what is an asterid

 

  • Asterids are the flowering plants that have best adapted themselves for pollination by insects. Their flowers are characterized by:
  • They are all hermaphrodite. Having both male and female parts.
  • They all have bilateral symmetry.
  • Their stamens have a circular distribution.
  • They show two fused carpels.
  • Their petals tend to fuse, often forming tube-like shapes.
  • The flowers are often organized in small tight bunches such as the case of lavender or mint.
  • Composite flowers take this strategy to an extreme. Sunflowers for example are not a single big flower but a group of several hundreds of little flowers.
  • Asterids, especially composite flowers, are the most successful type of flowers on earth, and due to this, the most common group.

 

katnip by annie ronnie

Catnip; photo by Annie Roonie, cc-by

 

chicle by abdulla al muhairi   tobaco by dick culbert
Chicle fruit ; photo by Abdulla Al Muhairi, cc-by   Nightshades: tobaco flower ; photo by Dick Culbert, cc-by

 

Sources:

-APG III, 2009, An Update of the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group Classification for the Orders and Families of Flowering Plants.
-The Tree of Life, A Phylogenetic Classification, Guillaume Lecointre and Hervé Le Gullader, 2006
-Euzomo - http://euzomo.es/flora

 

Citation: García, A.I. 2015. The Tree Of Nature (Online) at http://thetreeofnature.com

 

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