Chrysanthemums, sometimes called mums or chrysanths, are flowering plants of the genus Chrysanthemum in the family Asteraceae. They are native to Asia and northeastern European countries. Most species originate from East Asia and the center of diversity is in China. There are countless horticultural varieties and cultivars. The name "chrysanthemum" comes from the Ancient Ancient greek:?????? chrysos (gold) and Aged Greek:??????? anthemon (flower).
Taxonomy
The genus once included more species, unfortunately he split several decades ago into several genera, putting the economically important florist's chrysanthemums in the genus Dendranthema. The naming of the genera has been good, but a ruling of the International Botanical Congress in 1999 changed the defining species of the genus to Chrysanthemum indicum, restoring the florist's chrysanthemums to the genus Chrysanthemum.The other species previously contained in the narrow view of the genus Chrysanthemum are now utilized in the genus Glebionis. The other genera separate from Chrysanthemum include Argyranthemum, Leucanthemopsis, Leucanthemum, Rhodanthemum, and Tanacetum.
Description
Outdoors Chrysanthemum taxa are herbaceous perennial plants or subshrubs. They have alternately set up leaves divided into leaflets with toothed or from time to time smooth edges. The substance inflorescence is an series of several flower mind, or sometimes a solitary head. The head has a base covered in layers of phyllaries. The simple row of beam florets are white, yellow or red; many horticultural specimens have been bred to bear many series of ray florets in a great variety of colors. The disc florets of wild taxa are orange. The fruit is a ribbed achene. Chrysanthemums, also known as 'mums', are one of the nicest varieties of perennials that start blooming early in the fall. This is also known as favorite flower for the month of November.
Modern cultivated chrysanthemums are showier than their wild relatives. The flower heads occur in various forms, and can be daisy-like or decorative, like aigrette or buttons. This genus contains many hybrids and thousands of cultivars developed for horticultural purposes. As well as the traditional yellow, other colors are available, such as white, purple, and red. The main hybrid is Chrysanthemum x morifolium (syn. C. x grandiflorum), derived generally from C. indicum, but also involving other species.Over 140 varieties of chrysanthemum have gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.
Chrysanthemums are broken into two basic groups, garden hardy and exhibition. Garden hardy mothers are new perennials able of wintering in most northern latitudes. Exhibition types are not usually as sturdy. Garden hardies are defined by their capacity to create an abundance of small blooms with little if any mechanical assistance, such as staking, and withstanding wind and rain. Exhibition varieties, though, require staking, overwintering in a relatively dry, cool environment, and sometimes digging in evening lights.
The exhibition types can be used to create many amazing herb forms, such as large disbudded blooms, spray forms, and many artistically trained forms, such as thousand-bloom, standard (trees), fans, hanging baskets, topiary, bonsai, and cascades.
Chrysanthemum blooms are divided into 10 different bloom forms by the US National Chrysanthemum World, Inc., which is in keeping with the international category system. The bloom forms are defined by the way in which the ray and disk florets are arranged. Chrysanthemum flowers are composed of many individual flowers (florets), each one capable of producing a seeds. The disk florets are in the center of the bloom head, and the ray florets are on the perimeter. The ray florets are believed imperfect flowers, as they only possess the female successful organs, while the drive florets are considered perfect flowers, as they have both male and feminine reproductive organs.