Answer 1:
There is no simple answer to that. The
scientifically correct answer is buttercups,
although the common English (and scientifically
incorrect) answer is sunflowers.
The family
that has the truest petals is the buttercup
family, the Ranunculaceae. Those flowers can vary
in the number of petals, even within a species,
but ten-twelve is a common number. However, in
some of the more primitive flowering plants, the
level of leaves just underneath the petals (the
"sepals") are not fully distinguished from the
petals (both are modified leaves). Some of these
plants, such as the magnolia family, the
Magnoliaceae, can have many more "petals" than the
buttercups. Finally, there is the sunflower
family, the Asteraceae (which includes daisies,
thistles, etc.); their "petals" are actually
miniature flowers that surround a large, central
disk, which is in turn made up of a different kind
of flower. Individual flowers of this family
actually have only five petals, which are
frequently fused into a single unit, but a single
head of these flowers can itself contain hundreds
or thousands of these individual, five-petaled
flowers.
It is also of note that the sepals
of the monocots (grasses, palms, lilies, and their
relatives) are generally brightly colored and thus
appear to be "petals", but they're not. If you
look carefully, you will find that three of the
brightly-colored leaves are above the other three;
the three above are the true petals and the three
below are the sepals. Look at an iris for one good
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