Corn Chamomile, Göteborg, August 23rd, 2002

Anthemis arvensis
Åkerkulla


So: I looked twice
and this was in the wrong lawn (no new soil)
and the wrong green colour (too dark)
and no smell to boast of
- just these lobes, slightly broad to be fine
and greyish fuzz that didn't look Mayweed at all...
Time for som magnification.

And there are bracts between the disk flowers.
Puzzling. A case for Erik (conveniently here
to doubt my Hard Rush) and be showered with questions.

So here's the Corn Chamomile
which I wouldn't have seen if not for the Stinking
but would probably have been less confused about
if my mind hadn't been so
absorbed by the other one.

and   Stinking Chamomile

Anthemis cotula
Kamomillkulla i oktober,
i januari, i mars och i maj

Eva Ekeblad, 2002

If it hadn't been for the Stinking
Chamomile, I wouldn't
have looked twice at another
Mayweed in the lawn.

But since the SC last featured on the Web
in May
I have been obsessively looking
at all the little competitors
a lighter green, slightly broader
leaves, speaking in the genre of
the finely lobed
- and when touched
that pungent smell on your fingers
confirms your assumption.

There's been quite a lot of them
in the New Lawn, not far from the Mall
and in the Next Block:
south-east and north-west.
Some get to flower, at about
lawnmower time. That
is definitely too slow.

The Stinking Chamomile
prefers horses.

Horses keep the grass short
and the soil trampled
- and horses don't like the SC taste.



The potted Anthemis Cotula got all dry and yellow, so I decided to press it, wholesale
Many thanks to Neil and Ragnhild Crawford for acting as guides to one of the two "permanent" locations for A. cotula in Sweden.