An annual, erect or spreading, puberulent and aromatic herb, 20—60(—100) cm tall, often already branched at the base and rooting at the nodes. Leaves alternate, ovate to lanceolate, 4—8(—13) cm x 2—3(—5) cm, very variable, simple or pinnatifid, terminal lobe large, broadly ovate, and coarsely toothed, lateral lobes 1 or 2 pairs, obovate or oblong, dentate; petiole narrowly winged, 0—6 cm long. Inflorescence a small head, several together in a lax axillary or terminal panicle, peduncle up to 2.5 cm long, involucral bracts 2-seriate, lanceolate, 5 mm long, head rounded, 3—5 mm across; flowers all tubular but different in size, marginal flowers female, numerous, slender, corolla 0.5 mm long, the apex obscurely 5-dentate, greyish-white to purplish, disk flowers bisexual, with short-tubular corolla, 1 mm long, lobes 3—4, greenish to yellowish-white, marginal and disk flowers differently coloured in one head; stamens 4, loosely coherent, forming a tube; ovary inferior with 1—2 awns; style elongated, with a flattened stigma. Fruit a small subcylindrical achene, 1 mm long, 2-ribbed at the edges and smooth.

Used as a sudorific and diuretic (flower buds); antiviral (crushed leaves)

PROSEA (Plant Resources of South-East Asia) Foundation

Used to treat ulcers and swellings (crushed leaves); externally applied as a poultice in treating blennorrhoea, leucorrhoea, and the stings or bites of insects, spiders or scorpions (young shoots); against filariasis (plant juice); applied to dress old infected wounds (dried and powdered plant).