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
Ramification (botany) Ramification (botany) In botany, ramification is the divergence of the stem and limbs of a plant into smaller ones, i.e. trunk into branches, branches into increasingly smaller branches, etc. Gardeners stimulate the process of ramification through pruning, thereby making trees, shrubs and other plants bushier and denser. Short internodes (the section of stem between nodes, i.e. areas where leaves are produced) help increase ramification in those plants that form branches at these nodes. Long internodes (which may be the result of over-watering, the over-use of fertilizer, or a seasonal "growth spurt") decrease a gardener's ability to induce ramification in a