MAYWEED (Dog Fennel) 

 Anthemis cotula L. 



June - August The. neglected barnyard is odorous with the 



Barnyards, waste places rank-smelling weeds which seem to gather 



al)out man and his farm abodes whenever he 

 does not take the trouble to keep them weedless. The jimson, the poke, 

 the motherwort, the yarrow, tansy, burdock, pigweed, the dog fennel or 

 mayweed — they are all strongly scented, strongly rooted, strongly fixed 

 in the backyards and barnyards of America. 



Among them all, mayweed perhaps is most odorous. Its densely 

 fine-cut, dark green leaves and many-branched stems are violently aro- 

 matic, its small daisy-like flowers rank. Contact with leaves, stems, and 

 flowers often cause a severe case of dermatitis in susceptible individuals, 

 and it is shunned l)y hogs, sheep, and cattle who will not touch it for 

 food. Consequently in the barn lot and the neglected, over-grazed pasture, 

 only the weeds such as mayweed, which are distasteful to animals, remain 

 when all edible herl)age is gone. The result is a weed patch of no use to 

 anyone. The hogs and cattle roam througli the malodorous plants and 

 look in vain for an edible moutliful. 



Mayweed, aside from its rank odor and weediness, is, after all, a 

 cheerful-looking little daisy with a flower bearing the typical flat yellow 

 center and spreading wliite rays as found in more elegant daisies. It is 

 about a third or half the size of the common ox-eye daisy, and is closely 

 related to it in the Composite family. Like the common daisy {Chrysan- 

 themum leuoanthemiim) , the mayweed is one of the plants which long 

 ago was naturalized from Europe. 



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