Matricaria discoidea

Template:Short description Template:- Template:Speciesbox Matricaria discoidea, commonly known as pineappleweed,<ref name=BSBI07>Template:BSBI 2007</ref> wild chamomile, pineapple-mayweed, disc mayweed, and rayless mayweed, is an annual plant native to North America and/or northern Asia, introduced to Europe where it grows as a common herb of fields, gardens, and roadsides.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> It is in the daisy family Asteraceae. The flowers exude a chamomile/pineapple aroma when crushed. They are edible and have been used in salads (although they may become bitter by the time the plant blooms) and to make herbal tea.

Description

The flower head or pseudanthium is cone-shaped, composed of densely packed yellowish-green corollas, and lacking ray-florets. The leaves are pinnately dissected and sweet-scented when crushed. The plant grows Template:Convert high. Flowerheads are produced from March to September.

Distribution and habitat

The plant grows well in disturbed areas, especially those with poor, compacted soil. It can be seen blooming on footpaths, roadsides, and similar places in spring and early summer. Some sources say it is native to North America, from central Alaska south to California and Texas and east to Nova Scotia and Greenland.<ref name="POWO">Template:Cite web</ref>Other sources list it as only native to the Pacific Northwest or as introduced to North America, native to Siberia.<ref name="FNA">Template:Cite web</ref>

Alongside a variety of other plant species, wild chamomile seeds are known to be inadvertently transported to new areas through soil carried by cars; A study by Dunmail J. Hodkinson and Ken Thompson found that M. discoidea is one of the most common plants to be transported in this way.<ref name="Hodkinson-1997">Template:Cite journal</ref>

It has been introduced widely in the northern hemisphere<ref name=POWO/> and is common and naturalized throughout Britain where it is one of the fastest-spreading plants in the 20th century.<ref name=Atlas2020>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>The Wildlife Trusts, "Pineappleweed" http://www.wildlifetrusts.org/species/pineappleweed</ref>

Uses

The greens can be washed and eaten, and both the flowers and the whole plant can be steeped to make tea,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> described as "excellent" by one field guide.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>