Mexican Fleabane
Scientific Name: Erigeron karvinskianus DC
Family: Asteraceae
MORPHOLOGY
Habit and Size: Perennial herbaceous plant, 10-30 (40) cm tall.
Stem: Hairy stem, prostrate with slender ascending branches terminating in a poor, simple, and often irregular corymb.
Leaves: Basal leaves in a rosette, sessile or shortly pedunculate, ovate-lanceolate, up to 3 cm long and 5 mm wide; entire or three-lobed (with lateral spines) and mucronate; cauline leaves spatulate-linear, 2-3 x 13-22 mm, acute and single-veined.
Flowers: Solitary capitulum with a diameter of 1.5 cm, with a cylindrical involucre (4 mm in diameter) and 2-3 seriate bracts. Flower with spreading ligules longer than the involucre (5 mm), white or pinkish (on the same plant) about 1×6-7 mm long; disc flowers yellowish. Blooms from June to October.
Fruits and Seeds: The fruits are achenes, 1 mm long, whitish, with scattered hairs.
DISTRIBUTION AND HABITAT
An invasive alien species present throughout Italy except in Valle d’Aosta, Molise, and Basilicata. It grows on moist walls and rocks from 0 to 600 m.
INTERESTING FACTS
It is cultivated to form prized hybrids used to adorn common and rocky gardens. Two species that have escaped cultivation and become naturalized are E. annuus and E. karvinskianus.
Photo: Provided under a free license by Saxifraga and Ed Stikvoort, Rutger Barendse.
 
		 
	


















