| Home | > | List of families | > | Asteraceae | > | Sonchus | > | dregeanus |
| Synonyms: |
Sonchus ecklonianus DC. |
| Common names: | |
| Frequency: | |
| Status: | Native |
| Description: |
An erect perennial herb 12–90 cm. tall, growing from a semi-woody taproot. Stems 1-several-branched from near the base, sometimes simple, ribbed. Leaves mostly in a basal rosette, very narrowly-oblanceolate to linear-elliptic, up to 12(19) cm long, blue-green; margin remotely lobed to sinuate-dentate or sharply denticulate, sometimes entire. Leaves along the stem few, grading into leaf-like bracts, or absent; lanceolate, sagittate-auriculate at the base; margin entire. Capitula few in lax heads, sometimes solitary; mature capitula often subtended by 1-several subsessile buds; capitula bases and subtending buds densely white woolly. Involucres cylindric-campanulate, up to c. 19 mm long in fruiting capitula, white-lanate below. Phyllaries olive-green, the outermost ovate, c. 3 mm long, woolly; the innermost c. 15 mm in flowering capitula, increasing to c. 19 mm in fruiting capitula, hairless, or setose on the midribs and apices. Florets numerous, yellow, c. 15 mm long; ligule c. 4 mm. long, strap-shaped. Achenes narrowly ellipsoid, c. 5 mm. long, pale-brown, slightly compressed, strongly 4-ribbed with 1–2 secondary ribs between; pappus white, c. 10 mm. long, composed of few minutely barbellate setae intermixed with down-like hairs. |
| Notes: | |
| Derivation of specific name: | |
| Habitat: | Open grassland on sandy soils and sometimes in disturbed areas. |
| Altitude range: (metres) | |
| Flowering time: | |
| Worldwide distribution: | Zimbabwe, Lesotho and Mpumalanga, KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape South Africa. Also in Madagascar. |
| Zimbabwe distribution: | W,S |
| Growth form(s): | |
| Endemic status: | |
| Red data list status: | |
| Insects associated with this species: | |
| Spot characters: | Display spot characters for this species |
| Literature: |
Chapano, C. & Mugarisanwa, N.H. (2003). Plants of the Matobo District National Herbarium and Botanic Garden, Zimbabwe Page 33. Mapaura, A. & Timberlake, J. (eds) (2004). A checklist of Zimbabwean vascular plants Southern African Botanical Diversity Network Report No. 33 Sabonet, Pretoria and Harare Page 28. Pope, G.V. (1992). Compositae Flora Zambesiaca 6(1) Page 224. Setshogo, M.P. (2005). Preliminary checklist of the plants of Botswana. Sabonet Report no. 37. Sabonet, Pretoria and Gaborone Page 38. |
| Home | > | List of families | > | Asteraceae | > | Sonchus | > | dregeanus |