ray flower

noun

Botany.

1. one of the marginal florets surrounding the disk of tubular florets in the flower heads of certain composite plants, as the daisy.

ray flower

1. One of the narrow flowers, resembling single petals, that surround the central disk in the capitulum or flower cluster of a plant of the composite family (Asteraceae or Compositae), such as the daisy or sunflower. Rays are often male flowers with sterile stamens.

2. Also called ray ray floret

Word History and Origins

Origin of ray flower¹

First recorded in 1850–55

Example Sentences

Seeds of ray flowers small and sometimes flattened, 2 awns, of which one alone lengthens and becomes conspicuous.

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If planted with other ray flowers it forms a fine contrast, and when once it has found suitable quarters the more seldom it is disturbed the better.

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The number of ray flowers is often very large.

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Since the drooping ray flowers, which are pistillate only, are fertile too, there is no scarcity of seed set, much to the farmer's dismay.

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The variety multiflorus has several forms; the commonest form is double, the disk being filled with ligules much shorter than those of the ray flowers, after the form of many daisy-like composites.

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