Look at the flower head
What appears to be one flower is usually a tightly packed head of separate florets. A hand lens helps you see them.
Plant family guide
One head, many flowers
A daisy looks like one flower. Look closely and it becomes a crowd: a single head made up of many tiny flowers called florets. This is the clue that links daisies, dandelions, knapweeds and thistles.
The flower head is called a capitulum. Its florets can take different forms, so members of the family do not all look like a familiar white-and-yellow daisy.
How to recognise the family
Look underneath
Leaf-like bracts surround the base of the head. Their shape and edges can help distinguish similar species, especially knapweeds and thistles.
Look at the fruit
Each fertile floret can make a small, dry, one-seeded fruit. Some fruits have a tuft of hairs called a pappus, as in a dandelion clock; others lack a showy tuft.
Leaves vary greatly across this large family. Check them when identifying a species, but start with the flower head when deciding on the family.
Three flower-head patterns
Florets can be strap-shaped or tubular. Compare these familiar wildflowers to see how much the pattern can change.
Outer rays + central discs
Oxeye daisy
White ray florets form the outer ring; small yellow disc florets fill the centre.
Strap-shaped throughout
Dandelion
The yellow head consists of strap-shaped florets throughout. There is no central disc.
Mostly tubular
Knapweeds and thistles
Their heads are built mainly from tubular florets. Some knapweeds have enlarged outer florets, so look closely.
Three UK wildflowers to compare
Oxeye daisy Leucanthemum vulgare
Large white-and-yellow heads on upright stems. Look for it in meadows, other grassland and roadside verges. Turn a head over to see its green bracts.
Dandelion Taraxacum species
Yellow heads rise above a rosette of toothed leaves. Later, the fruits form a rounded, feathery clock. Other members of the family also have yellow heads, so use more than the flower colour to identify one.
Common knapweed Centaurea nigra
Pinkish-purple florets emerge from a firm, dark head. The overlapping bracts have dark, fringed tips, a useful field clue.
Try it in the field
- Find a daisy-like or thistle-like head. Can you see separate florets?
- Are the florets strap-shaped, tubular, or a mixture?
- Turn the head over. Look at the number, shape and edges of its bracts.
- Check the leaves and habitat, then compare several features before naming a species.
Useful words
- Capitulum
- A compact flower head made of many florets.
- Floret
- One of the individual small flowers in the head.
- Ray / disc floret
- A strap-shaped outer flower / a small tubular flower, often in the centre.
- Bract
- A modified leaf; the bracts around the head form its outer wrapping.
- Pappus
- Hairs, bristles or scales attached to some fruits, often helping them disperse.