Bellis perennis L., Daisy

Account Summary

Extremely familiar and arguably the best known flowering plant in B & I, Bellis perennis is a rosette-forming, polycarpic, wintergreen, dwarf perennial arising from a long or short, stout, firm, fleshy rootstock. Observation suggests that at lower altitudes and in sheltered sites daisies can probably grow all year round. B. perennis is also found flowering all year round, but the role of seed in its spread and population maintenance, compared to a steady, lateral diffusion through the vegetative growth of its horizontally spreading stolons, has not been quantified. The abundance of this very common and incredibly widespread species is probably due to human activities and the current pattern of land use. It is strongly associated with base-rich soil conditions of pH>5.5 and is most frequent and abundant on near-neutral substrates in the pH range 7.0-8.0 (Grime et al. 1988, 2007).

Daisies are extremely widespread in fertile grassland, but are restricted to places where the height of the vegetation is restricted by moderate levels of use or disturbance, including grazing and mowing. They are most frequently encountered as extensive clonal patches of appressed, rosette leaves in regularly mown, heavily grazed or much trampled and compacted, poorly drained grassland, where these pressures provide short turf grass less than c 10 cm tall, and bare soil surfaces for seed and genet colonisation. Such conditions regularly occur near or around field gates and close to farm or other buildings, plus on stream banks, trampled wayside verges and in regularly mown lawns and playing fields. The species is also sparse to abundant where there is not much competition on disturbed waste ground, rocky outcrops, seasonally wet margins of water bodies and around flushes on upland, grassy heaths and moors. It can be very abundant in damp clay, heavily trampled sheep pastures. It is also often present and sometimes abundant on fixed grey dune coastal grasslands, especially when these are heavily grazed by sheep and/or rabbits and also along trampled dune grass paths (Grime et al. 1988, 2007; Crawley 2005). The leaves are often carried flat to the ground, making them more inaccessible to grazing animals, but they also contain acrid substances that deter both cattle and insect browsing (Grieve 1931).

On the other hand, it is very restricted or absent from shaded situations, including woodland and in tall-herb vegetation in both of which it cannot compete, and from very heavily disturbed, or very acid, or permanently wet, marshy or boggy ground (Sinker et al. 1985; Grime et al. 1988, 2007; Crawley 2005).

Variation

B. perennis is phenotypically very variable with respect to environmental growing conditions, most familiarly and most obviously with respect to grazing or mowing, when the leaf rosette often becomes absolutely flat to the soil surface. While daisy flowers usually have just one row of ray florets, there is a flore pleno (double flower) tendency in the genus so that flowers in lawns have been observed with two rows, but they can have between 1.5-4.5 rows of ligulate florets. It can be difficult to count the number of rows of ligulate florets as diagonal stacking and partial overlaps of ligules occurs, so it is possibly better to count the insertion points of ligulate florets on the receptacle to obtain an accurate figure of ligulate floret rows (Oliver 1996a).

The wild daisy has also been taken into horticulture and been 'improved' since at least the 15th century (Everard et al. 1970) to produce large, rather monstrous looking, red- or white-petalled, 'double' varieties, each flowerhead of which possesses dozens, if not hundreds of ligulate petals. One form, sometimes referred to as a 'Hen-and-chickens-variety', has a large central flowerhead surrounded by a number of smaller flowerheads, a sort of 'Childing daisy' or 'Mother-of-thousands' feature (Vickery 2019). The Royal Horticultural Society index of garden plants lists a total of twelve cultivars, one of which named 'Prolifera' is the Hen-and-chickens-variety just mentioned (Griffiths 1994).

Flowering reproduction

Daisy plants vary greatly in many respects depending on growing conditions, but flowerheads, which can develop all year round and extremely rapidly in spring and summer, indeed, even between mowings on garden lawns, reach their peak production between April and June. Each flowerhead, borne on a leafless, hairy scape, is subtended by narrow, dark green bracts in two rows and looking like a calyx of sepals. Each flowerhead, measuring between 14-30 mm in diameter, contains around 125 florets, the outer white ray-florets, often tinged with pink and looking like petals, being entirely female, while the yellow central disc-florets are tubular and bisexual. Hull (1961) found that the number of florets per flowerhead, and hence the size of the head, was largely determined by the environment, and that no subdivision of the species could be made on the basis of the number of bracts, or the number of disc-florets and ray-florets, although the variation in these numbers was wide (14-152 disc; 18-59 ray-florets). The florets are obviously evolved for insect pollination and are visited by many types of small insects, but should this pollination and fertilisation method fail to occur, they are also self-compatible and may self-fertilise (Warwick & Briggs 1979). The flowerheads close up at night and also in dull, overcast weather, the ligulate ray-florets bending across the central disc (Hutchinson 1972).

The average Daisy plant produces around 1,300 shortly hairy achenes, 1.5 × 1.0 mm, compressed and black in colour. They lack a pappus and are thus incapable of wind dispersal (Butcher 1961). Instead, the achenes are dispersed in mud, adhering to passing traffic both animal and mechanical (Salisbury 1942, 1964). Germination occurs in both autumn and spring, viability ranging from 35-98%.

Reports differ as to whether or not B. perennis possesses a persistent soil seed bank (Grime et al. 1988, 2007). This is confirmed by the survey of soil seed banks in NW Europe which contains no less than 47 estimates for B. perennis: of these results, 16 regard the seed as transient (surviving for less than one year), 15 consider it short-term persistent (surviving one to five years), six estimates believe it is long-term persistent (surviving at least five years) and ten studies recognised seed was present in soil but could not assign it to one of the three other categories (Thompson et al. 1997).

The established strategy of B. perennis is categorised as R/CSR, meaning it is intermediate between a straight Ruderal species and one that is a balanced mix of all three strategies, Competitor, Stress-tolerator and Ruderal (Grime et al. 1988, 2007). The latter authors also consider that the abundance of the species in B & I is due to a combination of human activities and the current pattern of land use.

Fermanagh occurrence

In Fermanagh, B. perennis has been recorded in 444 tetrads, 84.1% of those in the VC. It ranks as the 64th most frequently recorded species and is the 34th most widespread species in the VC.

Fossil history

Considering its frequency and extremely widespread current distribution, B. perennis is very poorly represented in the fossil record of B & I; the only definite item is a Flandrian zone 8 fruit from mediaeval Dublin (this interglacial is referred to as the 'Littletonian' in Ireland) (Godwin 1975, p. 343). However, the achenes, while produced very abundantly, are extremely small, black and are very unlikely to occur in sizeable numbers in situations where preservation in sediment is favoured. They are, therefore, unsurprisingly extremely rare or almost totally absent in the sediment fossil record.

However, it seems relevant and important to remember that the species is closely associated with man and his working and disturbing of the landscape, thus, while we should not assume the species is native, it might be worthwhile to try looking for supporting evidence to make a case one way or the other regarding the status of this often ruderal, very familiar plant.

British and Irish occurrence

The BSBI's New Atlas and Atlas 2020 hectad maps indicate that B. perennis is almost ubiquitous throughout both islands, but the large scale (10-km square) mapping unit being used masks the fact that the species is often rare, uncommon or absent at smaller scales in many types of habitat, including grasslands, woodlands, wetlands and very acid soils. It is most frequent, and sometimes abundant, in lawns and playing fields and generally around buildings, especially farm buildings and gateways, indicating and emphasising its ruderal tendencies (Crawley 2005). The pattern of occurrence definitely indicates that human activities favour the growth, reproduction and dispersal of the species and there are many reports of medicinal uses and folklore, further highlighting human interaction with the species.

European and world occurrence

A very variable species, B. perennis is considered native in W, C & S Europe and adjacent parts of W Asia. It has spread northwards beyond its supposed native range, introduced as both a cultivated ornamental and as a medicinal plant, and escaped or discarded from gardens. It has also been introduced for the same reasons in N America and numerous scattered places across the globe, including S America, New Zealand and the Falkland Isles (Hultén & Fries 1986, Map 1766).

Uses

The flowers and leaves yield small amounts of oil and ammoniacal salts and although the leaves taste quite acrid, it has been used in some countries as an edible pot-herb. The main use has been in herbal medicine, however, and it previously had a reputation and was valued for treating flesh wounds and burns. In the 14th century, Daisy was an ingredient of an ointment widely used for wounds, gout and fevers (Grieve 1931). By Gerard's time, B. perennis, referred to as 'Bruisewort', was regarded as an unfailing remedy for, "all kinds of paines and aches", as well as suitable for curing fevers, inflammation of the liver and "alle the inwarde parts" (Gerard 1597, 1633; Grieve 1931). Other uses included for treating eye ailments, coughs and colds, headache and boils or other defects of skin such as ringworm, chilblains and 'blasts', ie facial swellings (Allen & Hatfield 2004).

Names and folklore

The genus name 'Bellis' is a name of some plant in Pliny, possibly derived from the Latin 'bellus', meaning 'pretty' (Gilbert-Carter 1964; Gledhill 1985). The Latin specific epithet 'perennis' is derived from 'perennans', meaning 'through the years' or 'continuing' (Gledhill 1985).

Bellis perennis has 36 English common names listed in Grigson (1955, 1987), ranging from 'Baby's Pet' and 'Bairnwort', through 'Eye of day', or 'Day-eye', derived from the Old English 'daeges-eage', to 'Little Star' and 'White frills'.

Vickery (2019) list an even greater number of English common names, around 50, including the very widespread 'Dog-daisy'.

In folklore, Daisies were widely considered a harbinger of spring, and an associated New Year's Day custom in the Irish Munster region involved children competing to discover the first daisy of the year for the reward of a penny (Vickery 2019). Daisies, including Ox-eye Daisies, were commonly used in love divination, plucking petals (technically ray-florets) off one by one and repeatedly asking, "He loves me, he loves me not" until the last 'petal' gives the answer to the question. Children also made daisy chains by splitting the scape or stalk of the daisy flowerhead and inserting a second daisy stalk through the slit. Daisies were also associated with annual 'Empire Day' celebrations, held at schools on 24th May (Queen Victoria's birthday), in the years between 1903 and 1954. Lessons were excused and pupils gathered outside to sing patriotic anthems, girls wearing daisy chains or daisy buttonholes with flowers they had gone collecting locally in parks and larger gardens (Vickery 2019).

Threats

Daisies could well continue to increase in suitable sites in B & I and they could then competitively threaten other species of similar, disturbed habitats, such as Prunella vulgaris (Selfheal) and Trifolium repens (White Clover).

References

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