Introduced. Perennial. Propagates by seeds.

Time of bloom: June to September.

Seed-time: July to October.

Range: Atlantic States from Maine to Maryland; locally in some interior states. Habitat: Fields, roadsides, and waste places.

An escape from gardens, where it was formerly cultivated for its beauty and for its medicinal qualities, being used as a bitter tonic. It is a persistent weed wherever established, as grazing animals will not touch it and it is left to propagate itself.

Stem one to three feet in height, erect, slender, finely hairy, with a few branches held nearly upright. Leaves also finely hairy, alternate, one to four inches long, pinnate, the oblong segments narrow, pointed, and sharply toothed. Heads terminal, rather few, more than an inch broad, on long, slender peduncles. Both disk-florets and rays are yellow, the latter numbering twenty to thirty, usually two-toothed, pistillate, and fertile; disk-florets perfect and of a darker yellow; bracts of the involucre oblong, obtuse, densely hairy with scarious margins. Achenes four-angled and somewhat flattened, crowned with a narrow border. They are becoming much too common as an impurity of grass and clover seeds. (Fig. 341.)

Fig. 341. -Yellow Chamomile (Anthemis tinctoria). X 1/3.

Means Of Control

Frequent cutting close to the ground, throughout the growing season, will prevent seeding and will starve the perennial roots. New infestations, if areas are not too large, should be promptly hand-pulled as soon as observed.