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Other Names
Life Form
Family
Food - Young leaves are consumed raw or cooked as a pot-herb and has a bitter flavour. Medicine - The bitter leaves have been used as a febrifuge. The plant is mixed with Swertia pedicellata and pounded to a paste thn applied to the forehead to treat headache
Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan
Thrives in disturbed areas like roadsides and wastelands.
It is annual to perennial herb with variable height ranging from 7-140 cm. Sparsely to densely covered in simple and forked hairs.
Stem is covered in simple and forked hairs. Few branches emerge from the main stem.
Leaves are few, have stalks, while upper leaves are stalkless. Leaf shapes vary from linear to narrow-oval or inverted lance-shaped, reaching up to 40 cm long and 3.5 cm wide. Leaf margins can be entire (smooth) or toothed.
Flowers are bright yellow, flower heads clustered loosely at the terminal ends (corymbs). Flower heads are small. Flower bracts (involucral bracts): Covered in simple and forked hairs.
Fruit is an achene (dry, single-seeded). Seeds are long and topped with a beak.
Flowering and Fruiting: June-October.