DESKTOP 786 - CAPE WEED

Arctotheca calendula is a plant in the Asteraceae family commonly known as cape weed, cape dandelion, or cape marigold because it originates from the Cape Province in South Africa. It is also found in neighboring KwaZulu-Natal. Arctotheca calendula is naturalised in California, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Australia, and New Zealand, and considered a noxious weed in some of those places.

It is a squat perennial or annual which grows in rosettes and sends out stolons and can spread across the ground quickly. The leaves are covered with white woolly hairs, especially on their undersides. The leaves are lobed or deeply toothed. Hairy stems bear daisy-like flowers with small yellow petals that sometimes have a green or purple tint surrounded by white or yellow ray petals extending further out from the flower centers.

It is cultivated as an attractive ornamental groundcover but has invasive potential when introduced to a new area. The plant can reproduce vegetatively or via seed. Seed-bearing plants are most likely to become weedy, taking hold most easily in bare or sparsely vegetated soil or disturbed areas.

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme.