Dissection #3 Sunflower

Sunflower or Asteraceae Family with inflorescence of Ray florets that appear similar to petals shapes.   Found growing along with greenhouse at the Princess Hotel Lodge in Fairbanks Alaska. Small scale habitat. About 3ft and 4 inches.

Capitulum inflorescence flower accompanied by disc florets forms the head of the flower. One pistil. Premature bud showed.

Ray Flower has 34 petals shown above  

Disc Flower has 72 Petals shown above

Premature bud along the stem. Nodes and internodes showed  

Sunflower has a capitulum head or ovary.

Receptacle scale is shown.  

Disc Floret.  

Ovary, with two stigmas and style within singular pistil. Stamen displays anther and filament.

Sunflower

One comment

  1. Great example of the sunflower family and inferior ovaries in the central disk flowers. Well done. Remember these are not individual petals these are actually individual flowers, each sunflower has a head of flowers composed of a mixture of flowers, those on the outside are the ray flowers with a large yellow petal and in the center of the sunflower are the disk flowers with highly reduced fused petals that are brownish in color. Well done!

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