African Malli plant/ஆப்பிரிக்க மல்லி

An erect biennial herb 15-40 cm tall, strongly aromatic, its odour similar to that of coriander with furrowed stems, a short rootstock and fibrous roots. Leaves oblanceolate-oblong in outline, 4-12 cm long and 1-2.5 cm wide, apex obtuse, margins crenate to finely spinosely serrate, base cuneate, sessile and glabrous. Flowers greenish, borne in dense, rounded cymes; involucral bracts 5-7, linear-lanceolate, 1-3 cm long and 3-7 mm wide, greatly exceeding the flower heads, leaf-like, spreading and reflexed with a few spiny teeth; flower heads cylindrical, 4-10 mm long and 3-5 mm broad, terminal on the branches or on short peduncles in the forks, sepals erect, lanceolate, longer than the petals, persistent, apex acute; petals greenish-white, oblanceolate to obovate, erect, clawed. Fruit globose or ovoid, 1-1.5 mm long, compressed, densely papillose