The Many Faces Of The Series

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

Among the numerous Asteraceae family, whose plants delight the world with their inflorescences in the form of bright and graceful baskets, there is a genus of plants called by botanists "Bidens" or "Series". Observing the traditions of the family, the plants of the Sereda genus are many-sided, spectacular, have healing abilities and are very unpretentious to the conditions of life

Bristly and prickly

For a person who is far from the science of "botany", any plant whose flowers resemble an elegant basket filled with miniature creatures and trimmed with bright multi-colored petals seems to be a Chamomile or a Sunflower. Flower gardens growing at their summer cottage can add a dozen other names to the list: Asters, Marigolds, Calendula, Marigolds, Dahlias …

And only meticulous botanists, who know how to discern small differences in plants, found a personal name for each of the almost 33 thousand plant species of the Astrovye family.

Of course, among these tens of thousands of plants, there are groups that share common genetic characteristics, while differing in some external elements. Botanists have combined such groups of plants into a "genus", in the name of which there is a trait, to one degree or another, characteristic of each representative of the genus. In the Astrov family today, there are 1911 independent genera.

"Bidens" or "Sereda" is one of nearly two thousand genera of the Astrov family. Its Latin name reflects the appearance of the seeds. Each seed of the series has been provided by nature with thorny spines called awns. Their number can vary from two to four, less often, more than four. This was the reason for botanists when choosing a Latin name. After all, the word "Bidens" is compound, containing two words at once, which in Russian mean "two" and "tooth".

Varieties of the Train

The genus Chereda unites in its ranks more than two hundred species of plants. Depending on the place of growth, the external data of plants have their own features, although the genetics remains the same.

We list several types:

* Bidens tripartita - the most familiar to many species of the series, growing everywhere in our country. It is a herbaceous annual plant that prefers moist places for its life. The three-part succession has long been famous for its versatile healing abilities, serves as a raw material for obtaining dyes, and is a good honey plant.

You can distinguish the Three-part series from other species by the shape of its leaves. They are composed of three blades. Two side lobes are smaller than the central one. The edges of the lobes are roughly serrate-toothed. Although the leaves can be of a different shape, and on different "floors" of the same stem, leaves of different shapes can be present.

As for the flower baskets, they are devoid of marginal flowers, having only tubular flowers of the inflorescence disc.

* Bidens frondosa (Leafy succession) - is also a herbaceous annual. This species is easy to distinguish from others if you take a closer look at the flower basket. As with the previous species, the petals on the inflorescence may be absent. But her flower disk with tubular flowers is a magnificent architectural phenomenon of nature.

Miniature flowers are protected from the vicissitudes of life by two layers of bracts. The inner bracts are like cloned soldiers of the same size, tightly surrounding the flower fraternity. The outer bracts are arranged in a less dense ring and look like green narrow leaves with ruffled edges.

For the belligerent appearance of seed fruits with horned seeds sticking out in different directions, the plant is popularly called the "Pitchfork of the Devil".

* Bidens bipinnata - it stands out among its relatives by double-pinnate leaves, in which the leaves of the second order are, in turn, divided into segments that do not violate their integrity, but distinguish them against the background of the leaves of other species of the series. The leaves are not only decorative, but also completely edible for both animals and humans.

The seed heads of the plant are also bizarre, consisting of long and slender seeds, ending not in two sharp awns, but in tridents. For this type of fruit, the plant is called "Spanish needles".

Flower baskets may not have marginal flowers, but are protected by two-layer bracts, like the baskets of the Leaves.

Note:

Medicinal and rare species of the Train will be discussed in other articles.

More details about the species of the Burmese can be found in our "Encyclopedia of Plants".