Bellis perennis L.
Family: Asteraceae
Lawndaisy
Bellis perennis image

Rhizomes short, erect, herbaceous. Leaves: petioles winged, equaling or longer than blades; blades 6-40 × 4-20 mm, bases ± attenuate, apices rounded. Peduncles lax, (3-)5-15(-20) cm. Phyllaries: margins ciliolate, particularly distally, apices obtuse. Ray corollas 4-8(-11) mm. Disc corollas 1.5 mm. Cypselae 1-2 mm. 2n = 18.

Flowering spring-summer. Lawns and moist, waste places, roadsides; 0-500+ m; introduced; B.C., N.B., Nfld. and Labr. (Nfld.), N.S., Ont., Que.; Alaska, Calif., Conn., Idaho, Ill., Ind., Ky., Maine, Mass., Mich., Minn., Mont., N.H., N.Y., N.C., N.Dak., Ohio, Oreg., Pa., R.I., Tenn., Utah, Vt., Va., Wash., W.Va., Wis.; Europe; Asia; Pacific Islands (Hawaii, New Zealand); introduced in South America.

There is an old report of Bellis perennis from St. Pierre and Miquelon; it is not established there. It might not have persisted in Alaska. The species is used in homeopathic medicine, as a tea and as a vitamin supplement. It is also a widely planted ornamental.

Fibrous-rooted, scapose perennial, ±spreading-hairy; lf-blades elliptic or ovate to orbicular, dentate or denticulate, to 4 נ2 cm, narrowed to a margined petiole of equal or greater length; scape 5-15 cm; disk 5-10 mm wide; rays numerous, white to pink, to 1 cm; 2n=18. A weed in lawns and waste places, intr. from n. Europe and ±established throughout n. U.S. Apr.-Nov.

Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

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