Cotula anthemoides is a species of flowering plant in the Aster family that is widely distributed across Africa and southern Asia. It has also been introduced to Albania, France, and Poland.
The species grows across the ground, with the ends of the branches sometimes growing upright. It lacks hairs and has several branches up to 20 centimeters long. The leaves have small stalks and are a stretched oval shape, around 2–4 cm long and 1.5–3 cm wide. The capitula are roughly globe-shaped and yellow, with a diameter of 4–6 mm. Each capitulum is solitary on its own thread with stalks 4–5 cm long. The whorl of bracts below the flowers is more or less saucer shaped. The outer florets make a very small corolla, while the disc-florets are twice as long. The fruits are oval shaped and around 1 mm long, with narrow wings and a pale-brown color. The plant flowers from March to June.[1]
Cotula anthemoides was first formally described by Carl Linnaeus in 1753 in Species Plantarum. Linnaeus gave the following brief description for the species:[2]
The following synonyms are accepted according to Plants of the World Online:[3]
| Name | Author | Year | Journal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Homotypic | Lancisia anthemoides | (L.) Moench | 1802 | Suppl. Meth. |
| Pleiogyne anthemoides | (L.) K.Koch | 1843 | Bot. Zeitung (Berlin) | |
| Heterotypic | Artemisia nilotica | L. | 1755 | Cent. Pl. I |
| Cenia microcephala | E.Mey. ex DC. | 1838 | Prodr. | |
| Cotula dichrocephala | Sch.Bip. ex A.Rich. | 1848 | Tent. Fl. Abyss. | |
| Cotula microcephala | DC. | 1838 | Prodr. | |
| Nananthea tassiliensis | Batt. & Trab. | 1913 | Bull. Soc. Bot. France | |
| Pleiogyne cardiospermum | Edgew. | 1846 | Trans. Linn. Soc. London | |
| Pleiogyne microcephala | K.Koch | 1843 | Bot. Zeitung (Berlin) |
The flower heads are used in traditional medicine to treat rheumatic pain. A poultice is created by crushing the flower parts into powder and then warming them with oil.