Weed Identification

Australia > > Bitou Bush

Bitou Bush

Chrysanthemoides monilifera ssp. rotundata

THIS PLANT HAS BEEN DECLARED A WEED OF NATIONAL SIGNIFICANCE

Family: Asteraceae.

Form: Shrub

Origin: Native to South Africa.

Flowers/Seedhead: Flowers: Yellow, in clusters at the end of branches. Flowers mainly autumn and winter.

Description: Shrub to 2 m tall. Roots fibrous. Seeds greyish, shaped like a grain of wheat, but narrowing at one end.

Distinguishing features: Distinguished by sprawling habit, flowers in heads with up to 13 petal-like ray florets (some may not develop) and egg-shaped, green, fleshy fruit 5–8 mm long, drying to a seed with a black bony covering. Leaves mostly without teeth or slightly toothed.

Dispersal: By animals passing the indigestible seeds with a bony covering; also by water.

Confused With: Boneseed Chrysanthemoides monilifera ssp. monilifera, which usually has 5–7 petal-like ray florets in each head and toothed leaf margins.


Flowers & fruit

Notes: Probably first introduced in ships' ballast prior to 1908. Used for sand stabilisation by the Soil Conservation Service of NSW between 1946 and 1968. Now out of control and a serious weed of coastal sand dunes from near Tathra, NSW to SE Queensland. Not an agricultural problem as bushes are susceptible to trampling and are eaten by stock.

References:

    Noxious Weeds of Australia. W. Parsons and E. Cuthbertson, 1992, pages 273–277. The Biology of Australian Weeds. F. Panetta et al. (eds), Vol. 2, 1998, pages 49–61.

Web References: Search Australian web sites for further information on this weed.

Leaf, egg-shaped fruit, bony seed cover & seed
Juvenile
photo J.J. Dellow
Seedlings

This weed has been included in the WEEDeck field guide as card S06

More information about WEEDeck is available from Sainty & Associates Pty. Ltd.

 

Australia > > Bitou Bush

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