Plantinvasivekruger - Asteraceae - Sphagneticola trilobata (L.) Pruski

WEDTR

Asteraceae

Sphagneticola trilobata (L.) Pruski

trilobata - three-lobed, referring to the leaves.

Sphagneticola trilobata is a creeping, mat-forming perennial herb, growing up to 30 cm tall and 2 m long or more. The stems are rounded and solid, with few hairs, rooting at the nodes, the flowering portions erect. The leaves are stalkless or borne on a very short stalk, simple, opposite, fleshy and glossy, dark green above and paler below, irregularly toothed or serrated, usually with a pair of lateral lobes. The inflorescences are bright yellow to orange-yellow daisy-like flowerheads borne singly on erect stalks. The fruit is a brown 4-angled achene topped with irregular scales.

S. trilobata is a perennial herb with a creeping, scrambling or climbing habit, growing up to 30 cm tall and 4 m long. This mat-forming plant often creates a dense ground cover. It may also climb a short distance up trees or over other vegetation.

The stems are rounded, solid, green or reddish, somewhat hairy to almost hairless. They grow up to 4 m long and regularly develop adventitious roots at their joints. Short, semi-upright flowering branches are produced off these creeping stems.

The leaves are simple, opposite, sessile or borne on very short petioles, slightly fleshy, mostly hairless, glossy, 4-9 cm long and 2-5 cm wide; lamina is usually 3-lobed and with irregularly toothed margins . Color is dark green above, paler below.

Flower-heads (3-4 cm across) are axillary and terminal, borne singly on an erect stalk 3-11 cm long. They are composed of 8-13 yellowish 'petals' (i.e. ray florets) that are 6-15 mm long with finely toothed tips. In the centre of these flower-heads, there are numerous tiny yellow tubular flowers (i.e. tubular florets) 4-5 mm long. The base of each flower-head (i.e. capitulum) is enclosed in a row (i.e. involucre) of narrow (i.e. lanceolate) green bracts (about 1 cm long).

Flowers are yellow to orange.

The fruit is a brown, elongated achene, 3-5 mm long, topped with a crown of short irregular scales.

S. trilobata reproduce vegetatively by stem fragments. Viable seeds are rarely produced.

Sphagneticola trilobata has a very wide ecological tolerance range, and seems to be equally suited to dry and moist sites. Although it seems to prefer and do best in sunny sites, it survives very well in shady sites. It grows well on almost all soil types, including bare limestone and nutrient poor sandy beaches and swampy or waterlogged soils. It is tolerant to inundation and high levels of salinity.
In KNP, occurs in villages and along rivers. Prefers loamy soil, shady and moist conditions.

Native to Tropical America.

Distributed in the far eastern provinces of South Africa, including KwaZulu Natal, Mpumalanga and Limpopo.

Distributed throughout KNP.

It is used as a garden ornament.

Nominated among 100 of the "World's Worst" invaders (IUCN list).
Competes with crops for nutrients, light and water, and reduce crop yields

It is a category 1b weed. Invades riverbanks and gardens. If it is not controlled, it competes with and replaces indigenous species.

Invasive weed with low ecological impact.

-(A revised list of alien plants for the Kruger National Park.Koedoe) Foxcroft, L.C., Henderson, L., Nichols, G.R., Martin, B.W.
-(AdvenPac) Blanfort, V., Desmoulins, F., Prosperi, J., Le Bourgeois, T., Guiglion, R., and Grard, P. (2010). AdvenPaC V.1.0 : Adventices et plantes à conflit d'intérêt des Pâturages de Nouvelle-Calédonie. Montpellier, France, IAC, Cirad.
-(The South African WHAT FLOWER IS THAT ?) Kristo Pinnar., Gideon F Smith. (2011), Published by Struik Lifestyle
-Australian Tropical Rainforest Plants.
-Global Invasive Species Database.
-Hyde, M.A., Wursten, B.T. & Ballings, P. (2013). Flora of Zimbabwe: Species information: Sphagneticola trilobata.
-Invasive Species South Africa.
-Pacific Island Ecosystems at Risk.
-Queensland government. Weeds of Australia.

http://idao.cirad.fr/SpecieSheet?sheet=advenpac/especes/w/wedtr/wedtr_fr.html
http://keys.trin.org.au:8080/key-server/data/0e0f0504-0103-430d-8004-060d07080d04/media/Html/taxon/Sphagneticola_trilobata.htm
http://www.issg.org/database/species/search.asp?sts=sss&st=sss&fr=1&sn=sphagneticola&rn=&hci=-1&ei=-1&lang=EN
http://www.zimbabweflora.co.zw/speciesdata/species.php?species_id=160400
http://www.invasives.org.za/resources/faqs/item/345-singapore-daisy-sphagneticola-trilobata.html
http://www.hear.org/pier/species/sphagneticola_trilobata.htm
http://keyserver.lucidcentral.org/weeds/data/03030800-0b07-490a-8d04-0605030c0f01/media/Html/Sphagneticola_trilobata.htm