Microcephala lamellata (Bunge) Pobed.

Easily confused with Anthemis species in the first sight but can readily be distinguished by the absence of paleae on the receptacle. A decoction of the flowers is used by local people to cure jaundice (kawal) and to relieve stomach pain. It is also employed to relieve fever, particularly typhoid. The plant is commonly grazed by sheep, goats and camels.

A sparsely to densely hirsute, up to 20 cm tall annual herb with upright or ± spreading branches. Leaves petiolate, lamina oblong, 1.5 – 2.5 cm long, 5 – 15 mm wide, pinnatisect into linear, 3 – 10 mm long, remote, acute segments. Capitula on up to 5 cm long, slender peduncles, solitary, 5 – 20 mm across. Phyllaries oblong-linear, 2.5 – 5 mm long, 1.5 – 2 mm broad, outer broadly hyaline margined, hairy, inner translucent, sparsely hirsute or glabrous. Receptacle oblong-conical, 4 – 6 mm long, ± acute. Ray-florets female, fertile, ligules white, oblong, 2 – 6 mm long, 2-4 mm wide, irregularly 3-dentate at the apices, eventually reflexed. Disc-florets bisexual, yellow, 2 – 2.5 mm long, with corolla tube constricted in the middle. Cypselas straight or subcurved, 1 – 1.5 mm long, 3-ribbed on ventral side, densely beset with mucilaginous scales. Pappus oblique, irregularly 6-10-lobed, c. 0.5 mm long, lobes laciniate.

Distribution: Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan, and Central Asia.

Fl. Per.: April-May.

A fairly common species, grows on waste lands in sandy gravel or sandy clay subsaline to non-saline desert soils along tracks, roadsides and in wheat fields mainly in Balochistan and NW Frontier Provinces.

Matricaria lamellata Bunge in Mem. Sav. Etr. Acad. Petersbg. 7: 335. 1851; Chamaemelum lamellatum (Bunge) Boiss., Fl. Or. 3: 326. 1875; Matricaria lasiocarpa Boiss., Fl. Or. 3: 324. 1875; Burkill, Work. List Fl. Pl. Baluch. 53. 1909 (reprint. ed. 1956); R.R.Stewart, Ann. Cat. Vasc. Pl. W. Pak. & Kashm. 766. 1972.