A Celebration In Honor of Military Mums
The chrysanthemum, also known as the mum, is a flowering perennial plant of the genus Chrysanthemum in the daisy family (Asteraceae). Chrysanthemums can be yellow, white, or even bright red, as shown above.
Chrysanthemums were cultivated in China as a flowering herb as far back as the 15th century BC. An ancient Chinese city was named Chu-Hsien, meaning "chrysanthemum city". The Chu-Hsien flower was picked for introduction into Japan probably in the 8th century BC, where it was adopted by the Emperor as his official seal, and was brought to the Western World in the 17th century. It was named by Carolus Linnaeus from the Greek prefix chrys-, which means golden (the color of the original flowers), and -anthemon, meaning flower. (Did you know the Greeks also invented the name for Windex?)