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Flora Emslandia - Plants in Emsland (northwestern Germany)

Anthemis

Anthemis L.: In Pliny and Dioscorides  Anthemis includes also the present genus Matricaria. The term is a combination of gr. Anthos (flower) and Artemis (Greek goddess of hunting, of the forests and patron goddess of women and children). Linnaeus in 1753 used  the traditional name for the genus described here, while the chamomile he called Matricaria.

Comprising about 100 species, the genus is originally native only in Europe, Southwest Asia and North Africa. It was spread all over the world with Anthemis arvensis and A. tinctoria.

Anthemis species are annual, biennial or perennial herbaceous plants, or half-shrubs. The stalked or sessile leaves are mono- to tri-pinnate or lobed, rarely simple. They are arranged opposite.

The stalked, radiate heads are arranged in racemose corymbs or individually at the top of the stem. At the margin of the heads are arranged in a single row white, pink or yellow ray florets which are feminine, neutral or sterile. In the middle of the heads are mostly yellow, hermaphrodite disc florets. Ray florets rarely absent.

The 30-300 hermaphrodite florets consist of 5 fused petals that form a flattened, winged or basal inflated, 5-dentate tube and 5 stamens, whose anthers are connate into a tube. The inferior ovary is composed of 2 carpels. The flat, hemispherical or conical receptacle is covered completely or only in the inner part with rigid, filiform or oblong, membranous paleae.

The hemispherical or oval involucre consists of 3 to 5 rows of imbricated phyllaries which are narrow membranous-edged, entire or slashed at the edge, triangular or elongated. After insect pollination are formed elongated, flattened and ribbed achenes. The Pappus is absent or it is transformed into a small rim. Sometimes the fruits have a unilateral, or on the ventral side more developed crown.

Floral formula:

↓ K0 C(5) G(2) inferior and * K0 [C(5) A5(connate)] G(2) inferior

Historical informations

Dioscorides (1st century AD.) wrote that there were 3 Anthemis species, which would only differ in the flower color. They were yellow inside, and outside would be white, yellow or purple petals arranged in one circle. The stems were a span long, growing shrubby and would bear many small delicate leaves. This probably meant the chamomile (white), the golden marguerite (yellow) and Anthemis rosea (purple).

Pliny (about 23–79 AD.) mutatis mutandis reported the same and listed, as also Dioscorides, numerous healing effects. So it would help, for example, against liver disease, bladder stones, snake bites and bloating.

Leonhart Fuchs (1501–1566) cites in his chapter on chamomile Dioskurides, but suspects behind the purple species, however, the larkspur.

Meaning of the species name

• tinctoria: lat. tinctor = dyer

Interesting notes

• The golden marguerite contains among other dyes also luteolin, a substance named after Reseda luteola (dyer's rocket) which colours textiles yellow.

• Anthemis tinctoria ‘Alba’ is a white cultivar of the originally yellow golden marguerite.