Basket (inflorescence)
The term basket (Latin Calathidium, Anthodium ) describes an inflorescence in botany . All flowers are located directly on the compressed and plate-like widened, partly also deepened stem axis , at the base there is always a bract , the involucre. The structure of the basket is very similar to the head . In practice, however, one speaks of a basket only in the composites family , otherwise it is always referred to as a head. This distinction is mainly due to the structure of the individual flowers: They are either tubular or ray florets and can only be found in the daisy family. Overall, the basket looks like a single flower and is therefore considered a pseudanthium (Greek: false flower). A jug-shaped, deepened basket is also called a flower jar .
Sunflower with a distinct plate-shaped basket
Underside of a plate-shaped basket (sunflower)
An ordinary thistle with a bowl-shaped, deepened basket
A daisy , the tongue flowers on the outside, the tubular flowers on the inside
A slit-leaved sun hat with an almost spherical to conical basket
Double basket
If you replace the flowers of a basket with other smaller cups as partial inflorescences, you get a special dibotryum , the double basket . The best example here are the spherical thistles . The cups are arranged in a spherical shape, the number of flowers is reduced to one each and have an involucre of bracts .
Globular thistle in full bloom
On the individual heads that have not blossomed ...
the bracts can be seen well .
