Home » Explore Brooklyn Botanic Garden » Garden Stroll
Plant Family Collection: Daisy Family
Among the most advanced of flowering plants, members of the Daisy Family have a distinctive "composite" inflorescence, called a capitulum or head, in which numerous very small flowers are clustered together, mimicking a single flower. The central disk consists of many florets, each made up of five joined petals. Surrounding the central disk are ray florets, each with a large, prominent petal.
The florets mature from the outermost to the innermost part of the disk, incorporating a number of characteristics that reduce the chance that pollen from one floret will fertilize one of its immediate neighbors— a highly sophisticated means of encouraging the cross-pollination (the transfer of pollen from a flower on one plant to a flower on another plant) that promotes genetic diversity in plant species.
Stiff coreopsis (Coreopsis palmata), spotted Joe-pye weed (Eupatorium maculatum), and New England aster (Aster novae-angliae) are among the interesting composites found in the Plant Family Collection.
Map of the Garden
The Plant Family Collection is indicated by the orange box. Click on the map to visit other locations in the Garden, or click here to view a larger map.
