Gerbera vulgaris, locally known as bitter vegetable, is an herbaceous plant that mostly grows on hillside grasslands and other places. It tastes pungent and bitter and has the functions of clearing away heat and detoxifying, removing blood stasis and draining pus.

Perennial herb, up to 1m tall. The underground stems are slender, and the above-ground stems are upright, densely covered with white inverted coarse hairs or only one row of inverted coarse hairs on each side. Basal leaves are clustered, oval, with coarse teeth on the edges, and long petioles; stem leaves are opposite, oval or oblong, 4 to 10 cm long, 2 to 5 cm wide, apex acuminate, base cuneate, 1 to 2 It is pinnately split, with small basal lobes; the upper part is not split, with coarse teeth on the edges, coarse hairs on both sides, and nearly sessile. Corymb-shaped paniculate inflorescences with dense or only 2 rows of coarse hairs on the inflorescence branches and stems; the calyx is not obvious; the corolla is white, 4 to 6 mm in diameter. Achenes are obovate, and the base is attached to the enlarged round-winged membranous bracts, which are nearly round. The flowering period is from May to June.

Transverse section of Gerbera tomentosa fruit: The exocarp has 1 row of flat parenchyma cells, and the outer peripheral wall is thickened and fibrous; the mesocarp has 3 to 5 rows of parenchyma cells on the outside and 1 to 2 rows on the inside. Fibers, arranged tangentially, with lignified walls; endocarp is a row of flat parenchyma cells, often flattened, with slightly thickened inner peripheral wall. The center of the midvein vascular bundle is xylem, and there is phloem on both inner and outer sides. The phloem is very narrow, and there are often one to several pericycle fibers on the outside. The false septum is formed by a thin layer of false septal cells extending from both sides of the midvein, which bends inward in the middle of the ovary chamber and connects with each other. The planar peripheral wall of the false septal cells is extremely thick, while the vertical wall is extremely thin, and the cell cavity is slit-shaped or not. obvious.