The family Asteraceae or, alternatively, family Compositae, known as the aster, daisy or sunflower family, is a taxon of dicotyledonous flowering plants. The family name is derived from the genus Aster and refers to the star-shaped flower head of its members, typified well by the daisy. The Asteraceae is the second largest family in the Division Magnoliophyta, with some 1,100 genera and over 20,000 recognized species. Only the orchid family (Orchidaceae) is larger, with about 25,000 described species.

Plants belonging to the Asteraceae share all the following characteristics (Judd et al., 1999). None of these traits, taken separately, can be considered synapomorphic.

• Inflorescence: a capitulum or flower head
• Syngenesious anthers, i.e. with the stamens fused together at their edges by the anthers, forming a tube
• Ovary with basal arrangement of the ovules
• Ovules one per ovary
• Pappus (a tuft of hairs on a fruit)
• The fruit is an achene
• Sesquiterpenes present in the essential oils, but iridoids lacking.

The most common characteristic of all these plants is an inflorescence or flower head; a densely packed cluster of many small, individual flowers, usually called florets (meaning "small flowers").

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