What Plant Is the Chrysanthemum? A Detailed Explanation of Its Family, Genus and Growth Characteristics
China has a long history of cultivating chrysanthemums. In ancient times, many literati and scholars used chrysanthemums to compose poems and couplets, and many people liked to grow chrysanthemums for ornamental enjoyment. What plant is the chrysanthemum?
1. What plant is the chrysanthemum
The chrysanthemum is a perennial herbaceous plant of the genus Chrysanthemum in the family Asteraceae. The plant is 60-150 cm tall, with upright stems covered in fine hairs. The leaves are ovate or lanceolate, the petals are ligulate or tubular, and the flower colors include red, yellow, white, orange, purple, pink and so on, with different cultivars having different forms. Chrysanthemums can not only be used for ornamental purposes but also as medicine.
2. The benefits of chrysanthemum
The chrysanthemum tastes sweet and bitter and is slightly cold in nature. It can disperse wind-heat, clear the liver and improve eyesight, calm liver yang, and remove toxins.
It can be used for wind-heat colds with fever and dizziness; heat in the liver meridian; red eyes with excessive tears, or yin deficiency of the liver and kidneys with blurred vision; liver yang rising with vertigo and headache; and sores and swellings with pain. In modern times it is also used for coronary heart disease and hypertension.
3. Types of chrysanthemum
There are many chrysanthemum cultivars. According to their natural flowering period, they can be divided into summer chrysanthemums, autumn chrysanthemums, cold chrysanthemums and four-season chrysanthemums;
According to flower diameter, they can be divided into large chrysanthemums, medium chrysanthemums and small chrysanthemums;
According to flower form, they can be divided into broad-band type, spoon-ball type, sparse-tube type, pine-needle type, flat-osmanthus type and so on;
According to petal form, they can be divided into flat-petal, spoon-petal, osmanthus-petal, tube-petal and irregular-petal types;
According to pruning method and use, they can be divided into single-stem chrysanthemum (also called specimen chrysanthemum), multi-head chrysanthemum, cliff chrysanthemum, large standing chrysanthemum, grafted chrysanthemum and so on.
The chrysanthemum symbolizes nobility and aloofness. Its colors are diverse and its flower forms are beautiful, so friends who like it may as well grow a few plants themselves for ornamental enjoyment.