ANTHEMIS COTULA

Family and Genus:- See- COMPOSITAE

Common Names:- Stinking Chamomile; Stinking Mayweed.

Homotypic synonyms:- Anthemis foetida; Chamaemelum cotula; Maruta cotula; Maruta foetida; Matricaria cotula.

Meaning:- Anthemis. From Greek anthemon, “flower”.
                  Cotula. A classical plant name, traditionally applied to a small chamomile-like plant.

General description:- A strongly foetid annual or biennial with finely divided leaves
and solitary daisy-like capitula with white ray florets and yellow disc florets. An archaeophyte in Great Britain.

Stems:-
1) Usually 5-60 cm high, erect or ascending, commonly much branched from the
    base, striate and almost glabrous to moderately hairy, especially above.

Leaves:-
1) Basal and lower cauline, alternate, sessile to shortly petiolate, ovate to obovate-
    oblong in outline, usually 2-3-pinnatisect into narrow linear ultimate segments.
2) Upper cauline, alternate, sessile, progressively smaller and less divided towards
    the capitula.

Flowers:-
1) Capitula, solitary, terminal, radiate, usually about 12-30 mm across, borne on
    slender peduncles.
2) Phyllaries, ovate-oblong, about 3-4 mm long, whitish-hairy, with narrow scarious
    margins and obtuse apices.
3) Receptacle, becoming oblong-conical, with paleae confined chiefly to the upper
    half.
4) Paleae, linear-subulate, bristly and persistent.
5) Ray florets, female but sterile, usually 14-16; ligules white, oblong-elliptic and
    becoming reflexed.
6) Disc florets, bisexual and fertile, numerous, yellow and tubular with 5 lobes.
7) Stamens, 5 in each disc floret, with anthers united into a tube around the style.
8) Styles, bifid at the apex.
9) Ovary, inferior, unilocular, with a single ovule.

Fruit:-
1) Cypsela, subcylindrical to turbinate, about 1-1.5 mm long, light brown, obscurely
    8-10-ribbed and tuberculate.
2) Pappus, absent or reduced to a very low crenulate rim.

Distinguishing features:-
Distinguished from Corn Chamomile by its strong unpleasant smell and by the paleae being confined chiefly to the upper part of the receptacle. Corn Chamomile is not strongly foetid and has paleae extending over most or all of the receptacle.

Flowering time:- June to September.

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Toxicity:- Can cause skin irritation or allergic contact dermatitis in susceptible people; ingestion is not recommended.

Habitat:- Arable fields, farmyards, gateways, waste ground, roadsides and other nutrient-rich disturbed soils.

Distribution:- An archaeophyte in Great Britain and Ireland. Its native range extends from Madeira and Europe through the Mediterranean region to Iran.

Conservation status:- Not assigned a native GB threat category.

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