Blumea virens - Green Knob-Bush

Green Knob-Bush us a herb, 10-180 cm tall. Stems are simple or branched, quite hairless or rarely sparingly hairy. Leaves are stalkless, 3-22 x 0.7-10 cm; lower ones inverted-lanceshaped, lyrately lobed with end-lobe obovate and lateral lobes broadly triangular to oblong, margin sawtoothed with fine-pointed teeth, tip fine-pointed; upper ones obovate to inverted-lanceshaped, lobed or not, fine-pointed-sawtoothed with minute teeth, both surfaces hairless or sparingly hairy. Flower-heads are usually borne in large, spreading, lax, branch-end leafy panicles. Flower-heads are 5-7 mm in diameter, carried on hairless stalks about 3 cm long. Involucre is columnar, 6-7 mm; phyllaries in 5 or 6 series, herbaceous, entirely reflexed at maturity, linear, 1-7.5 mm. Receptacle is 2-2.5 mm in diameter, convex, hairless. Florets are yellow, tubular; marginal florets thread-like, 4-4.5 mm, 2- or 3-lobed, hairless; central florets 4.5-5 mm, with 5 triangular, papillate lobes. Achenes are oblong-columnar, ribbed, sparsely hairy. Pappus is white, up to 4 mm. Green Knob-Bush is found in dry places, open thickets, at altitudes of about 1400 m, in the Indian Subcontinent to China (Yunnan) and Philippines, Jawa. In India it is seen in East Himalaya and Western Ghats. Flowering: February-April.