Mostly perennial, often rooting from lower nodes. Leaves petiolate; lamina broadly ovate to orbicular, usually cordate at base, c. 1.5–5 cm long and wide, usually shallowly to deeply 3–7-lobed, margins crenate to dentate, surfaces glabrescent or with scattered stellate and/or simple hairs; stipules ovate-triangular, 2–4 mm long. Pedicels 1–4 cm long, elongating in fruit; epicalyx lobes 3–5 mm long (to 8 mm in fruit); calyx c. 5 mm long at anthesis, lobes obtuse to broadly acute; petals orange-red, slightly exceeding calyx. Ripe mericarps resembling a horse's head, c. 4 mm long, bristly along the dorsal and apical crest, glabrous and transversely wrinkled near base; seeds reniform, c. 1.5 mm long, separated by an incomplete transverse partition. Flowers Sep.–Mar.
MuM, Wim, GleP, VVP, VRiv, MuF, GipP, OtP, WaP, Gold, CVU, DunT, NIS, EGL, EGU, WPro, HSF, HNF, OtR, Strz, MonT, VAlp. Naturalised in all states except NT. A common weed of gardens, and disturbed sites on moist or fertile soils.
Source:
Walsh, N.G. (1996). Modiola. In: Walsh, N.G.; Entwisle, T.J., Flora of Victoria Vol. 3, Dicotyledons Winteraceae to Myrtaceae, pp. 339–340. Inkata Press, Melbourne.
