Laggera crispata (Vahl) Hepper & J.R.I.Wood

Annual or perennial herb 0.6–2.4 m tall, woody at base, several-stemmed, often much branched; stems with entire or toothed wings to 5(–15) mm wide, pubescent or puberulous, densely glandular; branches of inflorescence often without wings; whole plant slightly viscid and aromatic.. Leaves often tinged purple or with purple veins, sessile, oblong to (narrowly) obovate, the ones near the base large but getting smaller distally, 3–27 cm long, 0.8–11 cm wide, base narrowing gradually and decurrent on to the stem, margins serrate or serrulate with callose-tipped teeth, apex acute or obtuse and apiculate, puberulous to scabridulous with short glandular hairs on both surfaces.. Capitula 8–12 mm long, many in large terminal pyramidal panicles; stalks of individual capitula usually curved, 0.5–3 cm long, pubescent and glandular; phyllaries unequal, the outermost greenish with pink or purple margins and tips and often recurved, the inner pale green to white and papery, all phyllaries narrowly triangular or lanceolate, 2–12 mm long, the outer to 1 mm wide, the inner to 0.5 mm wide, acute to acuminate, puberulous and glandular, becoming less so on the innermost ones; receptacle flat, occasionally honeycombed.. Florets pink, mauve or purple, the innermost more deeply so; outer florets very many, the tube filiform, 5–7 mm long, minutely toothed at the apex; style 5.5–8 mm long, with naked branches; inner florets 15–30, the tube 4.8–8 mm long, hardly widening, lobes 0.3–0.5 mm long, minutely hairy (not in our area?) or glabrous, sparsely glandular; anthers pink, 1.8–2 mm long, obtuse at the base, with 0.5 mm long apical appendages; style 6–9 mm long, pink with short (0.5 mm) hairy branches.. Achenes cylindrical, 1–1.5 mm long, pubescent; pappus of many ?smooth white bristles 5.5–7.5 mm long.. Fig. 71 (page 354).

A weedy herb, growing on dry hill slopes, old clearings, upland rice fields, and wastelands; at elevations up to 2,000 metres.

Can be grown by seedlings.