Glebionis segetum
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| Glebionis segetum | ||||||||||||||
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| Glebionis segetum (L.) Fourr. |
Glebionis segetum (syn. Chrysanthemum segetum) is a species of the genus Glebionis, probably native only to the eastern Mediterranean region. Common names include Corn Marigold and Corn Daisy.
It is a herbaceous perennial plant growing to 80 cm tall, with spirally arranged, deeply lobed leaves 5-20 cm long. The flowers are bright yellow, produced in capitulae (flowerheads) 3.5-5.5 cm diameter, with a ring of ray florets and a centre of disc florets.
It is widely naturalised outside of its native range, colonising western and central Europe with early human agriculture; it can be an invasive weed in some areas.
It was formerly treated in the genus Chrysanthemum, but under a recent decision of the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature, that genus has been redefined with a different circumscription to include the economically important florist's chrysanthemum.
In Gaelic the plant was known as Brenanbroi which translates as that which rotteth corn.[1]
The Corn Marigold must have been a serious weed during the 13th-century in Scotland as a law of Alexander II states that if a farmer allows so much as a single plant to produce seed in amongst his crops then he will be fined a sheep.[2]
A Marigold was the emblem of Mary Queen of Scots.
[edit] References
- ^ Dalrymple, Sir David (1776). Annals of Scotland. Pub. J. Murray. London. P. 339.
- ^ Dalrymple, Sir David (1776). Annals of Scotland. Pub. J. Murray. London. P. 338 -339.
