Nature · Wildflowers & flowers

Ox-eye daisy

Flowers June to September

Leucanthemum vulgare — Asteraceae

The ox-eye daisy is the big white daisy of road verges, meadows and railway banks — a single large head on a tall unbranched stem, looking like a common lawn daisy magnified. Its pale flowers catch the last of the light, which earned it the names moon daisy and moonpenny. Like every composite, its "flower" is a crowd: a disc of tiny yellow florets ringed by white ray florets that most people call petals.

How to spot them

▸One large head, 3–5 cm across, on a single tall stem to about 60 cm — never in a lawn-daisy rosette
▸White ray florets round a flat golden disc; the disc is not domed
▸Spoon-shaped, coarsely toothed leaves at the base; narrow, jagged, clasping leaves up the stem
▸Unimproved grassland, verges, embankments and coastal cliffs, June to September
▸Glows at dusk — hence moon daisy and moonpenny

How to know it

One large white head on a single tall unbranched stem, with spoon-shaped basal leaves and jagged clasping stem leaves

Ox-eye daisy — Leucanthemum vulgare.

Called moon daisy and moonpenny because its pale heads seem to glow at dusk

Ox-eye daisy.

What look like its petals are ray florets, ringing a disc of tiny yellow florets — the classic Asteraceae trick

Ox-eye daisy.

Its genus name simply means 'white flower'; it was long placed in Chrysanthemum

Leucanthemum vulgare — the ox-eye daisy.

The flower of the game 'he loves me, he loves me not', and the parent of the garden Shasta daisy

Ox-eye daisy — crossed by Luther Burbank to make Leucanthemum × superbum.

A grassland native here, it is a serious invasive weed of pasture in New Zealand and parts of North America

Ox-eye daisy.

Its leaves are undivided and coarsely toothed, which separates it from the feathery-leaved mayweeds and chamomiles it grows beside

Ox-eye daisy — the largest British wild daisy.

Quick-fire facts

•Family Asteraceae; Leucanthemum means 'white flower', from Greek leukos and anthemon; formerly Chrysanthemum leucanthemum
•The Wildlife Trusts give a height of up to 60 cm and a flowering season of July to September; it is often out from June
•Country names include moon daisy, moonpenny, dog daisy, marguerite and maudlinwort
•The garden Shasta daisy, Leucanthemum × superbum, was raised by Luther Burbank from crosses involving this species
•'Daisy' derives from Old English daeges eage, day's eye, because daisy heads open in the morning and close at night
•Introduced to North America, Australia and New Zealand, where it is a declared weed of pasture in places
•A key nectar source in hay meadows, visited by hoverflies, beetles, bees and butterflies
•Distinguished from the scentless mayweed and corn chamomile by its undivided, toothed leaves — theirs are feathery

Drill it — 8 cards

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Sources

The Wildlife Trusts — Oxeye daisy