MariaDB [test]> insert into t set t=now();
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.03 sec)

MariaDB [test]> insert into t set t=date(now());
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.02 sec)

MariaDB [test]> select * from t;
+---------------------+
| t                   |
+---------------------+
| 2011-12-06 15:19:27 |
| 2011-12-06 00:00:00 |
+---------------------+
2 rows in set (0.00 sec)