I am doing some research on daisies. I have had trouble finding out what Amaranth daisy (Pearly Everlasting) looks like, and how to differentiate it from other daisies.
Pearly Everlasting is Anaphalis margaritacea, which is in the plant family Compositae (also called Asteraceae), according to David Mabberley’s The Plant-Book (Cambridge University Press, 1997). Below are links to images and information about this plant.
- USDA Plants Profile
- Wikipedia
- Connecticut Botanical Society
- Arthur Lee Jacobson, local plant expert.
The problem with common names like ‘daisy’ is that they may refer to a large number of different plants. ‘Daisy’ can refer to Bellis perennis, Gerbera jamesonii, Olearia species, Chrysanthemum coronarium, Felicia bergeriana, Leucanthemum vulgare, and many other disparate plants.
Below are web links to sites which may help you with plant identification. There are also many good books on the subject, and an excellent starting place is Roger Phillips and Martin Rix’s The Botanical Garden (Firefly Books, 2002).
- Burke Museum Herbarium: search by plant family, genus, or individual plant name