MATRICARIA CHAMOMILLA

Family:- COMPOSITAE

Common Names:- Scented mayweed

Synonyms:- Chamaemelum chamomilla, Chamomilla chamomilla,

Chamomilla officinalis, Chrysanthemum chamomilla.

Meaning:- Matricaria (L) Of-the-womb, for it's former medicinal use in the

treatment of uterine infections.

Chamomilla (G) Apple-of-the-ground. A name used by the Greek

physician and botanist Dioscorides for a plant smelling of apples.

General description:- Hairless annual, usuall branched from the base.

Stems:-

1) Ascending 10-40 cm.

Leaves:-

1) 2- or 3-pinnatisect into linear segments.

Flowers:-

1) Capitula solitary on long, slender peduncles.

2) Involucre c.3 mm broadly campanulate.

3) Phyllaries oblong-elliptical, obtuse, with pale paper-like margins.

4) Receptacle conical, without scales, obtuse.

5) Ligules 4-8 mm, white, soon deflexed.

6) Disc florets tubular, 5-lobed, yellow.

Fruit:-

1) Achenes c.1mm, pale greyish-brown, with 4-5 ribs on the ventral face.

2) Pappus usually very small or absent, but sometimes, especially in achenes of

the ligulate florets, a conspicuous, irregularly toothed auricle, as long as or

longer than the achene.

Key features:-

1) Involucre c. 3 mm.

2) Ligules white 4-8 mm.

3) Florets 5-lobed.

Click here for a glossary of terms used.

Habitat:- Cultivated and fallow fields, wasteground, gravelly roadsides, coastal

habitats. 0 800 m.

Distribution:- Common throughout Greece. - Most of Europe and SW Asia; widely

naturalised elsewhere the Mediterranean. Somewhat sparsely scattered across

Crete.

Flowering time:- Apr-May sometimes later.

Photos by:- Kind permission of Saxifraga - Free Nature Images.