Arctotheca calendula

Arctotheca calendula
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
(unranked):	Angiosperms
(unranked):	Eudicots
(unranked):	Asterids
Order:	Asterales
Family:	Asteraceae
Genus:	Arctotheca
Species:	A. calendula
Binomial name
Arctotheca calendula (L.) Levyns

Arctotheca calendula is a plant commonly known as cape weed, cape dandelion, or cape marigold because it originates from the Cape Province in South Africa. It is listed as a noxious weed in California and is an invasive weed in Australia as well.

The plant 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.

External links

• Jepson Manual Treatment
• NSWFlora
• Info at the site of the California Invasive Plant Council
• Capeweed photograph, capeweed description and capeweed diagram from HerbiGuide.
• Capeweed at EncycloWeedia