The family Asteraceae, alternatively Compositae, consists of over 32,000 known species of flowering plants in over 1,900 genera within the order Asterales. Commonly referred to as the aster, daisy, composite, or sunflower family, Compositae were first described in the year 1740. The number of species in Asteraceae is rivaled only by the Orchidaceae, and which is the larger family is unclear as the quantity of extant species in each family is unknown.
Helianthus is a genus comprising about 70 species of annual and perennial flowering plants in the daisy family Asteraceae commonly known as sunflowers. Except for three South American species, the species of Helianthus are native to North America and Central America. The best-known species is the common sunflower, whose round flower heads in combination with the ligules look like the Sun. This and other species, notably Jerusalem artichoke, are cultivated in temperate regions and some tropical regions as food crops for humans, cattle, and poultry, and as ornamental plants. The species H. annuus typically grows during the summer and into early fall, with the peak growth season being mid-summer.
Luina, commonly called silverback, is a small genus of perennial shrubs in the groundsel tribe within the sunflower family.
Rudbeckia is a plant genus in the Asteraceae or composite family. Rudbeckia flowers feature a prominent, raised central disc in black, brown shades of green, and in-between tones, giving rise to their familiar common names of coneflowers and black-eyed-susans. All are native to North America, and many species are cultivated in gardens for their showy yellow or gold flower heads that bloom in mid to late summer.
Eupatorieae is a tribe of over 2000 species of plants in the family Asteraceae. Most of the species are native to tropical, subtropical, and warm temperate areas of the Americas, but some are found elsewhere. Well-known members are Stevia rebaudiana, a number of medicinal plants (Eupatorium), and a variety of late summer to autumn blooming garden flowers, including Ageratum (flossflower), Conoclinium (mistflower), and Liatris.
Dasylirion wheeleri is a species of flowering plant in the asparagus family Asparagaceae, native to arid environments of northern Mexico, in Chihuahua and Sonora and in the southwestern United States, in the Sonoran Desert in Arizona, and also in New Mexico and Texas.
Baileya is a genus of plants in the aster family Asteraceae. All are native to the southwestern United States and to Mexico.
Stephanomeria is a genus of North American plants also known as wirelettuce, belonging to the tribe Cichorieae within the family Asteraceae.
Isocoma pluriflora, commonly called southern jimmyweed or southern goldenbush, is a North American species of flowering perennial herbs in the family Asteraceae. It grows in northern Mexico and in the southwestern and south-central United States.
Calochortus flexuosus is a species of lily known by the common names winding Mariposa lily and straggling Mariposa lily.
Eriophyllum confertiflorum, commonly called golden yarrow or yellow yarrow, is a North American species of plant in the family Asteraceae, native to California and Baja California. It has wooly leaves when young, and yellow flower heads. "Eriophyllum" means "wooly leaved."
The Cichorieae are a tribe in the plant family Asteraceae that includes 93 genera, more than 1,600 sexually reproductive species and more than 7,000 apomictic species. They are found primarily in temperate regions of the Eastern Hemisphere. Cichorieae all have milky latex and flowerheads that only contain one type of floret. The genera Gundelia and Warionia only have disk florets, while all other genera only have ligulate florets. The genera that contain most species are Taraxacum with about 1,600 apomictic species, Hieracium with about 770 sexually reproducing and 5,200 apomictic species, and Pilosella with 110 sexually reproducing and 700 apomictic species. Well-known members include lettuce, chicory, dandelion, and salsify.
Artemisia ludoviciana is a North American species of flowering plant in the daisy family Asteraceae, known by several common names, including silver wormwood, western mugwort, Louisiana wormwood, white sagebrush, and gray sagewort.
Layia is a genus of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae known generally as tidy tips, native to western North America. Several are California endemics.
Jensia yosemitana is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae known by the common name Yosemite tarweed. It is endemic to California, where it has a scattered distribution across the Sierra Nevada and its foothills. Some of the populations lie inside Yosemite National Park.
Peteria thompsoniae is a species of flowering plant in the legume family known by the common names spine-noded milkvetch and Thompson's peteria. It is native to the western United States, where it grows in salt desert shrublands in soils of volcanic ash origin, and in alluvial fans. It is a spiny perennial herb growing from a taproot and rhizome system, its stem growing 20 to 60 centimeters tall. The leaves are made up of several pairs of oval leaflets. The inflorescence, a spikelike raceme at the top of the stem, produces white or pinkish pealike flowers up to 2.5 centimeters long, its base encapsulated in a tubular calyx of glandular sepals. The fruit is a leathery, slightly inflated legume pod up to 6 centimeters long.
Wyethia arizonica, the Arizona mule's ears, is a plant species native to Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah. It grows in meadows in coniferous forests at elevations of 600–3,000 m (2,000–9,800 ft).
Cirsium wheeleri is a North American species of plants in the thistle tribe within the sunflower family. Common names include Wheeler's thistle. It is native to northern Mexico and the southwestern United States.
Angelica wheeleri is a rare species of Angelica, a perennial herb in the Apiaceae (carrot) family, endemic to the state of Utah in the United States. The common names for A. wheeleri are Utah angelica or Wheeler's angelica. A. wheeleri was named by Sereno Watson in 1873.
Bahieae is a tribe of plants in the family Asteraceae, mostly native to North America and Mexico. It was described by Baldwin et al. in 2002.
