Minnie Daisy
Fasciated Flower Head, Profile
Minnie Daisy
Seeding
| Minnie Daisy Fasciated Flower Head, Profile | | Minnie Daisy Seeding | | ||
 | Class: | Plants (Plantae) - Land Plants (Charophyta) - Land Plants (Equisetopsida) | |||
| Order: | Sunflowers (Asterales) | ||||
| Family: | Daisy (Asteraceae) iNaturalist Observation | ||||
| Species: | Minnie Daisy (Minuria leptophylla) | ||||
| This Photo: | Perspective with Thumb | ||||
Thank you Asimakis Patitsas for confirming the id of this species for us General Species Information: Found on Ellura (in the Murray Mallee, SA) and elsewhere Small plant with dark green succulent leaves and stem. Large flowers, compared to plant size, with yellow centres. Quite variable. Flowers: Pale Purple (lilac) to white. Petals narrow to wide. Plant: Upright to sprawling (almost runner); bushy to thin/straggly. Notice also the tips of the backs of flowers (bracts) can be red/brown or green. Many of these variations could be different sub-species that we don't know about. However, we have seen lilac and white flowers on the same plant, so petal colour is not significant to identification. As a compound flower, daisy flowers are often referred to as "Flower Heads". The tiny individual flowers inside the flower head are referred to as "Florets". Notice the mutated flower here. This type of mutation is called "fasciation" and somewhat rare. But we have seen it more than once with Minnie Daisies. You can see each floret produces one "fruit" which is a seed wrapped in an elaborate mechanism; which allows for wind & animal dispersal. It has "wings" coming from the top that catch the wind, and a leg both of which are covered in barbs to catch onto animal fur. | |||||
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