How The Chrysanthemum Lost Its Name

-And Got It Back Again!

For all the glory of being Confucius favorite flower, Chrysanthemum has surely
had a tough time of it. Brought into cultivation before 1000 BC, adopted as the
national flower of Japan in 910, this plant has always been known as yellow
flower krysantemum in Scandinavian languages, chrysantemo in Portuguese,
Spanish and Italian, chrysanthme in French, and, in English, German and Dutch
Chrysanthemum. Then, suddenly in 1961, its name was changed to
Dendranthema. Dendra what? Heres what happened.
Chrysanthemums were brought to Europe in the late 1600s and soon caught the
attention of Carl Linnaeus, the Swedish botanist who developed the scientific system of
naming plants. He thought the flower of this Asian plant was similar to a corn marigold, a small
wildflower of Southern Europe. Because the scientific name of this wildflower is Chrysanthemum
coronarium, our garden mum was also called Chrysanthemum. It was given a different, specific name and
became Chrysanthemum indicum. Other plants, too, were similar to this European wildflower. Feverfew
was named Chrysanthemum parthenium, tansy became Chrysanthemum vulgare and Shasta daisy was
called Chrysanthemum x superbum. Among these plants, the corn marigold was considered to be the
epitome of Chrysanthemum-ness, the standard to which all others were compared.
In the 250 years since the garden mum became Chrysanthemum indicum, our knowledge of plant
structure and relationships has grown considerably. In 1961 Russian botanist Nickolae Tzvelev took
another look at corn marigold, mums, Shasta daisies and others and decided they werent quite as similar
as once thought. Many of the Chrysanthemums were given different names. Because the corn marigold
from Europe was the original Chrysanthemum, it retained that name. Shasta daisy became
Leucanthemum x superbum, feverfew became Tanacetum parthenium and our popular garden mum
became Dendranthema x grandiflorum.
Things sat quietly for several years. Only the Dutch, mum producers extraordinaire, adopted the new
name. Their publications increasingly referred to the mum as Dendranthema; everyone else still called it
Chrysanthemum. Clearly, such a situation could lead to confusion, if not downright hostility. In 1995 a
formal proposal was made to the International Botanical Congress, the ruling body that determines
scientific plant names. If the plant which defines the essence of Chrysanthemum-ness could be changed
from the corn marigold to the garden chrysanthemum, everyone would be satisfied and we could go back
to calling a chrysanthemum a Chrysanthemum.
The International Botanical Congress did indeed rule that the garden mum should return to its original
name Chrysanthemum. In a few years, we hope, no one will even remember that the lovely
Chrysanthemum lost its name - and then got it back again.

References:
Brummitt, Dick, 1997. Chrysanthemum Once Again. The Garden, pg 662-663
Gollnow, Bettina, 1980. A history of the cultivated Chrysanthemum. J. Australian Inst. Hort. V.3 pg 914.

Information Prepared by:

Mary Welch-Keesey
Purdue Consumer Horticulture Specialist
Dick Crum Resource Center
(317) 630-3257
mwelch@indyzoo.com