Tanacetum


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Tanacetum L.

Asteraceae (Anthemideae tribe)


	Tanacetum parthenium: stem

Alternate trade names

feverfew, matricaria, chrysanthemum, tansy

Common names

feverfew, tansy

Species cultivated

Tanacetum parthenium (L.) Schultz-Bip. (=Chrysanthemum parthenium (L.) Bernh.; Matricaria capensis hort.) (feverfew)

T. vulgare L. (=C. vulgare (L.) Bernh.) (tansy)

possibly T. coccineum (Willd.) Brierson (painted daisy).

Origin

Europe to southwest Asia.

Brief characterization

Mostly aromatic plants with glabrous to densely hairy, usually deeply pinnatifid to pinnately or bi-pinnately dissected leaves; leaflets or lobes toothed or scalloped; upper stem leaves reduced, less dissected; corymbs bearing numerous, usually discoid, button-shaped heads, generally 1-2.5 cm across, of flowers (florets); phyllaries in 3-4 series, frequently with scarious margins; pappus a short crown.

Cultivar and/or species variation

Heads most often discoid, or with short ray florets; Tanacetum coccineum has long ray florets and heads to 8 cm across. Heads white, yellow, pale yellow, or bicolor yellow/white.

May be confused with

Dendranthema (florists' chrysanthemum), particularly the pom pon types, which are fully double heads in which the ray florets have been bred to be disc florets.

Differences between Tanacetum and Dendranthema:

Character	*Tanacetum*	*Dendranthema*
leaves	pinnatifid to pinnatisect	lobed to subpinnatifid
heads	usually discoid, sometimes radiate, sometimes with short ray florets	radiate to fully double with all ray florets
head diameter	usually small, to 2.5 cm	2.5 - 13 cm
phyllaries	in (2-)3-4 series	in 3 series
pappus	a short crown or very reduced	absent