Pentanema conyzae

Pentanema conyzae (ploughman's spikenard; long known as Inula conyzae) is a usually biennial or short-lived perennial herb of the daisy family (Asteraceae) reaching about 130 cm tall in its second year, after overwintering as a basal rosette. The plant arises from an irregularly thickened, woody, faintly aromatic taproot and produces a stout, much-branched, often purplish stem clothed in soft glandular hairs. The basal and lower stem leaves are oval to broadly lance-shaped, up to 15 cm long, on winged petioles, dark green and softly hairy above, paler beneath, with a faint spicy aroma reminiscent of cinnamon or cumin that is strongest in spring; the smaller upper leaves are sessile. In late summer the stems carry loose, much-branched corymbose clusters of numerous small yellow flower heads 8–10 mm across, each with a ring of inconspicuous three-lobed female ray florets surrounding a centre of five-lobed bisexual disc florets, all subtended by spreading purple-tipped involucral bracts. The fruit is a small ribbed achene with a brownish pappus. Native to Europe, western Asia, and North Africa, it grows almost exclusively on calcareous soils in short chalk and limestone grassland, scrub edges, road verges, and disturbed quarry ground.