36. Daisy

Need to do a 2nd blog this week! It’s raining, I’ve done loads of other tasks, my cat is playing up (near his dinner time) and I need to write a blog else I will fall behind! But what to write about? I’ve been cooped up inside all day and indeed most of the week. I look out onto the sodden and water-logged front garden and there it is, poking through the grass in a forlorn hope of attracting a bee…

What: Daisy Bellis perennis L.

When: 21st February 2020 (although I’ve been seeing it for a few weeks)

Where: My front garden, Poynton, Cheshire (VC58), UK

Who saw it? Me (although my dad pointed this particular plant out to me last week)

How was it recorded? I haven’t but I recorded another individual for my New Year Plant Hunt (see post 3 [I think])

Is it bigger than a blackbird? No, it lives on a lawn, probably being trampled by blackbirds on a daily basis.

What is it? A daisy. Not much more to say, everyone knows what one is! They are probably the most familiar plant in the UK (and probably elsewhere in Europe), and have been introduced elsewhere outside of Europe. They have to be the flower everyone thinks of automatically when picturing a wildflower, and they must be the first flower that people learn the name of, probably well before school age. For those that don’t know, the daisy has white ‘petals’ (not strictly petals at all) and a bright yellow interior. They are mostly prostrate (ie: live close to the ground) and live on most short cut lawns as well as more wild short grassland. Whilst there are hundreds of species in the broader daisy family there can only be one actual daisy surely?

A fact I have learned about this species? One I already know but others may not; the yellow interior of a daisy flower is actually made up of many smaller individual flowers which together make up the whole ‘flower’ head (All members of the daisy family share this trait).

A visualisation: Look at a child’s drawing, there’ll be one there somewhere!

Is it charismatic in my opinion? I may be being controversial by saying no. They’re kind of just there aren’t they? I know they are probably the most well known plant in the country and kids play with them but still there are nicer lawn plants (dare I say a buttercup?). They look a bit like bedraggled ballet dancers in my opinion. But they are beloved by lots of people.