Pericallis × hybrida

Garden cineraria ( Pericallis hybrida )

The garden cineraria ( Pericallis hybrida ) or lice plant is a flowering plant in the sunflower family ( Asteraceae).

Description

The garden cineraria is an evergreen, perennial, herbaceous plant that reaches the heights of growth of mostly 15 to 40, rarely up to 60 centimeters. The leaf blade is dark green, triangular - cordate to ovate-lanceolate, 6-20 cm long and lobed serrated wide and sinuously up. In the upper leaves of the petiole is winged and has little ears on the ground up. Per twenty to over one hundred flower heads together form a semi-spherical and dense corymb having a diameter of about 2.5 centimeters. Nine to twelve florets available per head. These are blue, violet, purple, red, auburn, pink or white in color, but they can also be colored with a white background or be filled. The tubular flowers are the same color, but often darker. They can also be whitish or yellow.

The flowering period extends from March to May

Origin

The species probably comes from a cross between Peric cruenta ( Masson ex L' Hér. ) B.Nord. and Pericallis lanata (L' Hér. ) B.Nord. , both of which occur on the western Canary Islands in forests. These hybrids probably originated in culture.

Use

The garden cineraria is rarely used as an annual ornamental plant for summer flowerbeds. It is in culture at least since 1777. There are numerous varieties, such as 'Cinderella mixed'. It reaches a height of 20 centimeters and has a compact, globular inflorescence, the flowers have mixed colors. There are also types of paint.

Documents

• Corner Hardt J. Hunter, Friedrich Ebel, Peter Hanelt, Gerd Müller K. (ed.): Rothmaler - Excursion Flora of Germany. Volume 5: Herbaceous ornamental and useful plants. Spektrum Akademischer Verlag, Berlin Heidelberg 2008, ISBN 978-3-8274-0918-8, pp. 623-624.