Cultural Asteraceae

2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38

For the beauty of the inflorescences-baskets, a characteristic feature of the representatives of the Asteraceae family, and other qualities of plants useful for humans, people have long been engaged in the cultivation of wild-growing herbs of this community

Sunflower

Perhaps the largest "basket" among the plants of the Asteraceae family is possessed by the Sunflower. Moreover, it was not nature that endowed him with such dimensions, but human ingenuity, the roots of which are the desire of a person to get as many fruits as possible with less labor. And there were times when the inflorescence was quite suitable for decorating the buttonhole of a court dandy's jacket, and was grown in European gardens as an ornamental plant.

Sunflower inflorescence is best suited as a teaching material about the plants of this family. On it, tubular bisexual flowers are clearly distinguished, located in the center of the inflorescence and turning into seeds, and marginal asexual flowers-petals, giving the inflorescence the appearance of a solar disk. All this colorful richness is supported by a leaf wrapper and rather tough bracts.

In addition, the Sunflower inflorescence demonstrates the virtuosity of nature, capable of creating ideal harmony and one of the forms of symmetry, while, according to the French biologist Louis Pasteur, the main property of the living is asymmetry (of course, he was not talking about the external manifestations of asymmetry, but about the laws life, acting at the level of molecules. For example, amino acids from which protein chains are built, can be left and right. So, proteins of living organisms consist only of left amino acids. And right amino acids, apparently, are proteins of antiworlds, which they like to talk about science fiction writers. But are they so far from the truth?).

And, nevertheless, the sunflower today is grown not in order to admire its harmonious inflorescence, but for the production of sunflower oil. The breeders did such a good job with the plant that they increased the oil content of the seeds from 10 to 50 percent. But those who grow Sunflower not for the sake of oil can admire the amazing creativity of nature.

Jerusalem artichoke

The aboveground part of Jerusalem artichoke resembles a Sunflower, and they appeared in Europe, thanks to the "discovery" of the American continent. True, Jerusalem artichoke inflorescences are much more modest than the cultivated Sunflower, but people grow it not for the sake of inflorescences, but for the sake of sweet edible tubers that form underground.

America gave the Europeans three plants, the tubers of which can be eaten. This is our “second bread” - Potatoes from the Solanaceae family, Jerusalem artichoke with its sweet tubers, Sweet potato from the Bindweed family, whose roots, depending on the type of plant and the method of preparation, resemble either sweet potatoes, or carrots, or pumpkin.

Safflower dye

Since in Ancient Egypt they did not know about the Sunflower, the plant "Dyeing Safflower" from the Compositae family was used for the production of oil. True, the Egyptians also did not know about the belonging of the plant to this family, since modern classifications were born much later.

Some call the plant "Dye Thistle" for its leaves, which are armed with sharp thorns along the edge. Modern cultural decorative varieties, breeders have tried to get rid of the thorns on the leaves as much as possible.

And the plant is called "dyeing" for the ability of its tubular flowers, forming an inflorescence-basket, to transfer their yellow and red tones to food when you want to make a dish brighter and more attractive, and most importantly - to dye threads or fabrics in the same tones, guaranteeing excellent quality and long lifespan. For example, the finds of Egyptian mummies, which are thousands of years old, with preserved colored fabrics confirm the quality of the dyeing.

In Central Asia, famous for its bright carpets that do not fade for centuries, they still use the services of a plant, and not artificial modern paints.