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 books, known as herbals showed that botany was still a part of medicine, as it had been for most of ancient history. Authors of herbals were often curators of university gardens, and most herbals were derivative compilations of classic texts, especially "De Materia Medica". However, the need for accurate and detailed plant descriptions meant that some herbals were more botanical than medicinal. German Otto Brunfels's (1464–1534) "Herbarum Vivae Icones" (1530) contained descriptions of about 47 species new to science combined with accurate illustrations. His fellow countryman Hieronymus Bock's (1498–1554) "Kreutterbuch" of 1539 described plants he found in nearby woods and