How are chrysanthemum seeds dispersed?

The chrysanthemum is one of China's top ten famous flowers, with high ornamental value, and is widely cultivated across China. Do you know how it disperses its seeds? What are the common varieties?

1. How does the chrysanthemum disperse its seeds?

Naturally growing chrysanthemums generally disperse their seeds through animals, wind, water, ballistic ejection and other means, while modern chrysanthemum cultivation relies on manual seed dispersal. Moreover, chrysanthemum seeds germinate slowly above 10°C; sow them thinly between February and April, and under normal conditions most can bloom the same year.

2. What are the common varieties of chrysanthemum?

1. Black Chrysanthemum

The Black Chrysanthemum is a precious ornamental plant, also known as Black Lotus, and is one of China's top ten famous chrysanthemums. Its flowers are deep purple, and its stems are black-purple and vary in thickness; it usually blooms in autumn, later than others of its kind. Its early flowering stage has a lotus-type form, and its full flowering stage has a recurved form; the petals are thin in texture and black with a red glow, glossy, with a velvety sheen, and the center of the flower has tubular florets.

2. Autumn Chrysanthemum

The Autumn Chrysanthemum, also known as Juhua, Jiuhua, Huanghua and Dinuhua, is a perennial herbaceous plant of the Asteraceae family and a precious ornamental flower, also called artistic chrysanthemum. Its varieties have reached more than a thousand, with a great diversity of forms and complex varieties. It can be propagated by cuttings, division, grafting and tissue culture.

3. Green Chrysanthemum

The Green Chrysanthemum has dancing, fluttering flower forms; in some, the tips of the inner petals are green and clasp toward the flower center, resembling a chrysanthemum, and the flowers stand 14 cm above the leaves.

4. Wheel Chrysanthemum

It is a perennial herb of the genus Gaillardia in the Asteraceae family, 60-100 cm tall, with the whole plant covered in coarse jointed hairs. The stem is unbranched or slightly branched. The basal leaves and lower stem leaves are oblong-elliptic or spoon-shaped; the middle stem leaves are lanceolate, oblong-elliptic or spoon-shaped.