This winter we’re categorizing plants in our database by family. This week’s post continues with more plants in the Asteraceae (Daisy or Sunflower) family, the second largest flowering plant family in the world after the Orchidaceae family. Asteraceae are also known as composites because their flowerheads are composed of multiple flowers. Asteraceae plants may have one or both of two types of flowers, disk & ray. Ray (petal-like) flowers are what we typically notice when we look at a plant. Disk flowers are formed from 5 tiny petals fused to produce tubes.  The Daisies shown here have radiate flowerheads containing disk flowers located in the center of the flowerhead surrounded by ray flowers. Our previous post covered the Asteraceae tribes Cardueae (Thistles with only disk flowers) & Cichoroideae (Chicories, Dandelions, & Lettuces with only ray flowers).

Photography by Ken Borgfeldt, John Colson, Richard Holzman, Mary Knierim, Penny Longhurst, Jim Poling, Lucy Prim, Randy Richardson, & Joe Standaert. Botanical plant names seem to change almost every day, but for now we use those approved by ITIS, the Integrated Taxonomic Information System. Plants that are non-native to North America are indicated by an asterisk (*) placed after the species name. Click on any picture to zoom & enter the slide show.