Pappus (botany) pappus function as a "parachute" which enables the seed to be carried by the wind. The name derives from the Ancient Greek word "pappos", Latin "pappus", meaning "old man", so used for a plant (assumed to be an "Erigeron" species) having bristles and also for the woolly, hairy seed of certain plants. Pappus (botany) The pappus is the modified calyx, the part of an individual floret, that surrounds the base of the corolla tube in flower heads of the plant family Asteraceae. The term is sometimes used in other plant families such as Asclepiadaceae (milkweeds), whose seeds have a similar
History of botany his "Libellus De Re Herbaria Novus" (1538) published names, descriptions and localities of many native British plants. Herbals contributed to botany by setting in train the science of plant description, classification, and botanical illustration. Up to the 17th century botany and medicine were one and the same but those books emphasising medicinal aspects eventually omitted the plant lore to become modern pharmacopoeias; those that omitted the medicine became more botanical and evolved into the modern compilations of plant descriptions we call Floras. These were often backed by specimens deposited in a herbarium which was a collection of dried plants that