Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

Crassocephalum crepidioides

Flower heads and leaves. Australian Plant Image Index, photographer Murray Fagg, between Cairns and Kuranda, Qld

Flowering and seeding stems. Australian Plant Image Index, photographer unknown, Australian Tropical Rainforest key

Common name

Thickhead

Family

Asteraceae

Where found

Weed of disturbed sites, cultivation, and waste places. Coast and ranges north of Wollongong.

Notes

Introduced annual herb to 1 m high. Stems sparsely hairy, prominently ribbed. Leaves alternating up the stems, to 20 cm long, to 100 mm wide; bases often with a pair of stipule-like lobes, margins coarsely toothed. Upper leaves smaller, not lobed or with a lobe on each side towards the base. Flower heads about 4 mm in diameter, in loose few to many-flowered clusters, nodding at first, later erect. Flower heads mostly with long stalks, sometimes 2-3 in a cluster. Bracts surrounding the flower heads to 8-12 mm long. Florets orange, brownish, or reddish, slightly exceeding the bracts. Flowering: summer to autumn.

PlantNET description:  http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Crassocephalum~crepidioides (accessed 7 January, 2021)