Soliva sessilis
Ruiz & Pav. Jo JoAnnual herb, unbranched, or with prostrate, conspicuously hairy branches sometimes rooting at nodes. Leaves 2- or 3-pinnatisect, 1.5–5 cm long, sparsely to moderately hairy. Capitula 4–10 mm diam. in fruit. Cypsela body 2.5–3 mm long, brown or purplish, glabrous or with a few, scattered, eglandular, somewhat rigid hairs and with spinescent, rigid stylar apices 1.5–2 mm long; lateral wings absent or narrow to well-developed, smooth, entire or 2-lobed, both rounded apically or each extending into an acuminate lobe. Flowers Sep.–Feb.
Wim, GleP, VVP, VRiv, MuF, GipP, OtP, WaP, Gold, CVU, GGr, DunT, NIS, EGL, EGU, WPro, HSF, HNF, OtR, Strz, MonT, VAlp. Also naturalised WA, SA, Qld, NSW, ACT, Tas. Native to South America. First recorded in Victoria in the 1890s, with specimens coming from Hawkesdale and Coburg, and now a widespread weed of disturbed ground and lawns throughout most of the State.
The species exhibits marked variation in fruit morphology, and cypsela characteristics have been used to recognise a number of entities as distinct species. However, field, cultivation and crossing studies by Webb (1986) indicate that these inbreeding forms are best regarded as a single species, plants with distinctive cypsela forms having being found on crossing to produce fully fertile progeny with intermediate cypsela morphologies.
Short, P.S. (1999). Soliva. In: Walsh, N.G.; Entwisle, T.J., Flora of Victoria Vol. 4, Cornaceae to Asteraceae, pp. 934–936. Inkata Press, Melbourne.
Spinning
