Flora of North America species comparison

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Arctotheca calendula

Cape dandelion, Cape marigold, Cape weed
Habit Plants usually stoloniferous.
Leaves

obovate, (2–)5–20(–30+) × (1–)2–5(–7) cm, margins pinnati-sect (lyrate to runcinate), remotely prickly, abaxial faces white-pannose, adaxial faces sparsely puberulent to arachnose, usually glandular as well.
Ray florets

11–17(–25);

corolla laminae abaxially greenish to purplish, adaxially yellow (drying to basally ochroleucous, apically blue, forming bull’s eye around disc), 10–25 × 2–4 mm, sparsely puberulent, glandular.
Disc florets

corollas yellow proximally, bluish distally.
Phyllaries

outer reflexed, apices mucronate, white-woolly;

inner appressed, margins hyaline, apices rounded, glabrous.
Heads

4–7 cm diam. (across the rays).
Cypselae

dark brown, 3 mm, densely woolly;

pappi ca. 0.5 mm (usually hidden by hairs on cypselae).

Arctotheca calendula
Phenology Flowering Oct–Aug.
Habitat Roadsides, old fields, other disturbed habitats
Elevation 0–300 m (0–1000 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
CA; Africa [Introduced in North America]
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Most populations of Arctotheca calendula are sterile and spread aggressively by stolons; at least three populations in the flora are fertile and highly invasive. The species is listed by the California Exotic Pest Plant Council (CalEPPC) as a weed with the potential to spread explosively (Red Alert, CDFA A).

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 19, p. 197.
Parent taxa Asteraceae > tribe Arctotideae > Arctotheca
Synonyms Arctotis calendula, Cryptostemma calendula
Name authority (Linnaeus) Levyns: J. S. African Bot. 8: 284. (1942)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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