Wild chrysanthemum (scientific name: dendranthema indicum) is a perennial herb of the Asteraceae family, the head-like inflorescence of the wild chrysanthemum is similar in appearance to the chrysanthemum, spherical in shape, 0.3 to 1 cm in diameter, brownish yellow. The total bracts consist of 4 to 5 layers of bracts. Tongue-shaped flowers are rounded, yellow, wrinkled and curly; tubular flowers are mostly dark yellow. Light body. Bitter, spicy, slightly cold. It is wild in wild areas such as hillside meadows, fields, and roadsides. It is better to have yellow without stems, complete, bitter, and flowers that have not fully bloomed.
Wild chrysanthemums prefer cool and humid climates and are hardy. It is advisable to cultivate loam soil with deep soil layer, loose and fertile soil rich in humus. It grows in hillside meadows, shrublands, riverside wetlands, seaside salted lands, fields, and roadsides.
Wild chrysanthemum is a multi-type species with many ecological, geographical or eco-geographical populations, showing great diversity in posture, leaf shape, leaf inflorescence, umbel inflorescence pattern, and stem and leaf hair infestation. Wild chrysanthemums on coastal salted soils in Shandong and Hebei are all dwarf, dwarf-shaped, and have thick leaves, which are destined to be a coastal ecological type; wild chrysanthemums in Lushan, Jiangxi, show that there are more hairy quilts under the leaves; among the wild chrysanthemums in Nanjing, Jiangsu and Zhejiang, there is a type of leaf that becomes olive-colored after drying.
Wild chrysanthemums are perennial herbs, 0.25–1 m tall, with long or short creeping stems underground. The stems are erect or spread out, branched or branched only at the top of the stems with umbel-like inflorescences. The stems are sparsely hairy , and the upper parts and inflorescence branches are slightly or more hairy. The basal and lower leaves fall off at the flowering stage. The central stem leaves are ovate, oblong-ovate, or oval-ovate, 3–7 (10) cm long and 2–4 (7) cm wide, pinnate semi-lobed, shallow or inconspicuously split and shallowly serrated at the edges.
The base of the wild chrysanthemum is truncated or slightly heart-shaped or broadly wedge-shaped, the petiole is 1–2 cm long, and the base of the stalk is earless or has split ear ears. The same or several colors on both sides, pale green, or dried on both sides into olive, with sparse short soft hairs, or slightly more hairs underneath. The cephalic inflorescences are 1.5–2.5 cm in diameter and mostly loose umbel conical inflorescences at the tips of the stems or, in a few, at the top of the stems. The total bracts are about 5 layers, the outer layer is ovate or ovate triangular, 2.5-3 mm long, the middle layer is ovate, and the inner layer is oblong-oval, 11 mm long. All bracts are broadly membranous with white or brown edges and blunt or rounded apexes. The tongue-like flowers are yellow, the tongue is 10–13 mm long, and the apex is fully margined or 2–3 teeth. The lean fruit is 1.5-1.8 mm long. Flowering period is from June to November.