May-weed.Anthemis Cotula.Pigstye Daisy (Mass.).Dog Fennel.
Found through the summer, from May to October, growing about buildings, or in waste places.
The stalk is seldom a foot in height, branching in a bushy fashion, and very leafy; it is slender but tough-fibred, and smooth. In color light green.
The leaf is small and indeterminate in shape, it is cut so deeply and irregularly as to present an aspect of being all fringed margin and no leaf; the midrib is strong, and the texture coarse. Color, light green. The leaves are set alternately and close together upon the stalk or branch.
The flowers are small and yellow, arranged in a flat disc, surrounded by a sparse number of oblong, notched, white rays. The leafy cup, which holds the flower-head, is dry and husk-like. The heads are terminal, and single.
This is a plant of communal habit, and profusely flowering. It has a trick of folding down its rays at night, and is a great sluggard about spreading them in the morning. After the rays age and fall, the disc becomes cone-shaped. “It has taken up its place by the roadside, close to the ruts—in bad taste.” (Thoreau’s Journal for June 25, 1852.)