Blumea mollis (D.Don) Merr. in Philip. J . Sci. (Bot.) 5: 395. 1910. Erigeron molle D. Don, Prodr. Fl. Nepal. 192. 1825. B. wightiana DC. in Wight, Contrib. Bot. Ind. 14. 1834. B. neilgherrensis Hook.f., Fl. Brit. India 3: 261. 1881.

Herbs, erect, slender; stems simple or branched from the base, up to 90 cm high, softly pilose with white spreading hairs and glands. Leaves ovate-oblong, acute to apiculate 1-10 x 0.5-5 cm, densely silky-villous on both surface with soft white hairs and glands, closely serrate; lower petioled; upper smaller, sessile. Heads in dense, terminal, compact spiciform panicles, 3-4 mm in diam., subsessile to distinctly pedunculate, peduncle up to 7 mm, densely villous. Involucral bracts herbaceous to distinctly purplish tinged, slightly longer than the tlorets, linear, 1-5 mm long, reflexed at maturity, densely soft-villous on dorsal surface with hairs and glands, the inner with distinct scarious margins. Receptacle more or less flat, alveolate, glabrous. Corolla of bisexual florets purple or lilac, sometime white at base; tubular, 2.5-4.5 mmnun long, 5-lobed with rounded or acute papillate lobes, pubescent with colletters; corolla of female florets filiform, 2-4 mm long, 2 to 4-lobed, glabrous. Achenes brown, oblong, subangular, shining, pubescent. Pappus 2-4 mm long.

Fl. & Fr. Jan.- Nov.

Distrib. India: In dry open fallows, grasslands, on hill slopes and along roadsides, 1500 m. Almost throughout.

Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, China, Sri Lanka, S.E. Asia, Africa and Australia.

Notes. B. mollis is very closely related with B. lacera and it poses difficulty in segregating these from herbarium speciemens.