Indian chrysanthemum

Chrysanthemum indicum, the wild or Indian chrysanthemum, is an aromatic perennial herb (sometimes a subshrub) in the daisy family (Asteraceae). It grows roughly 25 to 100 cm tall from a thick, branched rhizome bearing long or short underground stolons. The stems are erect and branching, carrying alternate leaves that are ovate in outline and pinnately lobed or coarsely serrate. The yellow flower heads, 1 to 2.5 cm across, are borne solitarily or in loose corymbs; each head combines a central disc of tubular florets with a ring of short ray florets. Flowering occurs from late summer into autumn. Native to East Asia, including China, Japan, Korea and Taiwan, it occurs as a common weedy plant of grasslands, thickets, riverbanks, fields, roadsides and even saline coasts, ranging from near sea level to about 2,900 metres elevation. It is the botanical source of the medicinal flower distinct from the cultivated florist's chrysanthemum, Chrysanthemum morifolium.