OX-EYE DAISY
File Size: 61 KB
 
Leucanthemum vulgare  Lam.
[=Chrysanthemum leucanthemum L.]
Montgomery County, Kansas
Perennial
Height: 8-40 inches
Family: Asteraceae - Sunflower Family
Flowering Period:   May, June
Also Called: Marguerite, white daisy.
Stems: Erect, simple or few-branched, glabrous or lightly hairy.
Leaves: Alternate, mostly basal, pinnately lobed or incised; basal and lower stem leaves oblanceolate to narrowly egg-shaped, 1.6 to 4.8 inches long including stalk; margins with shallow, rounded teeth to lobed or cleft; upper leaves progressively smaller, becoming sessile, toothed to entire.
Inflorescences: Solitary heads or few at ends of branches, terminal; heads 1.2 to 2.4 inches across; stalks long, slender.
Flowers: Bracts narrow, overlapping in several series, margins brown; ray florets 15-35, 2/5 to 2/5 inch long, white, 3-toothed at tip; disk florets tubular, corollas yellow.
Fruits: Achene, less than 1/12 inch long, more or less 10-ribbed, pappus absent, enclosing small seed.
Habitat: Roadsides, waste areas, meadows, fields, prairies, and along railroads.
Distribution: Chiefly east 1/2 of Kansas.
Origin: Native of Europe and Asia. Escaped from cultivation and now naturalized in many areas.
Forage Value: Horses, sheep and goats will browse ox-eye daisy, but cattle avoid it due the bitter taste.
Uses: Native Americans brewed a tea of the dried flowers, stem and roots and used it as an eyewash and a wash for chapped hands. Ox-eye daisy and dandelion flowers were used to make wines and tonics.
Comments: Ox-eye daisy can be weedy. The disk florets bloom in succession from the edge of the disk to the center.

Ox-eye daisy florets
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Montgomery County, Kansas
Ox-eye daisy inflorescence
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Montgomery County, Kansas
Ox-eye daisy
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Montgomery County, Kansas
Ox-eye daisy leaf
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Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve, Chase County, Kansas
Ox-eye daisy
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Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve, Chase County, Kansas
Ox-eye daisy
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Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve, Chase County, Kansas
Ox-eye daisy
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Douglas County, Kansas
Ox-eye daisy florets
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Shawnee County, Kansas
Ox-eye daisy leaves
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Douglas County, Kansas
Ox-eye daisy leaves
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Chase County, Kansas