DICOTYLEDONS
ASTERACEAE - Daisy Family
Chrysanthemum coronarium (crown daisy) is an annual, growing to 60cm, with deeply-cut smooth leaves and erect stems with large (6cm) yellow, daisy-like flower heads in spring. A garden escape, it is found on wasteland in the northern wheatbelt and Perth. C. segetum (corn marigold) is also a yellow-flowered annual, growing to 45cm, which favours disturbed sites. It has divided leaves, and the stem is somewhat fleshy and thickened below the flowers. It has been recorded as naturalised around settlements between New Norcia and Busselton. Both are native to Europe. |
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Cichorium intybus (chicory) has sky-blue ray florets, making it easily recognisable in late spring when it is in flower. It is a stiffly-erect perennial, with deeply-toothed basal leaves and stem-clasping, entire, upper leaves. The leaves can be used in salads, while the dried roots are a coffee substitute. A native of Europe and western Asia, it has escaped from gardens onto roadsides and wasteland - often on calcareous soil - from Perth to Bunbury and is also occasionally seen in the western wheatbelt. |
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Cirsium is a genus of thistles with spiny flowerheads and a fruit carried by a parachute of feathery bristles. C. vulgare (spear thistle) is a biennial to 1.5m with spiny leaves that continue down into the spiny winged stems. The heads are purple (4cm across) with rigid spiny bracts and are terminal in a flat-topped cluster. It is a widespread weed of farmland, roadsides and disturbed bushland from Geraldton to Esperance - most common near the south coast. It is native to Europe and western Asia, as is C. arvense (creeping thistle, Californian thistle) DP. This is a more slender plant, without winged stems, and the purple heads are only 2.5cm across. It reproduces by underground runners and is a serious agricultural weed, although now rarely encountered as it is an eradication target. |
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Conyza
(fleabanes) are upright annuals from America. The flowers,
that do not have ray florets, are produced in summer, on
branched inflorescences that form a terminal
pyramid-shape. |
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Coreopsis
grandiflora
(American tickseed) is a short-lived perennial forming a
clump of dark green, deeply-lobed leaves, surmounted in
spring by 50cm tall stems bearing large (5cm) bright yellow
flower heads. A garden escape, occasionally seen on
roadsides between Perth and Albany. Native to North
America. |
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C. australis (carrot weed, common cotula) PP is a small, hairy annual with fern-like leaves, commonly
found in lawns in the south-west, often growing with (and
mistaken for) the prickly bindii (Solvia
pterosperma).
It produces small white to pale yellow flower heads on long,
slender stalks in spring, unlike S.
pterosperma,
whose prickly green flower heads are sessile amongst the
leaf bases. |
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Crepis
(hawksbeard) is a Northern Hemisphere genus of some 200
species. Three have become naturalised in Western Australia.
They all have yellow dandelion-like flowers produced in
early summer. C.
capillaris
(smooth hawksbeard) is a weed of roadsides and peppermint
woodland from Busselton to Albany. It is an upright,
branched annual. The flower heads are at first cylindrical,
becoming globular when mature. C. foetida (stinking hawksbeard) is an upright, somewhat sticky annual
to 50cm, more or less branched. The heads are terminal,
swollen at the base and constricted at the point where the
florets emerge. Found on roadsides, wasteland and in
disturbed bushland from Perth to Albany. Native to southern
Europe. |
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