Asteraceae: Large family of flowering plants
The family Asteraceae or Compositae (the aster, daisy, or sunflower family) is the largest family of flowering plants.
It has the most species.
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| Family: | Asteraceae Bercht. & J.Presl |
What looks like its flower is really made of hundreds or thousands of tiny individual flowers. The technical term for it is a pseudanthium ("false flower").
The driving force for the evolution of the Asteraceae was that the composite flowers look attractive to pollinating insects. A large brightly coloured flower attracts insects. The other quality insects like is the scent of the pollen and the sugary nectar in the flowers. The asters are very successful (over 32,000 known species of flowering plants in over 1,900 genera in the order Asterales). Their success is due to what they offer to visiting insects. It is also due to their ability to grow almost anywhere, but especially on grass.
Heterocarpy, or amphicarpy, the ability of an annual species to produce different fruit morphs, is common in Asteraceae. It allows seeds to be dispersed over varying distances, each type adapted to different environment. This increases the chances of survival.
References
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