PERUVIAN DAISY 



Galinsoga ciliata (Raf. ) Blake 



June - September Somehow, in some way, a long time ago, a little 



Gardens, waste places annual plant named Peruvian daisy came from 



Chile to the eastern half of the United States. 

 It is a small and insio-nifieant plant to have traveled so far, and it prob- 

 ably is unknown exactly how it came. It is believed, however, to have come 

 from Chile to Europe, and thence to the United States. 



There it is, the little Peruvian daisy with its tiny white flowers, 

 growing as a low weed in waste places and gardens and along ponds. The 

 plant is weak and densely hairy, with many-branched stems and pairs 

 of rough, toothed, three-nerved leaves. At the tops of the stems are groups 

 of small Composite flowers — five tiny white three-toothed, petal-like rays 

 around a tight yellow center. 



There it is, in dooryards and along weedy roads and in city dumps, 

 an inconspicuous little white-flowered Composite. But it is still a creature 

 of minor mystery. The question of its journeys is still unanswered : when 

 and how did Galinsoga, named for an eminent Spanish botanist, find 

 its way from its original home in Chile or Peru, to Euroi)ean waysides, 

 and then back to the New World, for miles north of its old haunt? 



Still another story in the ])ast few yeai's has been added to lore of 

 Galinsoga. After the bombing of T.iondon (hiring World War II, several 

 plants appeared in great numbers in bombed-out ruins and burned areas. 

 One was a fireweed, and another was Galinsoga. Someone was curious 

 about where this little plant had come from in such sudden abundance, 

 and what its name might be. The word "Galinsoga^' wa.^ colloquialized 

 into "Gallant Soldiers", and today in England it still retains that war- 

 boni name in memory of other gallant soldiers in the Battle of Britain. 



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