Bellis

Bellis 

a genus of herbaceous, chiefly perennial plants (daisies) of the family Compositae. The leaves are scapular or obovate with a radical rosette. The raceme is composed of single calathides on short stems; the leaves on the sheaths are distichous and herbal. The edge flowers are monostichous pistillate, ligulate, and pink or white. The disk flowers are numerous monoecious yellow tubular blossoms.

There are ten or 15 species in Europe and Asia Minor; two species grow in the USSR. The true daisy (BeII is perennis) is cultivated in Transcarpathia, the Crimea, and Western Europe as a biennial decorative plant; it readily grows wild. There are numerous garden varieties, distinguished by size and the structure of the calathides, which may have only Ungulate or only tubular blossoms, and by coloration (ranging from white to deep red).