Flower of the Month: daisy
The family Asteraceae, with the original name Compositae, consists of over 32,000 known species of flowering plants in over 1,900 genera within the order Asterales. Commonly referred to as the aster, daisy, composite, or sunflower family, Compositae were first described in the year 1740. The number of species in Asteraceae is rivaled only by the Orchidaceae, and which is the larger family is unclear as the quantity of extant species in each family is unknown.
Most species of Asteraceae are annual, biennial, or perennial herbaceous plants, but there are also shrubs, vines, and trees. The family has a widespread distribution, from subpolar to tropical regions, in a wide variety of habitats. Most occur in hot desert and cold or hot semi-desert climates, and they are found on every continent but Antarctica. Their primary common characteristic is flower heads, technically known as capitula, consisting of sometimes hundreds of tiny individual floretsenclosed by a whorl of protective involucral bracts.
The oldest known fossils are pollen grains from the Late Cretaceou of Antarctica, dated to c. 76–66 million years ago (mya). It is estimated that the crown group of Asteraceae evolved at least 85.9 mya (Late Cretaceous, Santonian) with a stem node age of 88–89 mya (Late Cretaceous, Coniacian).
Asteraceae is an economically important family, providing food staples, garden plants, and herbal medicines. Species outside of their native ranges can be considered weedy or invasive.
For more information go to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asteraceae
THS: A Hardy History
1923 – 1980… In 1923, Mr. Jay V. Hare, Secretary of the Reading Railroad, persuaded a number of his friends and associates to cooperate with him in putting on a flower show in the village of Trevose where he had his home. At that time this area of Lower Bucks County was real countryside with wide vistas of rolling green acres.In these surroundings, Jay Hare found his avocation in the pursuit of horticulture, as did his neighbors. Mr. Garrett V. Clark, an executive with the Buchanan Printing Company of Philadelphia, and Mr. Charles S. Randall, an outstanding grower of dahlias and other flowers. For the next eighteen years these three men were to lead the fledgling Trevose Horticultural Society in Pennsylvania… [learn more]
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Meetings are held the third Tuesday of each month at 7 PM at the Bensalem Senior Center, 1850 Byberry Road, Bensalem, PA.
THS is a Member of the Garden Club Federation of Pennsylvania, District XI.