Aster Fruits (Fruit, Seed, Beak, Pappus, Receptacle)

The Aster Family has composite flowers (many small florets packed tightly together). When a floret is pollinated, its ovary starts growing into a fruit. Aster fruits are dry and contain a single seed enclosed in a thin, dry skin.

Once pollinated, based in its species genetic code, fruit cells start dividing in complex ways, creating a new individual. In many cases, maturing aster fruit grows a beak and pappus that will catch the wind when the time is right.

Common Dandelion – photo courtesy Keir Morse

The beak is an extension of the fruit, a narrow column sometimes longer than the fruit itself. At the tip of the beak grows a species-specific pattern of bristles and/or scales, called pappus.

Horned Dandelion – photo courtesy Steve Matson

Fruit designs vary. Some have no beaks. Some have a pappus of several scales tipped by bristles. Others have a pappus of 50 or so hair-like bristles with no scales.

Fruits connect to a receptacle, which connects to the stem. In this picture, many of the fruits have already fallen off, showing the underlying receptacle.

Bigflower Dandelion – photo courtesy Stave Matson

Want more? See Dandelion Flower Heads and Wikipedia.

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