9. Leucanthemum Miller, Gard. Dict. Abr., ed. 4. 1754; DC., Prodr. 6: 45. 1837 – pro parte; Tzvelev. in Schischk. & Bobrov, Fl. USSR 26: 136. 2000 (Engl. transl.); K.Bremer & Humphries in Bull. Nat. Hist. Mus. Lond. (Bot.) 23 (2): 141. 1993; K.Bremer, Asteraceae 468. 1994.
Chrysanthemum sect. Leucanthemum (Miller) B. Fedtsch., Rast. Turk. 737. 1915; C. sect. Pyrethrum subsect. Leucanthemum (Miller) Kitam. in Acta Phyt. et Geobot. 4: 37. 1935 – pro parte.
Perennial, rarely annual herbs, with reddish-tipped roots. Leaves alternate, entire, serrate, pinnatifid. Capitula radiate or discoid, pedunculate, solitary or 2-6 in lax corymbs, terminal. Involucre saucer-shaped, 3-4-seriate, phyllaries herbaceous, outer narrowly and inner broadly membranous-margined. Receptacle convex, distinctly alveolate, without paleae. Ray-florets, when present, mostly uniseriate, female, fertile, with white, pink or occasionally yellow ligules. Disc-florets and marginal florets, when-ray-florets absent, bisexual, with 5-lobed, basally spongy and swollen in fruit, yellow, corolla tube. Anthers on apically thickened filaments, unappendaged at the base, with lanceolate-ovoid apical appendages. Cypselas heteromorphic, ± terete, prominently 8-10-ribbed, ribs with mucilaginous cells, vellecular secretory canals present between the ribs. Pappus a corona or an adaxial auricle, occasionally rudimentary or absent.
A genus of 33 species (K.Bremer, l.c.), distributed throughout Europe but concentrated in Central and Southern parts; 1 species in North Africa (Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia). Represented in our area by the following ornamental species.
