Common name: Singapore Daisy, Creeping ox-eye, Trailing Daisy, Wild Marigold
Sphagneticola trilobata (L.) Pruski APNI* Synonyms: Silphium trilobatum L. APNI*
Wedelia trilobata (L.) Hitchc. APNI*
Description: Creeping, mat-forming perennial herb to 70 cm high, with stems to 2 m or more long; stems rounded, rooting at the nodes, the flowering portions ascending, coarsely strigose to spreading hirsute, sometimes subglabrous.
Leaves fleshy, dark green and glossy above, paler below with simple white hairs, hirsute, usually 3–11 cm long, 2–8cm wide, irregularly toothed, usually with a pair of lateral lobes (trilobed).
Flowerheads solitary in leaf axils, on peduncles 3–14 cm long; with 4–14 bright yellow ray florets with ligule 6–15 mm long; disc florets tubular, 4–5mm long. Involucre campanulate-hemispherical; involucral bracts chaffy, lanceolate, 8–11 mm long.
Achenes tuberculate, 4–5mm long; pappus a crown of short fimbriate scales.
Flowering: Flowers and fruits most of the year.
Distribution and occurrence: In coastal areas of Lord Howe Island, north and central coast of New South Wales, Queensland and Northern Territory, and world wide temperate and tropical. Native from Mexico to Argentina. In low-lying coastal areas, often on beaches, able to survive wet and dry areas.
NSW subdivisions: *NC, *CC, *LHI
Other Australian states: *Qld *N.T.
This is a weed of world wide importance as it has naturalised in many wet tropical areas of the world. Cultivated as an ornamental, it readily escapes from gardens and forms a dense infestations over the ground, crowding out or preventing regeneration of other species. Deliberately planted as a roadside and railway embankment stabiliser in Queensland. Heavily promoted by nurseries in the mid 1970s.
Text by Louisa Murray
Taxon concept: Global Invasive Species Database; National Weeds Strategy; Berry, P. et al (1997) Flora of the Venezuelan Guayana, p360-361.
APNI* Provides a link to the Australian Plant Name Index (hosted by the Australian National Botanic Gardens) for comprehensive bibliographic data
***The AVH map option provides a detailed interactive Australia wide distribution map drawn from collections held by all major Australian herbaria participating in the Australian Virtual Herbarium project.
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