The family Asteraceae, with the original name 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.
Tagetes is a genus of 50 species of annual or perennial, mostly herbaceous plants in the family Asteraceae. They are among several groups of plants known in English as marigolds. The genus Tagetes was described by Carl Linnaeus in 1753.
Palafoxia, or palafox, is a genus of North American flowering plants in the Bahia tribe within the Asteraceae.
Porophyllum is a genus of flowering plants in the tribe Tageteae within the family Asteraceae known commonly as the poreleaf genus.
Euthamia is a genus of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae. They are known as goldentops and grass-leaved goldenrods.
Porophyllum linaria is a sunny short-lived perennial plant used in Mexican cuisine, where it is often used to flavor meat dishes. It has a strong taste akin to fresh coriander with overtones of lemon and anise.
Holozonia is a North American genus of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae. It contains only one known species Holozonia filipes, which is known by the common name whitecrown. It is endemic to California.
Senecio mattirolii is a perennial herb of the family Asteraceae endemic to altitudes between 3600–4500 meters on the slopes of the mountains of the Ruwenzori Mountains in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo and an atypical species of the genus Senecio because it has purple flowers.
Adenophyllum porophylloides is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae known by the common names San Felipe dogweed and San Felipe dyssodia. It is native to the Sonoran and Mojave Deserts of the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico.
Erigeron tener is a North American species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae known by the common name slender fleabane. It is native to the western United States, largely in the Great Basin, in the states of California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Oregon, Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana.
Lessingia glandulifera is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae known by the common name valley lessingia. It is native to California and Baja California, where it grows in several types of habitat, from forest and desert to the coastline. This is an annual herb varying in maximum size from under 10 to nearly 80 centimeters in height, growing erect to decumbent. It is hairless to very hairy and glandular. The leaves are widely lance-shaped and toothed, the lowest approaching 11 centimeters in maximum length. The upper leaves are often studded with knobby glands. The flower heads appear singly at the tips of the stem branches. Each head is lined with phyllaries covered in large glands and sometimes many hairs. The head is discoid, containing no ray florets but many funnel-shaped disc florets with lobes that resemble ray florets. The disc florets are yellow with brown throats. The fruit is an achene with a whitish pappus.
Xanthisma gracile is a species of annual flowering plant in the family Asteraceae known by the common names slender goldenweed and annual bristleweed.
Madia exigua is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae known by the common names small tarweed and threadstem madia.
Malacothrix coulteri is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae known by the common name snake's head, or snake's head desertdandelion. It is native to the southwestern United States is also found in southern South America where it is an introduced species. Its native habitat includes desert, grassland, chaparral, and other open, sandy areas. It is an annual herb producing a waxy, upright flowering stem up to about 50 centimeters in maximum height. The leaves, which are mostly located near the base of the stem, are toothed or not. The inflorescence is an array of flower heads with nearly spherical involucres of scale-like phyllaries one to two centimeters wide. The bracts are green, often with dark striping or marking. The yellow or white ray florets are about a centimeter long.
Prenanthella is a monotypic genus of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae. It contains the single species Prenanthella exigua, which is known by the common name brightwhite. It is native to the southwestern United States from California to Texas and it is known as far north as Idaho. Its habitat includes desert and woodlands. This annual herb produces a slender, branching stem reaching a maximum height near 40 centimeters. It has a sparse coating of glandular hairs and contains a milky juice. Most of the leaves are located near the base of the stem. They are widely lance-shaped and sometimes divided into segments. Smaller leaves occur higher on the stem; these may be reduced to scale-like structures, leaving the stem mostly bare. The inflorescence is a wide open panicle of several flower heads. Each small head is cylindrical and narrow, its base wrapped in lance-shaped phyllaries. At the tip of the head bloom 3 or 4 flowers, which are ray florets; there are no disc florets. Each floret has is white to pale pink and has a toothed tip. The fruit is a white achene with a pappus of white bristles.
Pleiacanthus is a monotypic genus of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae containing the single species Pleiacanthus spinosus, which is known by the common name thorn skeletonweed, or thorny skeletonweed. It is native to the western United States from Montana and Idaho to southern California and Arizona, where it grows in many types of mostly dry habitat from deserts to mountains. It is a spindly subshrub producing several slender stems up to 40 or 50 centimeters tall from a woody caudex. The stems divide many times into short, rigid branches which narrow to sharp thorn-tips. The plant is mostly hairless except for brownish woolly tufts at the base and below the basal leaves. The leaves are small and linear on the lower stem, and reduced to scale-like growths on the upper branches. Flower heads occur near the ends of the branches. Each has a cylindrical base wrapped in one layer of phyllaries. The head contains 3 to 5 ray florets, each with an elongated tube and a pale to bright pink ligule. The fruit is an achene tipped with a cluster of pappus bristles which are not plumelike as are those of the Stephanomeria species with which this plant was once classified.
Pectis papposa is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae. It is native to North America, where it occurs in the southwestern United States as far east as Texas, and in northern Mexico. Common names include cinchweed, common chinchweed, many-bristle chinchweed, and many-bristle fetid-marigold.
Malacothrix junakii is a rare species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae known by the common names Anacapa Island desert-dandelion, Junak's desertdandelion, and Junak's malacothrix. It is endemic to Anacapa Island, one of the Channel Islands of California, where it is known from just two occurrences. It occurs in the coastal scrub of the island. It was described to science as a new species in 1997.
Sanrobertia is a genus of flowering plants within the subtribe Symphyotrichinae of the family Asteraceae. It is monotypic, meaning there is only one species within the genus. Sanrobertia gypsophila is a rare endemic known only from Nuevo León, Mexico.
Symphyotrichum schaffneri is a perennial, herbaceous species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae native to the states of Puebla and Veracruz, Mexico.
