Flower Photo: Pink Chrysanthemum Flowers

Chrysanthemum

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

The genus once included a larger number of species, but was split several decades ago into several genera. The naming of the genera has been contentious, but a ruling of the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature in 1999 resulted in the defining species of the genus being changed to Chrysanthemum indicum, thereby restoring the economically important florist's chrysanthemum to the genus Chrysanthemum. During the period between the splitting of the genus and the ICBN ruling, these species have customarily been included under the genus name Dendranthema.

The other species previously included in the narrow view of the genus Chrysanthemum are now transferred to the genus Glebionis. The other genera separate from Chrysanthemum include Argyranthemum, Leucanthemopsis, Leucanthemum, Rhodanthemum, and Tanacetum.

Chrysanthemum are herbaceous perennial plants growing to 50–150 cm tall, with deeply lobed leaves with large flower heads that are generally white, yellow or pink in the wild and are the preferred diet of larvae of certain lepidoptera species — see list of Lepidoptera that feed on chrysanthemums.

(Source: Wikipedia.org)

Related Free Photos