silky -- Covered with fine soft hairs, with a lustrous sheen. Satiny to the touch.

pappus -- Small scales, bristles or hairs at the top of the seed in Asteraceae. For example, dandelion parachutes. Plural: pappi.

rosette -- usually a dense cluster of leaves at the base of a plant.

achene -- a type of simple dry fruit produced by many species of flowering plants. For example, a rose hip holds a few achenes.

A herb is a plant whose stems die back to the ground in the winter.

A spike is an unbranched, indeterminate inflorescence in which the flowers are without stalks.

Bracts are modified leaves associated with a flower.

Involucre is the name given to the circle or spiral collection of bracts around a flower-cluster.

A panicle is a much-branched inflorescence. The bottom flowers in a panicle open first.

basal -- at the base, situated or attached at the base.

disc flowers are those in the center of a sunflower or daisy. Not a ray flower.

fruit -- any seed-bearing structure in flowering plants. It is formed from the ovary after flowering.

pinnate -- A compound leaf with two rows of leaflets.

biennial -- a plant which lives for two years, producing a basal rosette of leaves the first year and a full plant, flower, and seed the second year followed by the death of the entire plant at the end of the second year.

basal leaves -- a leaf that grows lowest on the stem of a plant.

caudex -- The woody stem base of some herbaceous perennials.

An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem.

alternate -- leaves alternate along the main stem and are attached singly.

glabrous -- smooth, glossy, having no bristles or hair-like structures. Bald.

leaflets -- Each little leaf-like thing in a compound leaf is a leaflet.

A perennial plant lives and blooms for many years.