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Join us on a journey to discover the Daisy – from fun facts to folklore!
Everyone knows the Daisy. It’s a common wildflower that can be found in almost all temperate regions of the world, although is only native to temperate Europe.
The Daisy sometimes forms a sea of white flowers over our lawns. It’s easily recognised, but often overlooked and underrated.
But this small unassuming wildflower is much more than just a pretty blossom, it has an impressive history, fabulous folklore and plays an important role for other wildlife!
Join us on a journey to discover the Daisy.
From March until September, the Daisy can be spotted popping out of lawns and other short grassland from road verges to meadows.
Each flower has a rosette of small, thin white petals surrounding a bright yellow centre. These are supported by a single stem which grows from a group of dark green rounded leaves. But did you know that the delicate Daisy isn’t just one flower? It’s actually over 100 flowers! Each of the ray florets (which appear as white petals) is an individual flower, and the disc florets (which appear as the yellow centre) are hundreds more tiny flowers.
Find out more about the Daisy here.
The Daisy is such a common sight that it can often go unappreciated, but it’s actually incredibly important. The humble Daisy helps support a wide range of wildlife. They provide pollen to bees, hoverflies, butterflies, beetles and moths. But it’s not just pollen, the plants themselves provide food to larvae, snails, caterpillars and rabbits and dried Daisy heads are sometimes enjoyed by foraging birds such as Finches. Given their long bloom time they are a vital resource to wildlife at times when not much else is in flower.
It might not be a surprise that the Daisy has been around for thousands of years, but did you know that their history intertwines with ours for millennia as well?
Evidence shows the Daisy was being grown in gardens in ancient Egypt, and was used back then to treat a number of health concerns from coughs to pain. Roman soldiers collected daisies to heal wounds, so much so that it was often called ‘woundwort’ or ‘bruisewort’. Throughout history the tiny wildflower has had a number of uses from medicinal to culinary. Today they are still being used, and are a popular ingredient in skincare thanks to their anti-inflammatory properties.
The Daisy is often seen to symbolise innocence and love and can be found in folklore from around the world, and throughout the ages.
In Norse mythology, the Daisy was the sacred flower of Freyja, the goddess of love and fertility – this in turn made them a symbol of motherhood.
A tale from Roman folklore follows the story of Belides, a nymph who turned herself into a Daisy to avoid the advances of the god of seasons, Vertumnus.
In Celtic folklore it is said that when a child passed away, God would scatter daisies over the land, and the white flowers came to symbolise their pure spirits.
So the next time you spot a Daisy, imagine them growing in gardens bordering the Nile, or being picked by an injured Roman soldier. Think of the nymph Belides, or the grieving Celtic parents comforted by it’s bloom.
This wonderful wildflower is so much more than meets the eye!
Why not visit our species page here, to learn more about other wonderful wildflowers.
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