal of most other flowers. Thus, the “petals” of a daisy or sunflower are actually the outermost flowers of the head. An inflorescence of this family can have more than 1,000 individual flowers (florets), and the heads can be grouped into more complex, secondary arrangements called capitulescences.

When present, the flower petals of Asteraceae are joined together by their margins, forming a tubular or strap-shaped corolla (a sympetalous corolla) that often has apical teeth representing the petal tips. The other floral parts are attached to the top of the ovary rather than beneath it. The calyx (sepals) of Asteraceae is so highly modified, in contrast to that of other families, that it is given a different name, the pappus. The pappus consists of one to many dry scales, awns (small pointed processes), or capillary (hairlike) bristles; in some the scales may be joined by their margins to form a crownlike ring at the summit of the ovary. In a few genera (e.g., Marshallia) the calyx consists of five regularly placed scales that are obviously homologous with sepals.

The pistil (female structure) is composed of two carpels, which are united to form a compound ovary with a terminal style. There is usually a nectar-producing region (nectary) in the form of a minute ring surrounding the style atop the ovary. The ovary has only one locule (seed cavity), with a single ovule arising from the base. The fact that the ovule is basal is the best single feature distinguishing Asteraceae from the related Calyceraceae, which also has involucrate heads with a similar pollen-presentation mechanism but has the ovule pendulous from the top of the ovary.

The sequence of flowering within individual heads is always centripetal, characteristic of a racemose (indeterminate) inflorescence. This means that the outer flowers bloom first, with a progressive spiral of flowering toward the centre of the head. The secondary arrangement of heads (capitulescences) of Asteraceae is typically cymose (determinate). The terminal head on the main axis blooms first, followed by the terminal heads of the main branches. After that the sequence is mixed, with both cymose and racemose components. Only rarely, and then clearly as a derived condition, is the secondary inflorescence racemose throughout, with the lowest heads blooming first and the terminal ones last.

Individual heads of most members of Asteraceae are said to be discoid, radiate, disciform, or ligulate, according to the kinds of flowers they contain. The simplest type is the discoid head, in which the flowers have a regular, tubular corolla, with generally four or five apical teeth representing the tips of the petals. This kind of flower is called a disk flower. Ordinarily, the flowers in a discoid head are all perfect (bisexual) and fertile. Thistles and ageratums are examples of Asteraceae species with discoid heads.

The radiate head has disk flowers in the centre surrounded by one or more marginal rows of ray flowers, which have an irregular corolla. The corollas are tubular at the base but prolonged on the outer side into a generally flat projection, the ray, or ligule. These rays are the petal-like parts, in a comparison of the flower head to an ordinary flower. The ray flowers in radiate heads are either pistillate (female) or neutral (with a vestigial, nonfunctional ovary and no style). The disk flowers in a radiate head usually have both sexes, but sometimes they are functionally staminate, with a normal pollen-presentation mechanism but without a functional ovary.

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Occasionally, species with radiate heads mutate in such a way that most or all of the disk flowers are transformed into ray flowers, with only a few (or no) normal disk flowers in the centre. These “double-flowered” forms do not survive competition in nature, but they are valued and perpetuated horticulturally because of their showier flower heads. The “daisy-flowered” chrysanthemums, with only a single marginal row of ray flowers, have the normal type of radiate head, but the more commonly cultivated kinds of chrysanthemums are double-flowered. The garden dahlia is another member of Asteraceae that is cultivated in both normal and double-flowered types, the double-flowered being more frequent. China asters, marigolds, and zinnias are also commonly cultivated in double-flowered forms.

The disciform head, a special derivative of the radiate type, resembles the discoid head in lacking the marginal rays, but the outer flowers are pistillate, with a tubular, rayless corolla. Plants of the genus Gnaphalium (cudweed) have disciform heads. Some varieties of a species, such as Erigeron compositus (cutleaf fleabane), show a complete series of transitions from the radiate to the disciform type of head, with varying degrees of suppression of the ligule on the pistillate flowers.

While infloresences of radiate, discoid, and disciform heads occur in various tribes of Asteraceae, the ligulate head is almost entirely restricted to one tribe, Lactuceae (Cichorieae), and is found in all members of that tribe. Ligulate heads consist entirely of one kind of flower, the ligulate flower. Ligulate flowers superficially resemble the ray flowers of radiate heads in having a corolla that is tubular at the base and prolonged on the outer side into a flat, strap-shaped ligule. They differ from ray flowers in that they are perfect (bisexual) and the ligule consists of all five lobes of the corolla and generally shows five terminal teeth. The dandelion is a familiar plant with ligulate heads.

Still another kind of flower is found nearly throughout the tribe Mutisieae. This tribe is largely tropical, and only one of its genera, Gerbera, is familiar in cultivation in temperate regions. Most members of Mutisieae have some or all of the corollas bilabiate (two-lipped), with a large, three-lobed (sometimes four-lobed) outer lip and a smaller, two-lobed (or one-lobed) inner lip. These bilabiate flowers may be either pistillate or perfect. When pistillate, they are always external to any perfect flowers that may be present in the head. Often they are much like ordinary ray flowers, except that there are two small teeth at the top of the corolla tube, opposite the ligule. The Mutisieae tribe shows every degree of transition from the typical disk flower to the typical ray flower to the typical ligulate flower.