The oxeye daisy is a member of the composite family, which American naturalist Roger Tory Peterson believed to be the most recent one to make its appearance on Earth.
Photo Credit Joe Cook and Monica Sheppard
The oxeye daisy (Leucanthemum vulgare) did not exist in North America until the early settlers began arriving from Europe. Its seeds were probably imported when they were inadvertently included in shipments of crop seeds or in the fodder used to feed livestock on the long ocean voyages from the Old World. Once here, it did not take the plant long to spread across the land, often overtaking open fields and garden lands. It is now found throughout most of the United States and Canada.
The oxeye daisy is a member of the composite family, which American naturalist Roger Tory Peterson believed to be the most recent one to make its appearance on Earth. Despite its late development, it is now the largest of all of the families of flowering plants. The oxeye daisy is typical of most of its members, having rays of petals (Peterson referred to them as “strap-shaped flowers”) surrounding a center disk of small, tubular flowers. The rays are actually sterile flowers whose main purpose appears to be to serve as a landing pad and an attractant to the insects that will visit and pollinate the fertile, yellow, disk flowers.
By the way, the daisy almost always has an odd number of petals, so to get the desired result, be sure to start with the right phrase when you use the plant to find out if “she loves me, she loves me not.”
When looking to other sources for further information about oxeye daisy, you should be aware that some reference books list it as Chrysanthemum leucanthemum.
Flower Fast Facts
FLOWER: The inner, yellow, flattened or depressed, disk flowers are surrounded by 15-35 outer, white, ray petals.
LEAVES AND STEM: The narrow, sessile, dark green leaves are toothed or lobed and arranged alternately on a stem that rises 1-3 feet from the ground.
BLOOM SEASON: June-August
About This Series
“Mountain Wildflowers” features a wildflower from the Blue Ridge region each month from March to October. Leonard M. Adkins has written for Blue Ridge Country for more than two decades and is the author of 20 books about travel, hiking and nature. His Wildflowers of the Appalachian Trail, which received the prestigious National Outdoor Book Award, provides the photographs and some of the information he writes about in each “Mountain Wildflowers.” It and his other works may be obtained through his website.
