Despicable Daisies

Who would think that something as lovely and innocent looking as an Ox-eye Daisy could be considered despicable? It's almost slanderous. But it's true. It's a baneful plant where some insects are concerned, and folks have not always held it in high regard. Some, I guess, still don't.

An obvious member of the Composite Family (Compositae), Ox-eye Daisies (Chrysanthemum leucanthemum) are not native to North America, but Europe and Asia. Many garden varieties of chrysanthemum are derived from Asian species, and the pyrethum daisies, distasteful to insects, are a source of natural insecticide. The Ox-eye Daisy, with its bitter juice, is avoided by herbivorous insects. In England, country folk mixed it with the straw bedding of farm animals, and hung it in their homes to discourage insects, including fleas.

A hearty plant that seems to prefer poor dirt over well-turned soil, Ox-eye Daisies add a touch of beauty to waste places where few things thrive. Once upon a time, though, it rampaged across crop fields and gardens, blanketing the land in white as it took over. Its abundance as an unwanted weed peaked during our agricultural era.

Called gools by the Scots, they so hated the plant, they sent out gool-riders (kinda like the Ring Wraiths of "Lord of the Rings") who saw to it that these lovely flowers were removed from wheat fields. The farmer who was found to have the greatest "crop" of gools was fined, payment being a castrated ram. (What did the ram do to deserve this?)

And dairy farmers find daisies distasteful - literally - because the milk produced by cattle that have eaten them has a strange flavor.

Daisy means "days eyes", the name originally given to a pink flower in England that closes at night, and opens in the sunshine. Ox-eye Daisies remain open around the clock.

While the center disk is made up of hundreds of tiny fertile yellow florets, the 20 or 30 white rays long ago gave up their part in reproduction. They have evolved to serve as landing pads and as decorations to lure in pollen-bearing insects. A gardener once observed, "Because daisies are among the most conspicuous of flowers and have facilitated...their visitors by offering them countless cups of refreshment...with a minimum loss of time, almost every insect on wings alights on them sooner or later." As a matter of fact, one tiny black centipede evidently lives on the flower heads, inserting its little body almost entirely into the nectar tubes to feast.

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