Ye Ju Hua

Chrysanthemum indicum, the wild or Indian chrysanthemum, is a perennial herb of the family Asteraceae, native to grassy slopes, roadsides, and forest margins across China, Korea, Japan, and parts of South and Southeast Asia. It grows 30 to 100 cm tall from short underground stolons, with erect, often branched stems bearing alternate, ovate, deeply pinnately lobed leaves with serrate margins that are softly grayish-pubescent beneath and aromatic when crushed. From late summer into autumn it produces numerous small composite flower heads 1 to 2.5 cm across, arranged in loose corymbose clusters; each head bears bright yellow ray florets surrounding a yellow disk, subtended by overlapping green involucral bracts. The flower heads are harvested at full bloom and dried for medicinal use, distinct from the larger, paler, cultivated heads of C. morifolium used as Ju Hua.