woofie said:So, what differentiates a ray flower from a petal?
Leftwood said:---- "Tepal" is a term used to encompass both petals and sepals, when the flower does not have a strong differentiation between the calyx and the corolla.
---- The term "ray flower" designates a type of individual flower that would include all parts that might be present: sepals, petals, ovaries, stamens, etc. Tepals, if they were present, would only be part of the ray flower.
eclayne said:
Rick, combine your post with those photos and you have a great Idea/article. Thanks for clear description.
chelle said:So, what's still showing in this picture, Jay?
Are they florets above ovaries?
woofie said: So, would a zinnia be considered a disk flower? AND a ray flower? Or is it a ray flower that includes disk flowers?.
woofie said: ...But I'm still wondering how you differentiate between ray flowers and petals.
chelle said:So, if I added the very first picture to the DB it might be confusing to readers because parts of the disk flowers are missing, is that right?
chelle said:From what's been said previously, Woofie, I think that the part we see and refer to as a petal sometimes isn't a complete ray flower, either, but just a section of it.