Sunflower Family

The compositae are perhaps the largest family of Dicotyledons, widely distributed in all parts of the world and indeed the dominant family in the Himalayan. In addition to the well known sunflower the family includes many other garden plants like cosmos aster zennia, chrysanthemum, dahlia, etc. On the Himalayan the family occurs right from the timberline to the highest limits of existence of plants. They are however best developed in semi – arid and high steppes and some of them at extreme altitudes are remarkable for the milky latex aromatic and cottony woolly leaves. The most striking chhhhharacter of the family is its inflorescence a capitulum ar head. Numerous small flowers called florets, are arranged close together on the flattened disc like top of the main inflorescence axis, often with leafy bracts forming an involucres and clustered in whorls below. The outer row of florets has the outer petal greatly enlarged as a brightly colored ligule to form a sort of an outer ring of rayed perals for the compound mass. The central mass of florets, called disc florets, consists of tubular florets with inferior ovary often 

   

 Compositae is dominant family in the Himalayan marigold growing plentifully near the phewa lake, pokhara in Nepal.