Synedrella nodiflora Gaertn.

Herb to 1.5 m tall, dichotomously branching, erect, sprawling or sometimes procumbent; stems terete, puberulent with appressed, ascending white hairs; sometimes rooting along the stem without respect to the nodes. Leaves opposite, mostly at the stem dichotomies, mostly 3-10 cm long, ovate or elliptical, apically acuminate, basally obtuse, the margins callose-serrate to subentire, both sides with appressed ascending white hairs, rarely scabridulous, the veins appearing pinnate or 3-nerved from near the base; petiole short, 5-10 mm long, winged, the margin and keel ciliate. Inflorescence a fascicle of 1-many heads at a dichotomy of the stem or leaf axil, the heads aggregated in groups of 1-4; peduncles to 2 mm long, stout; foliaceous bracts sometimes present. Heads, radiate, cylindrical, ca. 8 mm long and 5 mm thick; involucral bracts several, imbricate, oblong, apically acute, obtuse or erose, the outermost green, nervate, becoming stramineous, narrower and scarious inwards; receptacle convex; ray florets 4-5, ca. 6 mm long, the corolla yellow, 3-4 mm long, glabrous, the tube 1.5-2 mm long, apically notched or denticulate with 2 main veins, the limb broad, the style branches flattened, slender, pubescent, the style base not enlarged, the ovary dorsiventrally flattened, oblong, apically erose, the erose margins partly obscuring the two strigose awns; disc florets several, ca. 8 mm long, the corolla yellow, 3 mm long, the tube narrow, forming about one half the length, the limb narrowly obconical, angled, the lobes short-deltoid, dorsally pubescent, the anthers dark, the appendages large, the basal auricles rounded, the style branches flattened, marginally pilose, the style base not expanded but inserted in a narrow, stipitate, ca. 1 mm long, apically fimbriate or sinuate nectary, the ovary slightly compressed, oblong, with 2 flattened, stout, apical awns and a connecting ring of hairs or erose scales. Achenes dimorphic, those of the ray florets 3-5 mm long, ovate, flattened, the body black with a 1 mm broad, winglike margin bearing short ascending awns similar to the apical pair of true awns, those of the disc florets with a black, ca. 3 mm long, slender, tuberculate body; pappus a pair of stout slender, strigose awns.

A tropical plant. It now occurs in many countries. It is commonly self sown in cultivated ground. It grows in savannah woodland. In Papua New Guinea it grows from sea level to about 1,000 m altitude. In Yunnan.

Young leaves are cooked and eaten. They are also eaten in salads.

Plants are easily grown from seeds.