Distribution and habitat: Throughout India, as a weed on road sides and open places.

Botany: An erect or some what decumbent annual herb, 12 - 75 cm in height with cylindric, striate, more or less pubescent branched stem.

• Leaves  :  Simple, alternate, variable in shape, ovate or lanceolate, shortly mucronate, irregularly toothed or shallowly crenate-serrate. Petioles variable, 6-13 mm long.
• Fruits   : Oblong achenes, 12.5 mm long, slightly narrowed at the base, clothed with appressed white hairs.
• Flowers : Many ,pinkish-violet , in small heads , involucral bracts oblong , lanceolate ,acuminate ,awned ,silky on the back.     

Properties: Astringent, diaphoretic, antirheumatic

Uses: Used against diarrhoea, stomachalgia, cough, chronic intermittent fevers, inflammation, conjunctivitis, humid herps, eczema, elephantiasis, ringworm, roundworms, threadworms, flatulence, psoriasis, chronic skin diseases, dysuria, good for cancerous malformations. It is a blood purifier and good for treating headache and eye diseases. 

Propagation: Seeds