Chrysanthemum indicum L.

Herbaceous perennial, with up to 1 m tall, erect or ascending to procumbent, ± branched, densely foliated, sparsely hairy, flexuous shoots from procumbent, ± branched rhizome with suckers. Leaves olive green, sparsely hairy to subglabrous on both sides, on 1 – 2 cm long petioles, basal and lower withered at anthesis, laminas ovate or oblong-ovate to elliptic-ovate, (3-) 4 – 7 (-9) cm long, 2 – 4 cm broad, pinnatifid to shallowly pinnatipartite into short, obtuse, terminal and lateral lobes, truncate to subcordate at the base, upper leaves smaller and entire. Capitula 2.5 – 4.5 (–5.5) cm across, numerous, on slender, up to 5 cm long, hairy peduncles, in lax compound corymbs. Involucre 4-5-seriate, 8 – 20 mm in diam., phyllaries with broadly white or brown-scarious margins, subobtuse to obtuse at the apices, outer ones deltoid-ovate, 2.5 – 3 mm long, median ovate, 6 – 8 mm long, innermost elliptic, 9 – 10 mm long, broader at the apices. Ray-florets yellow ( pink, white or purplish in cult. forms), with entire or tridentate, oblong, 10 – 15 x 3 – 4 mm ligules. Disc-florets yellow, with c. 3 mm long, 5-toothed corolla tube. Cypselas ± obovoid, 1.5 – 2 mm long, light brown.

A cultivated plant, native of China and Japan.

Distribution: Russia, China, Korea, Japan, India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Sikkim; introduced in many countries as a garden ornamental.

1200 m

Fl. Per.: May-November.

Cultivated as an ornamental in most parts of the country and naturalized in many areas. There are many single and double cultivars of this species with all or some of the tubular florets modified into ligulate florets in golden yellow to red and pink colours. The wild plants of this species possess yellow, uniseriate marginal ray-florets and are found rarely in gardens.

Chrysanthemum indicum L., Sp. Pl. 889. 1753; Roxb., Fl. Ind. ed. 2, 3: 436. 1832; C. B. Clarke, Comp. Ind. 147. 1876; Hook. f., Fl. Brit. Ind. 3: 314. 1881; Kitam. in Hara, Fl. E. Himal. 335. 1966; R.R.Stewart, Ann. Cat. Vasc. Pl. W. Pak. & Kashm. 732. 1972; Matricaria indica (L.) Desr. in Lam., Encycl. 3: 734. 1792; Pyrethrum indicum (L.) Cass. in Dict. Sci. Nat. XLIX: 149. 1826; Tanacetum indicum (L.) Schultz-Bip., Tanacet. 50. 1844.