Anthemis cotula, also known as stinking chamomile, or mayweed,[6] is a flowering annual plant with a noticeable and strong odor.

In pre-colonial times, its distribution was limited to the Old Continent and Africa; though it was established in most of Europe, it was not present in Finland, Ireland, or the northernmost reaches of Scotland, in spite of the fact that these countries feature climatic regions favorable to this plant and are in proximity to countries where the species is native, such as Russia, Estonia, Lithuania and England.

[8] The name "cotula" is the Latin form[9] of κοτύλη kotylē, the Greek word for "small cup",[10] describing the shape of the flowers; it was assigned by Carl Linnaeus in his work Species Plantarum in 1753.

[15] Naturalized in Americas, Southern Africa, and Oceania Johnny Appleseed planted stinking chamomile, here called dog-fennel, during his travels in the early 19th century, believing it to be an antimalarial.

[21] Harper's New Monthly Magazine in 1871 gave Appleseed credit for the overabundance of dogfennel:The consequence was that successive, flourishing crops of the weed spread over the whole country and caused almost as much trouble as the disease it was intended to ward off; and to this day the dog-fennel, introduced by Johnny Appleseed, is one of the worst grievances of the Ohio farmers.