Crassocephalum crepidioides (redflower ragleaf, "Benibanaborogiku")

Japanese name: ベニバナボロギク （紅花襤褸菊）
Scientific name: Crassocephalum crepidioides

[Overview]
An annual 50–120 cm tall, found along roadsides and on development sites.
It is a pioneer plant that appears first on land cleared of forest or burned by wildfire, and disappears once the original vegetation recovers.
The whole plant is soft and juicy, with a scent similar to shungiku (garland chrysanthemum).
The stem is erect, much branched, and tinged reddish purple.
The leaves are alternate, elliptical to oblanceolate, 5–15 cm long and 1–8 cm wide, with sparse hairs on both surfaces.
Leaves on the lower part of the stem are pinnately divided, and those on the upper part have coarse teeth.
The leaf base does not clasp the stem.
Many flower heads are borne facing downward at the stem tips.
The heads consist only of tubular florets, with crimson-red tips.
The styles project far out of the flower, and their tips split in two and curl.
The involucre is cylindrical, 0.9–1.3 cm long and 0.7 cm in diameter, with one row of linear involucral bracts.
The fruit is a white achene with many thread-like pappus hairs, which fall off easily.

[History]
After the war it was confirmed in Fukuoka, and has since become naturalized in many places from Honshu to Kyushu.

[Uses]
The young leaves can be eaten.
The whole plant is also dried and used medicinally.

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