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.
The common sunflower is a species of large annual forb of the daisy family Asteraceae. The common sunflower is harvested for its edible oily seeds which are used in the production of cooking oil.
Zea is a genus of flowering plants in the grass family. The best-known species is Z. mays, one of the most important crops for human societies throughout much of the world. The four wild species are commonly known as teosintes and are native to Mesoamerica.
Solidago, commonly called goldenrods, is a genus of about 100 to 120 species of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae. Most are herbaceous perennial species found in open areas such as meadows, prairies, and savannas. They are mostly native to North America, including Mexico; a few species are native to South America and Eurasia. Some American species have also been introduced into Europe and other parts of the world.
Silphium is a genus of North American plants in the tribe Heliantheae within the family Asteraceae.
Silphium laciniatum is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae known commonly as compassplant or compass plant. It is native to North America, where it occurs in Ontario in Canada and the eastern and central United States as far west as New Mexico. Other common names include prairie compass plant, pilotweed, polarplant, gum weed, cut-leaf silphium, and turpentine plant. It is a rosinweed of genus Silphium.
Backcrossing is a crossing of a hybrid with one of its parents or an individual genetically similar to its parent, to achieve offspring with a genetic identity closer to that of the parent. It is used in horticulture, animal breeding, and production of gene knockout organisms.
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. 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.
Lepidium campestre, the field pepperwort, field peppercress, field peppergrass, field pepperweed or field cress, is usually a biennial with some form of annual plant in the Brassicaceae or mustard family, native to Europe, but commonly found in North America as an invasive weed. The most notable characteristic of field pepperweed is the raceme of flowers which forks off of the stem. These racemes are made up of first small white flowers and later green, flat and oval seedpods each about 6 mm long and 4 mm wide. Each seedpod contains two brown, 2.5 mm long seeds.
Silphium perfoliatum, the cup plant or cup-plant, is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae, native to eastern and central North America. It is an erect herbaceous perennial with triangular toothed leaves, and daisy-like yellow composite flower heads in summer.
Thinopyrum intermedium, known commonly as intermediate wheatgrass, is a sod-forming perennial grass in the Triticeae tribe of Pooideae native to Europe and Western Asia. It is part of a group of plants commonly called wheatgrasses because of the similarity of their seed heads or ears to common wheat. However, wheatgrasses generally are perennial, while wheat is an annual. It has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit as an ornamental.
A perennial grain is a grain crop that lives and remains productive for two or more years, rather than growing for only one season before harvest, like most grains and annual crops. While many fruit, nut and forage crops are long-lived perennial plants, all major grain crops presently used in large-scale agriculture are annuals or short-lived perennials grown as annuals. Scientists from several nations have argued that perennial versions of today's grain crops could be developed and that these perennial grains could make grain agriculture more sustainable.
Plant breeding is the science of changing the traits of plants in order to produce desired characteristics. It has been used to improve the quality of nutrition in products for humans and animals. The goals of plant breeding are to produce crop varieties that boast unique and superior traits for a variety of applications. The most frequently addressed agricultural traits are those related to biotic and abiotic stress tolerance, grain or biomass yield, end-use quality characteristics such as taste or the concentrations of specific biological molecules and ease of processing.
Lolium rigidum is a species of annual grass. Common names by which it is known include annual ryegrass, a name also given to Italian ryegrass, rigid ryegrass, stiff darnel, Swiss ryegrass and Wimmera ryegrass. It is a native of southern Europe, northern Africa, the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent and is grown as a forage crop, particularly in Australia, where it is also a serious and economically damaging crop weed.
Annuality and perenniality represent major life history strategies within plant lineages. These traits can shift from one to another over both macroevolutionary and microevolutionary timescales. While perenniality and annuality are often described as discrete either-or traits, they often occur in a continuous spectrum. The complex history of switches between annual and perennial habit involve both natural and artificial causes, and studies of this fluctuation have importance to sustainable agriculture.
Silphium terebinthinaceum is a member of the Asteraceae, a family that includes sunflowers, and is commonly referred to as prairie dock or prairie rosinweed. It is native to central and eastern North America. "Rosinweed" became one of the plant's common names due to the fact that upon injury, resin flows from the wound, giving the plant a sweet smell. Tea brewed from the roots of the prairie dock have a variety of medical applications in Native American culture. The smoke from this plant has also been used as a treatment for congestion and rheumatism.
Silphium trifoliatum, commonly known as whorled rosinweed, is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae. It is native to the eastern United States, where it is found east of the Mississippi River. Its natural habitat is open, grassy areas such as prairies, river cobble bars, and roadsides. It is a tall perennial that produces heads of yellow flowers in mid-summer through fall.
Silphium radula, commonly known as roughstem rosinweed, is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae. It is native North America, where it is found in the South Central region of the United States. Its natural habitat is prairies over sandy or calcareous soil.
Silphium wasiotense, commonly called Appalachian rosinweed, is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae. It is native eastern to North America, where it is endemic to the Cumberland Plateau of Kentucky and Tennessee. Its natural habitat is in dry open woodlands. It is considered rare throughout its range.
Silphium perplexumJ.R.Allison is a prairie species in the Asteraceae endemic to the state of Alabama. S. perplexum is commonly known as Old Cahaba rosinweed, a reference to the Cahaba River near which all populations of this species are found.
