Photographs: Guna Selvi Camera: Nikon D40x Location : Lalbagh

Chrysanthemums, sometimes called mums or chrysanths, are flowering plant life of the genus Chrysanthemum in the family Asteraceae. They are native to Asia and northeastern European countries. Most species originate from East Asia and the center of diversity is in China. There are countless horticultural varieties and cultivars. The name "chrysanthemum" comes from the Ancient Greek:?????? chrysos (gold) and Old Greek:??????? anthemon (flower).

Taxonomy

The genus once included more species, but was divided several decades ago into several genera, putting the economically important florist's chrysanthemums in the genus Dendranthema. The naming of the genera has been contentious, but a ruling of the International Botanical The legislature in 1999 changed the defining species of the genus to Chrysanthemum indicum, restoring the florist's chrysanthemums to the genus Chrysanthemum.The other species recently included in the narrow view of the genus Chrysanthemum are now transferred to the genus Glebionis. The other overal separate from Chrysanthemum include Argyranthemum, Leucanthemopsis, Leucanthemum, Rhodanthemum, and Tanacetum.

Description

Crazy Chrysanthemum taxa are herbaceous perennial plants or subshrubs. They have alternately set up leaves divided into booklets with toothed or sometimes smooth edges. The substance inflorescence is an mixture of several flower mind, or sometimes a solo head. The head has a base covered in layers of phyllaries. The simple row of ray florets are white, orange or red; many horticultural specimens have been carefully bred to bear many lanes of ray florets in a great variety of colors. The disc florets of wild taxa are orange. The fruit is a ribbed achene. Chrysanthemums, also known as 'mums', are one of the lovliest varieties of perennials that start blooming early in the fall. This is also known as favorite flower for the month of November.

Modern grown chrysanthemums are showier than their wild relatives. The flower heads occur in various forms, and is daisy-like or decorative, like aigrette or buttons. This genus contains many hybrids and thousands of cultivars developed for horticultural purposes. In addition to the traditional yellow, other colors are available, such as white, purple, and red. The most important hybrid is Chrysanthemum x morifolium (syn. C. x grandiflorum), derived primarily from C. indicum, but also involving other species.Over 140 varieties of chrysanthemum have gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Honor of Garden Merit.

Chrysanthemums are divided into two basic groups, garden hardy and exhibition. Garden hardy moms are new perennials capable of wintering in most northern latitudes. Exhibition kinds are not usually as sturdy. Garden hardies are defined by their ability to produce an abundance of small blooms with little if any mechanical assistance, such as staking, and withstanding wind and rain. Exhibition varieties, though, require staking, overwintering in a relatively dry, cool environment, and sometimes digging in night time lights.

The exhibition varieties can be used to create many amazing plant forms, such as large disbudded blooms, spray forms, and many artistically trained forms, such as thousand-bloom, standard (trees), fans, hanging baskets, topiary, bonsai, and cascades.

Chrysanthemum blooms are divided into 10 different bloom forms by the US National Chrysanthemum Culture, Inc., which is in preserving the international category system. The bloom forms are defined by the way in which the ray and disk florets are arranged. Chrysanthemum flowers consist of many specific flowers (florets), each one capable of producing a seeds. The disk florets are in the center of the bloom head, and the ray florets are on the perimeter. The ray florets are considered imperfect flowers, as they only have the female productive organs, while the disk florets are considered perfect flowers, as they own both male and male reproductive organs.

Chrysanthemums