what is structure of flower of species of Inula genus (species present in India and Pakistan )?

Question

i m doing research on this genus so have to know the morphology of flower.

Answer 1

What is commonly called the “flower” in members of the family Asteraceae is botanically known as a capitulum. The capitulum is an aggregation of many florets, with each floret representing what we typically recognize as a flower (but wrought in miniature). In the case of Inula, the spidery outer “petals” are individual flowers technically known as “ray florets”. Ray florets are often sterile - I suspect that's the case for Inula, although you would need to verify that. Moving inward to the centre of the capitulum, each of the small units is a ”disc floret”; disc florets can be either bisexual, containing fully-developed male and female flower parts, or male, so that only the stamens are functional.