Garden Chrysanthemum (Chrysanthemum morifolium)

Chrysanthemum morifolium, commonly called the garden chrysanthemum, florist's daisy, fuji mum or hardy garden mum, is a hybrid perennial plant in the genus Chrysanthemum of the daisy family Asteraceae, standing thirty to ninety centimeters tall with lobed, deeply cut leaves that give off a strong scent when crushed. Its flowers range from simple daisy-like blooms to elaborate double pompoms in white, yellow, pink and purple. The plant has been documented in China since around 500 BC, initially valued in classical Chinese medicine before becoming an ornamental during the Jin and Tang dynasties around the fifth century AD, with more than five hundred named varieties recorded by 1630; European cultivation began in the mid-seventeenth century and spread widely during the nineteenth. Today an estimated twenty thousand to thirty thousand cultivars exist, grown both as a garden perennial and, especially in Japan, as a major commercial cut flower, with documented air-purifying properties adding to its popularity as a houseplant.