Dichrocephala integrifolia subsp. integrifolia

Bicolor Buttonhead is an annual herb, 15-60 cm tall; stem erect or spreading, usually divergingly branched. Leaves are usually obovate or ovate or lanceshaped, lateral lobes 1 or 2 pairs. Flower-heads are few, spherical, 3-6 mm across, on slender diverging flower-cluster-stalks. Involucral bracts are minute, linear, with scarious margins. Ray florets are pinkish or white. Flowers of disc florets are yellow, 4-toothed. Seedpods are about 1 mm long, smooth or minutely finely velvet-hairy. Bicolor Buttonhead is widespread in the tropical and subtropical regions regions of India, moist fallow lands, sometimes rising up up to 3000 m. It is found in Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, W. Bengal, Bihar, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Assam, Meghalaya, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. Flowering: All year.
Medicinal uses: Warning: Unverified information

When the aroma of the crushed flower heads is inhaled it induces sneezing and thus helps to reduce nasal congestion. The leaves are antiviral. Applied externally, the leaves are crushed and used to treat ulcers and swellings. The young shoots are applied as a poultice in treating blennorrhoea, leucorrhoea, and the stings or bites of insects, spiders or scorpions. The plant juice is used as a treatment against filariasis, it is used in treating malarial fevers and, when put in the nose, is used to treat sinusitis and migraine. The dried and powdered plant is applied as a dressing on old infected wounds. The juice of the plant is appled to cuts and wounds.