Cotula foetida S. G. Gmelin, Reisse Russl. 1: 137. 1774; Anthemis foetida Lamk., Fl. Fr. 2: 164. 1778; Maruta cotula (L.) DC., Prodr. 6: 13. 1837; Anthemis abyssinica J. Gay et A. Rich, Tent. Fl. Abyss. 1: 418. 1847; A. antiochia Eig in Pal. J. Bot. Jer. Ser. 1: 200. 1938.

Annual, up to 60 (-70) cm tall, sparsely hairy or glabrescent herb. Leaves subsessile or shortly petiolate, lamina obovate-oblong or ovate-oblong, 1.5 – 6 cm long, 0.5 – 3 cm wide, 2-3-pinnatisect into narrowly linear, acute-acuminate, entire or 2-3-dented ultimate segments. Peduncles slender, up to 15 cm long, unthickened in fruit. Capitula solitary, radiate, sometimes discoid, 1.2 – 3 cm across. Phyllaries ovate-oblong, 3 – 4 x 1.5 – 2 mm, whitish hairy outside, narrowly scarious on margins, ± obtuse. Receptacle oblong-conical, 5 – 8 mm long, c. 3 mm wide, chaffy in the upper half, paleae linear-subulate, 2.5 – 3 mm long, persistent, bristly. Ray-florets sterile, tube glabrous, ligules white, oblong-elliptic, 5 – 14 x 3 – 6 mm, obtuse, rarely absent. Disc-florets yellow, as long as to ± longer than the paleae; corolla tube terete, glabrous, slightly inflated at the base. Cypselas subylindrical-turbinate, 1 – 1.5 mm long, light brown, obscurely 8 – 10-ribbed, tuberculate, exauriculate.

Fl. Per.: March-September.

Type: Described from Europe: praecipue Ucrania, Herb. Linn. 1016.16 (LINN).

Distribution: Central and SW Asia westwards to Algeria, Europe; introduced in N & S America, Australia and New Zealand.

Occurs on damp, alluvial soils or roadside depressions probably as an escape from cultivation and sandy clay soils in the low valleys surrounded by high hills.