Malan head is commonly known as Malan, Malai, roadside chrysanthemum, Malang head, red stalked vegetable, chicken child vegetable, chicken child intestine.

Malan head is a perennial herb in the family of Asteraceae, genus Malan, with creeping rhizomes, erect stems, up to 70 centimeters tall, with short hairs in the upper part, and withered basal leaves during flowering; stem leaves oblanceolate or obovate-matrix-orbicular, all of which are slightly thinly textured, and the heads are borne singly on the ends of the branches and are arranged in sparse corymbose form.

Involucral bracts hemispherical, involucral bracts imbricate; outer oblanceolate, inner oblanceolate-rectangular, herbaceous distally, sparsely short hairy, margin membranous, receptacle conical. Ligulate flowers, ligule light purple, achenes obovate-rectangular, extremely compressed, flowering in May-September, fruiting in August-October.

Distributed in western, central, southern, and eastern parts of China. It is also found in Korea, Japan, and the central and southern peninsulas to India. Grows in the forest edge, grass, stream bank, roadside. The whole herb is used medicinally for clearing away heat and detoxifying toxins, eliminating food stagnation, inducing urination, and dispersing blood stasis to stop bleeding. The young leaves are usually eaten as vegetables, commonly known as "Malan head".

Habitat and growth habit:

Malan is widely distributed in the south and east of Asia (China, Korea, Japan, the Central and South Peninsula to India). In China, it is distributed in Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou, Shaanxi, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian, Taiwan, Zhejiang, Anhui, Jiangsu, Shandong and other provinces and southern Liaoning. It grows in forest margins, thickets, stream banks, and roadsides.

Malan like sufficient light and like warm and humid climate, the growth of the appropriate temperature of 15-22 ℃, the soil conditions are not strict requirements, wild in the roadside, ditch side, field side, to reeds along the ditch side of the majority. Malan adaptability, vitality, cold and heat resistance, the ground part of the frost withered, underground creeping rhizome can be -10 ℃ safe overwintering, higher than 30 ℃ stem and leaves are easy to fibrosis. Barrenness, short-term waterlogging, does not affect plant growth, a long period of waterlogging and high humidity will cause rotting of tender stem leaves and underground stems.