Leucanthemum is a genus of about 70 flowering plants from the sunflower family (Asteraceae

Asteraceae

The Asteraceae or Compositae , is an exceedingly large and widespread family of vascular plants. The group has more than 22,750 currently accepted species, spread across 1620 genera and 12 subfamilies...

). It occurs in Europe, Northern Africa and the temperate regions of Asia. Many species have been introduced into America, Australia and New Zealand.

Growth

It consists of clumped rhizomatous perennial

Perennial plant

A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives for more than two years. The term is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter lived annuals and biennials. The term is sometimes misused by commercial gardeners or horticulturalists to describe only herbaceous perennials...

s, or rarely annuals

Annual plant

An annual plant is a plant that usually germinates, flowers, and dies in a year or season. True annuals will only live longer than a year if they are prevented from setting seed...

, growing to a height of 30 cm - 1 m. They were split from the genus Chrysanthemum

Chrysanthemum

Chrysanthemums, often called mums or chrysanths, are of the genus constituting approximately 30 species of perennial flowering plants in the family Asteraceae which is native to Asia and northeastern Europe.-Etymology:...

, because they are not aromatic and their leaves lack grayish-white hairs. The herbaceous, fast-growing stem

Plant stem

A stem is one of two main structural axes of a vascular plant. The stem is normally divided into nodes and internodes, the nodes hold buds which grow into one or more leaves, inflorescence , conifer cones, roots, other stems etc. The internodes distance one node from another...

 is mostly unbranched and sprouts laterally from a creeping rootstock. The stem is glabrous

Glabrousness

Glabrousness is the technical term for an anatomically atypical lack of hair, down, or similar structures...

 or hairy below. The alternate leaves

Leaf

A leaf is an organ of a vascular plant, as defined in botanical terms, and in particular in plant morphology. Foliage is a mass noun that refers to leaves as a feature of plants....

 are cauline. The margins are singly to doubly toothed.

Description

The daisy-like flower

Flower

A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants . The biological function of a flower is to effect reproduction, usually by providing a mechanism for the union of sperm with eggs...

 heads are terminal, mostly solitary, such as in the Shasta Daisy (Leucanthemum x superbum), and rarely a few in corymbs, such as in the Oxeye Daisy (Leucanthemum vulgare). They vary in diameter from 3 to 8 cm. The flowers are pedunculate with involucral bracts and a flat or convex receptacle. They form 2 to 4 whorls. There are about twenty ligulate, white or pinkish ray florets. These are usually female, rarely bisexual. The numerous, tubular, yellow disc florets are bisexual.

This genus has an abundant production of 10-ribbed achenes (flat seed

Seed

A seed is a small embryonic plant enclosed in a covering called the seed coat, usually with some stored food. It is the product of the ripened ovule of gymnosperm and angiosperm plants which occurs after fertilization and some growth within the mother plant...

s) with mucilaginous cells. The pappus is usually absent, or just a small corona

Corona (disambiguation)

A corona is the outer atmosphere of a star.Corona may also refer to:-Astronomy and space science:* Corona , a large ovoid planetary feature* Corona , a 1959–72 United States reconnaissance satellite program-Biology:...

or auricle

Auricle (botany)

In botany, an auricle is a small ear-like projection from the base of a leaf or petal....

. Species of this genus also spread vegetatively by rooting underground stems.

Uses

Leucanthemum species are used as food plants by the larva

Larva

A larva is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle...

e of some Lepidoptera

Lepidoptera

Lepidoptera is a large order of insects that includes moths and butterflies . It is one of the most widespread and widely recognizable insect orders in the world, encompassing moths and the three superfamilies of butterflies, skipper butterflies, and moth-butterflies...

 species including the bucculatricid

Bucculatricidae

Bucculatricidae or is a family of moths. This small family has representatives in all parts of the world. Some authors place the group as a subfamily of the family Lyonetiidae....

 leaf-miners Bucculatrix argentisignella (which feeds exclusively on Leucanthemum vulgare), Bucculatrix leucanthemella and Bucculatrix nigricomella

Bucculatrix nigricomella

Bucculatrix nigricomella is a moth of the Bucculatricidae family. It is found in most of Europe .The wingspan is 7-8 mm. Adults are on wing from April to May and again in August. There are two generations per year....

(feeds exclusively on Leucanthemum vulgare) and also Hypercompe indecisa

Hypercompe

Hypercompe is a genus of moths of the family Arctiidae. There are over 80 species found throughout the Americas. Several species were formerly separated in Ecpantheria which is now regarded as a junior synonym. They are typically large moths with white forewings heavily spotted with black, and...

.

Most species are considered noxious weeds

Noxious weeds

A noxious weed is an invasive species of a plant that has been designated by country, state or provincial, or national agricultural authorities as one that is injurious to agricultural and/or horticultural crops, natural habitats and/or ecosystems, and/or humans or livestock...

. The Shasta Daisy (Leucanthemum x superbum) is an ornamental with many cultivar

Cultivar

A cultivar'Cultivar has two meanings as explained under Formal definition. When used in reference to a taxon, the word does not apply to an individual plant but to all those plants sharing the unique characteristics that define the cultivar. is a plant or group of plants selected for desirable...

s, ideal for cut flowers, such as 'Aglaia', 'Becky', 'Esther Read', 'Silver Princess', 'Snow Lady', 'Tinkerbell', 'Wirral Pride', 'Wirral Supreme',

Species

• Leucanthemum adustum
• Leucanthemum ageratifolium Pau
• Leucanthemum aligulatum R. Vogt
• Leucanthemum alpinum Lam.
• Leucanthemum arundanum
• Leucanthemum atratum aggr.
• Leucanthemum burnatii Briq. & Cavill.
• Leucanthemum catalaunicum
• Leucanthemum catananche (Ball) Maire
  • Leucanthemum ceratophylloides ssp. tenuifolium (Guss.) Bazzich. & Marchi
• Leucanthemum chloroticum Kerner & Murb.
• Leucanthemum coronarium - Garland Chrysanthemum
• Leucanthemum crassifolium
• Leucanthemum decipiens Pomel
• Leucanthemum delarbrei Timb.-Lagr.
• Leucanthemum depressum (Ball) Maire
• Leucanthemum discoideum (All.) H.J.Coste
• Leucanthemum favargeri
• Leucanthemum gallaecicum Rodr.-Oubiña et S. Ortíz
• Leucanthemum gaudinii DT.
• Leucanthemum gayanum (Coss. & Durieu) Maire
  • Leucanthemum glabrum f. pinnatisectum Pau
• Leucanthemum gracilicaule (Dufour) Pau
• Leucanthemum graminifolium (L.) Lam.
• Leucanthemum halleri Ducomm.
• Leucanthemum heterophyllum (Willd.) DC.
• Leucanthemum integrifolium (Richards.) DC. : Entire-leaf Daisy
• Leucanthemum hultenii A
• Leucanthemum irctianum de Candolle
• Leucanthemum ircutianum Turcz. ex DC.
  • Leucanthemum ircutianum ssp. crassifolium (Lange) Vogt
• Leucanthemum laciniatum Huter, P.& R.
• Leucanthemum lacustre (Brot.) Samp. : Portuguese Daisy
• Leucanthemum maestracense
• Leucanthemum margaritae (Gáyer ex Jáv.) Zeleny
• Leucanthemum maximum
  Leucanthemum maximum
  Leucanthemum maximum is a species of flowering plants in the aster family known by the common name max chrysanthemum. It is native to France and Spain but it can be found growing wild in other parts of the world as an introduced species and sometimes a garden escapee...
  
  (Ramond) DC.
• Leucanthemum merinoi Vogt. & Castroviejo
• Leucanthemum montserratianum R. Vogt

• Leucanthemum nipponicum Franch. ex Maxim. : Nippon Daisy
• Leucanthemum pallena (Gay) DC.
• Leucanthemum pallens (Gay) DC.
• Leucanthemum palmatum
• Leucanthemum paludosum
  Leucanthemum paludosum
  Leucanthemum paludosum is a perennial plant of the Asteraceae family.-Description:...
  
  (Poir.) Pomel
• Leucanthemum pluriflorum Pau
• Leucanthemum praecox (Harvatic) Harvatic
• Leucanthemum pujiulae Sennen
• Leucanthemum subalpinum (Schur) Tzvelev
• Leucanthemum superbum (J.W. Ingram) Berg. ex Kent.
• Leucanthemum sylvaticum (Hoffmans & Link) Nyman
• Leucanthemum tridactylites (Fiori) Bazzich.
• Leucanthemum valentinum Pau
• Leucanthemum vulgare Lam. Oxeye Daisy
• Leucanthemum waldsteinii (Sch.Bip.) Pouzar
• Leucanthemum weyrichii Maxim.

External links

• Ox-eye daisy, Leucanthemum vulgare diagnostic photographs and information