Daisy is a name given to many flowers. The name comes from the Old English words for day’s eye. It refers to the fact that daisy blossoms, like an eye, close at night and open at dawn. Daisy blossoms actually consist of many small flowers of two types—tiny disk flowers in the center and petallike ray flowers around the edge.
Many daisies have yellow disk flowers and white or yellow rays. The oxeye daisy or white daisy is the most common wild daisy in North America. It originally came from Europe and western Asia. The oxeye daisy grows in fields and on roadsides. It grows up to 3 feet (1 meter) tall, with blossoms up to 2 inches (5 centimeters) across.
The Shasta daisy is a popular cultivated daisy. The famous American horticulturist Luther Burbank developed it. The Shasta daisy is a large, sturdy plant that grows over 3 feet (1 meter) tall, with blossoms that measure as much as 4 inches (10 centimeters) across.
The English daisy or lawn daisy is another daisy that is grown by gardeners. Its leaves are bunched at the bottom of the stem, leaving the stalk naked. The blossom consists of yellow disk flowers and white, pink, red, or purplish rays. English daisies rarely grow over 6 inches (15 centimeters) tall. The blossoms measure nearly 2 inches (5 centimeters) across.
See also Black-eyed Susan.
