Herbs Weed profiles & Native alternatives
I’M A WEED
Cape weed
Cape Weed
Arctotheca calendula
Rosette-forming, perennial or annual herb to 30 cm high. Leaves mostly basal, lance-shaped, 5-25 cm long, 2-6 cm wide, green and slightly hairy above, white woolly below, and toothed margins.
Erect Flower stems arise from the centre of the rosette, 8-25 cm long. Yellow daisy flowers have 15-20 yellow petals 1.2-2.5 cm long, radiating from a black centre, from August to October. Very common weed of cultivation and disturbed land, especially on poorer soils.
Coastal Beach Daisy
Coastal Beach Daisy
Arctotheca populifolia
Annual or perennial, creeping, mat-forming herb, to 20 cm high, only found on beaches. Leaves are large, heart-shaped with short stalks, slightly succulent with a dense covering of white hairs. Margins are smooth
or slightly toothed. The yellow daisy flower heads 3 cm diameter on short, stout, curving stems and often
overtopped by the large leaves. The bright yellow petals are widely spaced around a greenish yellow centre.
Threat / Problem
• Form very dense mats over the soil surface, preventing native species becoming established. Readily invade disturbed sandy areas.
Spread
• New plants grow from prolific seed spread by soil movement, wind and water. Also grow from runners spread from garden waste dumping.
Control
• Hand pull small plants. Spot spray late winter whilst actively growing. Resistant to some herbicides.
GROW ME INSTEAD
Sticky Goodenia bush
Sticky Goodenia
Goodenia varia
Ascending or prostrate shrub to l m high. Deep green leaves are round to elliptic, 2-4 cm long by 1-2 cm wide, with toothed edges. Sparse, fan-shaped, yellow flowers 0.8-1.8 cm long, form in winter and spring.
Fruit is cylindrical, pale brown, 0.8-1 cm long. Common in woodland, mallee and coastal heath.
Sticky Goodenia
OR GROW ME
Coast Twinleaf bush
Coast Twinleaf
Zygophyllum billardierei
Perennial herb 0.2-1 m high with very branched spreading stems. Leaves are distinctively blunt tipped and Y-shaped, each one consisting of two fleshy, bright green, thin leaflets with stalks at the base. Flowers have four spreading, bright yellow, rounded petals, to 1 cm long, borne singly in the leaf axils (where the stem meets the leaf) from June to December. Fruit is a drooping, 4-angled green capsule 1-1.2 cm long, almost triangular and cut off bluntly at the tip, where there is a small point. Each of the four cells have one or two brown seeds.
Common on coastal cliffs, between rocks, with inland forms also on red and brown soils.
Coast Twinleaf
Back to WEED Profiles