Parthenium hysterophorus L.

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Photo: Bart Wursten
Canda Community, lower slopes Mt Gorongosa, Mozambique

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Synonyms:
Common names:	Congress grass (E) Demoina weed (E) Feverfew (E) Parthenium (E)
Frequency:	Local
Status:	Introduced
Description:	Bushy much-branched annual herb to 1 m. Leaves sessile, up to 10 × 5 cm, deeply 2-pinnately lobed with obtuse ultimate segments, densely puberulent below, less so above. Panicle large and lax. Capitula c.3 mm in diameter, hemispheric. Phyllaries in 2 series, 2-3 mm. Rays c.0.5 mm, white, ± circular, 5 per capitulum. Fertile achenes black, c.2 mm, broadly obovoid, flattened, pubescent near apex.
Notes:	Not recorded for Zimbabwe in Wild (1967). First reported for Zimbabwe from Rainham Dam (R B Drummond, pers. comm.) First noticed by me (MAH) on the roadside verge in Chancellor Avenue, Harare in c.1990, but not collected until 1993, by which time the species had spread intermittently northwards along Chancellor Avenue as far north as the Veterinary Research establishment and southwards to about 100 m south of Josiah Tongogara Avenue. Further plants had also appeared in Fifth Street extension to the north of Josiah Tongogara Avenue. Since then, the spread of the species around Harare has been suprisingly slow.
Derivation of specific name:
Habitat:	Roadsides and disturbed places
Altitude range: (metres)
Flowering time:	All year
Worldwide distribution:	Native of S and C America; naturalised elsewhere in the tropics
Zimbabwe distribution:	WCE
Growth form:	A
Insects (whose larvae eat this species):
Literature:
Endemic status:
Red data list status:
Spot characters:	Display spot characters for this species
Content last updated:	Saturday 12 January 2008

Other sources of information about Parthenium hysterophorus:

Flora of Mozambique: Parthenium hysterophorus
Biodiversity Explorer (Biodiversity of southern Africa): Parthenium hysterophorus
ePIC (electronic Plant Information Center): Parthenium hysterophorus
Flora Zambesiaca web site: Parthenium hysterophorus
Google: Web - Images - Scholar
GRIN (Germplasm Resources Information Network) taxonomy for plants report for Parthenium hysterophorus
IPNI (International Plant Names Index): Parthenium hysterophorus
Kew Herbarium catalogue: Parthenium hysterophorus
West African Plants database: Parthenium hysterophorus