Chrysanthemum brain, also known as chrysanthemum vegetables, chrysanthemum leaves, chrysanthemum Lang. is a summer Nanjing people to prevent summer fire home cooking, the local saying "Nanjing people, seek not old, do not eat fish and meat love to eat grass, wolfberry Artemisia chrysanthemum brain", see the local people on the chrysanthemum brain favorite.

The form is similar to wild chrysanthemum. It is a perennial rooted herbaceous plant of the genus Chrysanthemum in the family of Asteraceae, native to China, with wild distribution in Guizhou, Hunan and Jiangsu. The artificial cultivation area in East, Central, South and North China is expanding year by year, especially in Nanjing, which has a long history of cultivation and a large area.

Botanical Characteristics

(1) Well-developed root system, fibrous roots.

(2)Stem height 30~ 100 cm, stem slender, 0.2 ~ 0.5 cm thick (thicker in large-leaved species, thinner in small-leaved species), semi-woody, with underground stolons, extremely branched, glabrous or with fine hairs near the upper part.

(3) Leaf blade alternate, ovate-orbicular or long ovate-orbicular, 2~6 cm long, 1 ~2. 5 cm wide, leaf surface green, glabrous or sparsely fine hairs at the veins, abaxial surface light green, leaf margin coarsely compound serrate or bipinnate-pinnatipartite, leaf base slightly constricted into the petiole, with a narrow wing, green or with lavender. Lateral branches are produced in the fall in the leaf axils.