The Asteraceae Family includes the following genera:

Achillea, Anaphalis, Arctotis, Argyranthemum, Arnica, Aster, Bellis, Bidens, Calendula, Carduus, Centaurea, Cichorium, Cineraria, Coreopsis, Cosmos, Cynara, Dahlia, Dimorphotheca, Doronicum, Echinops, Emilia, Erigeron, Gazania, Gerbera, Gynura, Helenium, Helianthus, Helichrysum, Inula, Leontopodium, Liatris, Ligularia, Mutisia, Osteospermum, Raoulia, Rudbeckia, Santolina, Senecio, Solidago, Stokesia, Tagetes, Taraxacum, Ursinia, Zinnia.

As the flowers of this Family are composite, that is, composed of a number of individual florets, the seedhead is made up of the seeds of all the individual flowers. Each flower produces one seed, formed from an inferior ovary, and is called a cypsela. Often, there are fine hairs attached which help it to be dispersed, or it may have scales or bristles. The individual seeds may be rounded or curved, but they are very often almost flat. The genus Dimorphotheca was named because it produces two different types of seeds - thin, stick-like seeds from the outer florets, and flat, disc-like seeds from the inner florets.

It is worth noting that often not all the florets in each flowerhead (capitulum) form seeds although they may produce the fluffy hairs.

Some examples of seedheads of plants in this Family are:

Erigeron

Zinnia

Dimorphotheca

Calendula

Felicia

Centaurea

For more information on this Plant Family, click here