What Colors Are the Latest Chrysanthemums? Understanding Chrysanthemum Flower Colors in One Article

The chrysanthemum is a perennial herbaceous plant of the genus Chrysanthemum in the Asteraceae family. By cultivation form, it is divided into cultivation types such as spray chrysanthemum, disbud chrysanthemum, large standard chrysanthemum, cliff chrysanthemum, artistic chrysanthemum and desk chrysanthemum; by the appearance and form of the petals, it is divided into cultivation types such as yuanbao, tuibao, fanbao, luanbao, luxinbao and feiwubao. Let us take a look below at what colors chrysanthemums come in!

What colors do chrysanthemums come in?

The capitulum of the chrysanthemum is terminal or axillary, borne singly or several clustered together. The ligulate flowers are female flowers, and the tubular flowers are bisexual flowers. The ligulate flowers are divided into four types: flat, spoon, tube and irregular. The colors are rich, including red, yellow, white, black, purple, green, orange, pink, brown, snow blue, pale green and so on. The tubular flowers develop into “tuogui petals” in various colors, with flower colors including red, yellow, white, purple, green, pink, bicolor, intermediate color and other color series.

What varieties of chrysanthemum are there?

1. Classification by flower diameter: flowers with a diameter above 18 cm are called large chrysanthemums, those with a flower diameter between 6 and 18 cm are called medium chrysanthemums, and those with a flower diameter below 6 cm are called small chrysanthemums.

2. Classification by flowering season: divided into summer chrysanthemum, autumn chrysanthemum and cold chrysanthemum.

3. Classification by flower type: the capitulum of the chrysanthemum forms different flower types because of the different arrangements of its ligulate flowers, mainly including single-petal type, rolled-spread type, dancing-ring type, ball type, rosette type, dragon-claw type, tuogui type, hanging-pearl type, hanging-silk type, burr type and so on.

4. Classification by commercial application: divided into spray chrysanthemum, specimen chrysanthemum, standard chrysanthemum, cliff chrysanthemum, high-graft chrysanthemum, tied chrysanthemum, flowerbed chrysanthemum and so on.

5. Classification by photoperiodic response: short-day hybrid chrysanthemums used for year-round flowering have a natural flowering period in autumn. In the Northern Hemisphere, varieties are divided into three types according to early, middle and late flowering. According to response groups, they are divided into 6-15 week varieties, meaning the number of weeks required from the start of short-day treatment to flowering. The commercial cut chrysanthemum varieties widely cultivated in Guangdong include Huangxiu chrysanthemum, Shehuang, Jinhuang, Taihong, Dabailian and so on, all of which use lighting to control flower bud differentiation so that they come to market in a balanced way.

6. Classification by flower color: classified according to the color of the chrysanthemum, divided into white chrysanthemum, yellow chrysanthemum, red chrysanthemum, orange chrysanthemum, cyan chrysanthemum, brown chrysanthemum, purple chrysanthemum, green chrysanthemum, black chrysanthemum and so on.

7. Classification by ligulate petal shape: divided into flat petals, broad petals, claw petals, tube petals, needle petals, silk petals, hooked petals, twisted petals and so on.

What effects does chrysanthemum have?

1. Dispersing wind and dissipating heat: chrysanthemum has the effect of dispersing wind-heat from the lung meridian, but its power to disperse exterior pathogenic factors is not strong. It is commonly used to treat symptoms such as fever, headache and cough caused by wind-heat common cold or by warm pathogens invading the lungs in the early stage of warm disease. It is often used in combination with mulberry leaf, which has similar properties, and is often combined with other Chinese medicines.

2. Calming liver yang: chrysanthemum can clear liver heat and calm liver yang. It is commonly used to treat symptoms of rising liver yang with headache and dizziness. It can be used together with other medicines that calm liver yang, clear liver heat and extinguish liver wind, and can be combined with other Chinese medicines to treat those with excessive heat in the liver meridian and extreme heat stirring wind.

3. Clearing the liver and improving eyesight: chrysanthemum can both disperse wind-heat from the liver meridian and clear and drain liver heat to improve eyesight. It can be combined with other Chinese medicines to treat red, swollen and painful eyes caused by wind-heat in the liver meridian and liver fire attacking upward. If there is insufficient essence and blood of the liver and kidney, failure to nourish the eyes, blurred vision and unclear sight, it can also be combined with corresponding Chinese medicines to achieve the effects of nourishing the liver and kidney and benefiting yin to improve eyesight.

4. Clearing heat and detoxifying: chrysanthemum can clear heat and detoxify, and can be used to treat sores, carbuncles and swelling toxins. It can be used in combination with some other Chinese medicines, but because this product is weaker than wild chrysanthemum in clearing heat and detoxifying, this product is generally not chosen.

5. Resisting tumors: chrysanthemum has a certain anti-tumor effect. Through experimental extraction of chrysanthemum components, it was found that the progesterone-like substances extracted from it contain the main anti-tumor components luteolin and apigenin. Luteolin can inhibit the movement and invasion of ovarian cancer cells, and apigenin can inhibit the phosphorylation of retinoblastoma protein, causing cells to undergo G1 phase arrest, and can also activate cyclin-dependent kinase 1 to affect CDK activity, thereby causing cells to undergo G2/M phase arrest.

6. Slowing aging: experimental research has proved that the progesterone-like compounds contained in chrysanthemum have the ability to scavenge free radicals and have relatively strong antioxidant activity, and the antioxidant activity of chrysanthemum is closely related to the content of progesterone-like compounds. Experiments show that chrysanthemum has an antioxidant and anti-aging effect.

7. Resisting viruses: chrysanthemum has a certain antiviral effect. Research has proved that chrysanthemum can inhibit poliovirus, measles virus, herpes simplex virus and so on to varying degrees. If the active ingredients in chrysanthemum reach a certain concentration, it can also effectively inhibit influenza virus, and can even have a certain inhibitory effect on HIV.

8. Antibacterial effect: the volatile oil of chrysanthemum can inhibit the activity of many kinds of bacteria, especially with the most obvious inhibitory effect on Staphylococcus aureus. Fresh chrysanthemum decocted in water can also inhibit the activity of Gram-positive bacteria and bacilli to a certain extent, so to a certain extent chrysanthemum has an antibacterial effect.