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.
Gundelia is a low to high (20–100 cm) thistle-like perennial herbaceous plant with latex, spiny compound inflorescences, reminiscent of teasles and eryngos, that contain cream, yellow, greenish, pink, purple or redish-purple disk florets. It is assigned to the family Asteraceae. Flowers can be found from February to May. The stems of this plant dry-out when the seeds are ripe and break free from the underground root, and are then blown away like a tumbleweed, thus spreading the seeds effectively over large areas with little standing vegetation. This plant is native to the eastern Mediterranean and the Middle-East. Opinions differ about the number of species in Gundelia. Sometimes the genus is regarded monotypic, Gundelia tournefortii being a species with a large variability, but other authors distinguish up to nine species, differing in floret color and pubescence. Young stems are cooked and eaten in the Middle-East and are said to taste like a combination of artichoke and asparagus. The plant also contains compounds that have been demonstrated to be effective against a range of ailments. A large quantity of pollen assigned to Gundelia has been found on the Shroud of Turin, which may suggest that the crown of thorns was made from Gundelia, but this finding has been contested.
Rudbeckia hirta, commonly called black-eyed Susan, is a North American flowering plant in the family Asteraceae, native to Eastern and Central North America and naturalized in the Western part of the continent as well as in China. It has now been found in all 10 Canadian Provinces and all 48 of the states in the contiguous United States.
Coreopsis lanceolata, the lance-leaved coreopsis, is a North American species of tickseed in the family Asteraceae.
Centranthus ruber, the red valerian, spur valerian, kiss-me-quick, fox's brush, devil's beard or Jupiter's beard, is a popular garden plant grown for its ornamental flowers.
Sporobolus heterolepis, commonly known as prairie dropseed, is a species of prairie grass native to the tallgrass and mixed grass prairies of central North America from Texas to southern Canada. It is also found further east, to the Atlantic coast of the United States and Canada, but is much less common beyond the Great Plains and is restricted to specialized habitats. It is found in 27 states and four Canadian provinces.
Plant reproduction is the production of new offspring in plants, which can be accomplished by sexual or asexual reproduction. Sexual reproduction produces offspring by the fusion of gametes, resulting in offspring genetically different from either parent. Asexual reproduction produces new individuals without the fusion of gametes, resulting in clonal plants that are genetically identical to the parent plant and each other, unless mutations occur.
Echinacea purpurea, the eastern purple coneflower, purple coneflower, hedgehog coneflower, or echinacea, is a North American species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae. It is native to parts of eastern North America and present to some extent in the wild in much of the eastern, southeastern and midwestern United States as well as in the Canadian Province of Ontario. It is most common in the Ozarks and in the Mississippi/Ohio Valley. Its habitats include dry open woods, prairies and barrens.
Taraxacum officinale, the dandelion or commondandelion, is a flowering herbaceous perennial plant of the dandelion genus in the family Asteraceae. The common dandelion is well known for its yellow flower heads that turn into round balls of many silver-tufted fruits that disperse in the wind. These balls are usually called "clocks" in both British and American English. The name "blowball" is also used.
Taraxacum is a large genus of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae, which consists of species commonly known as dandelions. The scientific and hobby study of the genus is known as taraxacology. The genus is native to Eurasia and North America, but the two most commonplace species worldwide, T. officinale and T. erythrospermum, were introduced into North America from Europe and now propagate as wildflowers. Both species are edible in their entirety. The common name dandelion is also given to specific members of the genus.
Phaneroglossa is a genus of plants that is assigned to the daisy family. It consists of only one species, Phaneroglossa bolusii, a perennial plant of up to 40 cm high, that has leathery, line- to lance-shaped, seated leaves with mostly few shallow teeth and flower heads set individually on top of long stalks. The flower head has an involucre of just one whorl of bracts, few elliptic, white or cream ray florets, and many yellow disc florets. It is an endemic species of the Western Cape province of South Africa. Flowering mainly occurs from November to January.
Taraxacum kok-saghyz, often abbreviated as TKS and commonly referred to as the Kazakh dandelion, rubber root, or Russian dandelion, is a species of dandelion native to Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, that is notable for its production of high quality rubber. T. kok-saghyz was discovered in Kazakhstan in 1932 by scientists serving the Soviet Union in an effort to find a domestic source of rubber.
Senecio spartioides is a species of flowering plant in the aster family known by the common name broom-like ragwort. It is native to the western United States as far east as the Dakotas and Texas, and northern Mexico. It can be found in dry, rocky, often disturbed areas in a number of habitat types. It is a subshrub which can exceed a meter in height, its arching stems growing from a woody-topped taproot. The leaves are linear in shape and up to 10 centimeters long. The leaves usually have smooth, unlobed edges, but slightly lobed leaves are seen at times. The leaves are evenly distributed along the stems, the ones low on the stems withering away early, giving the plant a naked appearance on the lower half while the top is still lush green and blooming. The inflorescences are spreading, flat-topped arrays of many cylindrical flower heads. The heads contain yellow disc florets and generally either 5 or 8 ray florets each about a centimeter long.
Agoseris monticola is a North American species of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae known by the common name Sierra Nevada agoseris or Sierra Nevada mountain dandelion. It grows in the mountains of the western United States, primarily the Cascade Range and Sierra Nevada, but also on other mountains in Nevada and Idaho.
Monarda bradburiana, the eastern beebalm or Bradbury's beebalm, is a species of perennial flowering plant in the mint family, Lamiaceae, that is native to much of the southeastern United States.
Felicia elongata is a perennial plant of up to 40 cm high that is assigned to the family Asteraceae. It has stiff, oval, opposing leaves with one distinctive vein and entire margin. The 5 cm (2 in) wide flower heads are very conspicuous in colour, white with a dark purple zone at the base of the ray florets and an orange-yellow disc. Flowering occurs from late August to September, or if the rains arrive late, sometimes October. It is a rare species that is restricted to the Saldanha Bay area. It is sometimes called Saldanha felicia or tricolour felicia in English, and driekleurblommetjie in Afrikaans.
Mairia robusta is a tufted, white-woolly, perennial, herbaceous plant of up to 30 cm (1 ft) high, that is assigned to the family Asteraceae. It has large, robust, hard and leathery leaves, with a white woolly hairy, nontransparent underside, while the felty hairs on the top are lost with age. Only at a few occasions, flowers have been observed, in June, October and December, always after a fire. The flower heads sit individually at the at tip of white-woolly scapes, with 14–16 purplish pink to white ray florets surrounding a yellow disc. M. robusta is an endemic species that is restricted to rocky mountain slopes in the Western Cape province of South Africa.
Microseris walteri is an Australian perennial herb with yellow flowers and edible tuberous roots, and one of three plants known as murnong or yam daisy along with Microseris scapigera and Microseris lanceolata.
Symphyotrichum racemosum is a species of flowering plant native to parts of the United States and introduced in Canada. It is known as smooth white oldfield aster and small white aster. It is a perennial, herbaceous plant in the family Asteraceae. It is a late-summer and fall blooming flower.
Taraxacum arcticum, the arctic dandelion, is a species of flowering plant belonging to the family Asteraceae. Its native range is Greenland, Northern Europe, Northern Asia and the Northern Russian Far East.
