Asteraceae

Class -Dicotyledonae

Sub-class-Gamopetalae

Series-Inferae

Order-Asterales

Family-Asteraceae
Characteristics of Asteraceae
They have the following characteristic features:

 These are herbs, shrubs or trees. Most of them are xerophytes, hydrophytes and semi-
aquatic.
 Taproots are modified into tubers.
 The stem might be erect, hairy, woody or prostrate. It might sometimes contain latex.
 The leaves may be radical, petiolate, exstipulate,
 Flowers are tubular or ligulate, bisexual or unisexual, usually dithecous, filament free with
united anthers.
 The androecium is absent.
 The gynoecium is either absent or present.
 The seed is endospermic.
 The fruit produced is a cypsela.
Economic Importance of Asteraceae
Food
Family Asteraceae is an important source of food. The leaves and roots of a few angiosperms
such as Lactuca sativa and Helianthus tuberosus are edible.
Oil
The seeds of angiosperms are an important source of oil.
Medicines
Most of the plants belonging to the Asteraceae family have medicinal values. For eg., Solidago
is used for dropsy, artemisia yields santonin, and the juices and roots of a few plants are used in
bowel disorders and have a cooling effect.
Rubber
Taraxacum and Solidago laevenworthii are important sources of rubber.
Insecticide
The capitula of Chrysanthemum roseum is dried and its powder is used as an insecticide.
 MALVACEAE
Systematic Position:
Class: Dicotyledons.
Subclass: Polypetalae.
Series: Thalamiflorae.
Order: Malvales.
Family: Malvaceae.

The herbs, shrubs, and trees are all common types of plants found in the Malvaceae family. The
wild can be home to many annual and perennial herbs, for example, Abutilon, Malva,
Malvastmm, Hibiscus sp., etc. Sida cordifolia and Sida carpinifolia are two species that grow
under shrubs.

Flowers
Inflorescences typically consist of a single flower, although sometimes they are reduced to
cauliflorous, oppositifolius, or terminal inflorescences.
Their structures are often arranged in bicolour units with excessive bracts. Often associated with
conspicuous bracts–in the form of an epicalyx– unisexual or bisexual plants can be described as
actinomorphic.
The petals generally have five imbricate and five valvate sepals, often connate at the base.
Typically, 5-10 stamens are arranged in a tube around the pistil connate at their bases, often
forming a tube around the stamens.
It consists of two to many connate carpels. With axial placentation, the ovary has capitate or
lobed stigmas. Many glandular hairs make up the nectaries, usually found on the sepals of the
flowers.

Stem
It has branched, erect, branched at the nodes, cylindrical, solid, with stellate hairs usually on the
stem. The tissues contain copious amounts of mucin.
Leaves
The leaves seen in the members of this family are simple or alternate, rounded, palmately
divided, stipulate, generally palmately veined forms. Several stellate hairs cover the leaves.
There are also mucin sacs on the leaves.
Inflorescence
Cymose inflorescences are rare, and racemose inflorescences are more common in the
Malvaceae family. The terminal can be solitary or compound, depending on the type of flower.
Androecium
Stamens mounted on staminal tubes arranged in an indefinite manner form this flower.
Their arrangement is monadelphous. It is known as epipetalous when the staminal tube and
petals remain united at the base.
Monothecous anthers consist of one-celled, dorsifixed filament with short filaments. Another
dehiscence is transverse.
From five antipetalous stamens, the stamens are profusely branched. Five staminodes are present
in hibiscus as a substitute for the outer whorl.
Gynoecium
Polycarpellary, with five to indefinitely many carpels (syncarpous). There are multiple locules in
the ovary.
A considerable number of ovules are located in each loculus. The placenta is found at the axis.
The stigmas are not joined, but the styles are. Styles travel down the staminal tube.
Approximately the same number of stigmas are present in carpels.
The petals of hibiscus have five carpels, those of althaea rosea have 10, and those of abutilon are
indeterminate.
Fruit
Loculicidal capsules or schizocarps appear in clusters from where several mericarps split off. A
mericarp has the same number of carpels as a carpel. A loculicidal capsule is the fruit of hibiscus
and Gossypium.

Seed
Testa coverings are usually used to bury seeds and are reniform (kidney-shaped) or as ovoids.
There are a lot of folded cotyledons in the embryo. There is not much endosperm.
Importance
 Modiola caroliniana, as well as other species that are escapees from gardens, are pests in
agriculture.
 As with the durian fruits, the baobab fruit and leaves are edible.
 Several species of hibiscus grow in gardens, including Hibiscus rosa-sinensis and Alcea
rosea.
 In horticulture, the family Malvaceae has been used for centuries to make fibres, food,
medicine, and timber, with a brief explanation of their hazards (toxins, allergens,
irritations), in addition to the possibility of weed or invasive species growing among them.
 Medicinal uses:
 The plants included in this family are believed to be stimulants and effective remedies for
chest and lung complaints.
 This family also serves as an emollient.
 It is reported that the methanol and ethyl extract of this plant possess antibacterial activity
against pneumonia, Bacillus subtilis, Proteus Vulgaris, and E. coli bacteria.
 In addition to anti-inflammatory properties, the leaves are also a powerful antioxidant.
 Analgesic activity is noted at 50 mg/kg and 1,000 mg/kg of hibiscus bark extract,
respectively.
 A plant in this family has anti-proliferative properties. Additionally, it is anti-allergic.
 It is found that fermentation acid, purified from this plant’s leaf extract, inhibits insulin
resistance in skeletal muscle cells.
 BRASSICACEAE

Systematic position

Division : Angiospermae

Class : Dicotyledonae

Subclass : Polypetalae

Series : Thalamiflorae
 Order : Parietales

Family : Cruciferae (Brassicaceae)

Habit: Annual, biennial or perennial herbs. Farsetia jacquemontii is an undershrub. The plants
possess pungent juice having sulphur-containing glucosides.

Root: Tap root along with hypocotyl is swollen in Radish (Raphanus sativus) and Turnip
(Brassica rapa).

Stem: Erect, cylindrical, hairy or glabrous, herbaceous or rarely woody. It is reduced in the
vegetative phase in Radish and Turnip. The stem is swollen in Kohlrabi (Knol-Kohl =
Ganthgobi, Brassica oleracea var. gongylodes). Axillary buds enlarged in Brussel’s Sprouts ( =
Button gobhi) or Brassica oleracea var. gemmifera. Brassica oleracea var. capitata (Cabbage)
has the largest terminal bud.
Leaves : Radical, cauline and ramal, alternate or sub-opposite but forming rosettes when radical,
exstipulate with sheathing leaf base, sessile simple or rarely compound (e.g., Nasturium
officinale), hairy. Bulbils occur in the leaf axils of Dentaria bulbifera and on the leaves of
Cardamine pratensis.

Inflorescence : Flowers are usually arranged in corymbose racemes. Occasionally they are in
corymbs (candituft).

Flower : Ebracteate or rarely bracteate (e.g., Rorippa montana), pedicellate, complete, perfect,
regular, actinomorphic, rarely zygomorphic (e.g., Iberis, Teesdalia), tetramerous or bimerous,
hypogynous (perigynous in Lepidium), cyclic, cruciform.

Calyx : Sepals 4, polysepalous, aestivation imbricate, generally arranged in two whorls, outer of
antero-posterior sepals and inner of lateral sepals, lateral sepals generally saccate or pouched at
the base, green or petaloid, inferior.
Corolla : Petals 4, polypetalous, arranged in one whorl and alternate with sepals, often with
long claws and spread out in the form of a Greek cross. This arrangement of petals which is
characteristic of the family is known as the cruciform arrangement and corolla is described as
cruciform corolla, valvate aestivation. Petals reduced or absent in Lepidium and Rorippa.

Androecium: Stamens 6, (four in Cardamine hirsuta, two in Coronopus didymus, 16 in

Megacarpaea), free (polyandrous), tetradynamous, arranged in two whorls, outer of two short
lateral stamens while the inner whorl is made up of 4 long stamens arranged in two median
pairs, anthers basifixed or dorsifixed, dehiscence longitudinal. Green nectaries are often
associated with the bases of stamens.

Gynoecium: Bicarpellary (tricarpellary in species of Lepidium, tetracarpellary in Tetrapoma

and Tropidocarpum), syncarpous, carpels placed transversely, ovary superior, placentation
parietal, ovary bilocular due to the presence of a false septum called replum, style short, stigma
capitate, simple or lobed.

Fruit : Siliqua or silicula, lomentaceous siliqua occurs in radish.

Seed : Non-endospermic, often oily.

Floral formula :
 Poaceae
Distribution and habitat:
Poaceae is generally referred as Grass family, it is one of the important and biggest
angiospermic family. It consists of 11,000 Species in about 700 Genera. The members are
cosmopolitan in distribution. Plants are adaptable to different climates of the globe. They grow
as hydrophytes, mesophytes or xerophytes. In India, the family is represented by 1243 species in
241 genera.

Systematic position:
Class : Monocotyledonae
Series : Glumaceae
Family : Poaceae

 They might be herbs or shrubs, annuals or perennials, and sometimes tree-like.

 The roots can be fibrous, adventitious, branched or stilt.
 The stem may be underground as in rhizomes, cylindrical with conspicuous nodes and
internodes, woody or herbaceous.
 The leaves are alternate, simple, exstipulate, and distichous. The leaf base forms a tubular
sheath.
 The seeds are endospermic and monocotyledonous.
 Fruits include caryopsis, nut and berry.
Economic Importance of Poaceae
Food
The plants of this family are an important food source. For eg., Oryza sativa, Triticum aestivum,
Avena sativa (oats), and Zea mays (Maize).
Fodder
Grasses such as Panicum, Cynodon dactylon, Cymbopogon, and Poa are used as fodder.
Sugar
Jaggery and sugar are obtained from Saccharum officinarum.
Building Material
Species of Bambusa are used for scaffolding and thatching of huts.
Aromatic Plants
Many kinds of grass such as Vitiveria zizanioides yield scented oil from its roots. The roots are
also used to weave curtains.

Medicines
Plants such as Phragmites karka, Claviceps purpurea, Cymbopogon schoenanthus have
medicinal values.