Leucanthemum Mill.

Herbs, perennials or rarely annuals; stems erect or decument, usually leafy. Leaves simple, oblong, spathulate or obovate, margins crenate, serrate or pinnatifid. Heads heterogamous, radiate, solitary, terminal, hemispherical. Involucral bracts 3 - 4-seriate, lanceolate or oblong, inner ones hyaline or scarious margined. Receptacle more or less flat, naked. Ray florets white or yellow, female, 1-seriate, fertile, ligule conspicuous. Disc florets, yellow, hermaphrodite, fertile, tubular, limb 5-lobed. Anther base obtuse, entire. Style arms of hermaphrodite florets truncate, penicillate. Achenes homomorphic, more or less terete or 10-ribbed, with epicarpic mucilaginous cells on ribs, vallecular secretary canals present. Pappus a corona or auricle, sometimes rudimentary or absent.

Europe and N. Asia; ca 20 species, 1 in India, on hills as an escape.

Notes. Some authors treat Leucanthemum Mill. as a distinct genus, whilst others reduce it to Chrysanthemum L.

List of Lower Taxa