Chamaemelum Vis., Giorn. Bot. Ital. 1: 33. 1844, non Miller (1754).

Annual or perennial, ± glabrous to sparsely hairy herbs with alternate, 1-3-pinnatisect leaves. Capitula discoid, radiate or disciform, hetero- or homogamous, pedunculate, solitary or in corymbs. Involucre ± hemispherical, phyllaries 2-5-seriate, imbricate, scarious-margined. Receptacle glabrous, convex to elongate conical or hemispherical. Ray-florets female, mostly white or pale-pink, ligulate, rarely tubular or eligulate. Disc-florets bisexual, with 5-lobed corolla tube, each lobe with a reddish or sometimes brown-black gland-like resin sac at tip. Cypselas mucilaginous or not, triquetrous, oblong or obpyramidate, with single adaxial or a pair of lateral thick, sometimes thin, whitish ribs, often rugose or tuberculate anteriorely and between the ribs, 2 (-3-5), glandulose at the apices. Pappus absent or scarious coronate, crenulate or occasionally auricle 3-lobed.

A difficult genus of c. 38 species, distributed mainly in Europe and temperate Asia, a few species occur in N. America and N. Africa (Bremer & Humphries, l.c. 1993). Represented in Pakistan by 3 species.

This genus, treated under Matricaria by some authors, is characterized by 3-ribbed cypselas bearing 2 abaxial resinous glands which are absent in Matricaria.

Lower Taxa

• Tripleurospermum decipiens (Fisch. & C. A. Mey.) Bornm.
• Tripleurospermum disciforme (C. A. Mey.) Schultz-Bip.
• Tripleurospermum parviflorum (Willd.) Pobed.