Matricaria recutita

This small plant of variable height is found growing on waste land, especially that which has once been cultivated. It is a small, rather spare, feathery looking plant with linear pale green leaves held on short stems. A stout flowering stalk carries a white daisy flower. The flower itself is plump-petalled with a raised central disk coloured orange yellow. The flower petals are often downturned so the disk thrusts its nose upwards! It flowers during July and August. The whole plant is aromatic, some say with a sweet fragrance. The plant has a number of medicinal uses and is used as a flavouring for foodstuffs.