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Electronic Flora of South Australia species Fact Sheet

Family: Asteraceae
Sonchus hydrophilus

Citation: Boulos in H. Eichler, Suppl. 331 (1965).

Synonymy: S. asper (L.) Hill var. gracilis sensu Cleland, S. Aust. Field Nat. 23~ 4:12-13 (1946), non Albert.

Common name: Native sow-thistle.

Description:
Annual, biennial or possibly perennial herb 50-120 cm high with a woody tap root; stem erect, usually unbranched, hollow, glabrous; basal leaves narrowly oblanceolate, shallowly sinuate-pinnatifid to entire with denticulate margins, 5-30 cm long, 1-3 cm wide, glabrous; cauline leaves oblanceolate to lanceolate, acute, with rounded appressed auricles, pinnatifid denticulate, 10-40 cm long, 2-6 cm wide, stiffly herbaceous, glabrous, prominently net-veined; peduncles 2-7 cm long, usually glandular-hairy, with 1-3 bracteoles.

Capitula in a panicle of umbel-like groups; involucres 10-12 mm long; bracts glabrous to glandular-hairy, entire; florets 100-200; ligules 4-5 mm long.

Achenes flattened, elliptic, 2.7-3.7 mm long, smooth, 3-ribbed on each face, with narrowly winged margins somewhat scabrous at both ends, brown to buff; pappus c. 8 mm long, more or less caducous.

Distribution:  Temporarily wet ground, edges of lakes and streams.

S.Aust.: NW, LE, FR, EP, NL, MU, YP, SL, KI, SE.   W.Aust.; Qld; N.S.W.; Vic.   New Guinea; New Zealand.

Conservation status: native

Flowering time: most of the year.


SA Distribution Map based
on current data relating to
specimens held in the
State Herbarium of South Australia

Biology: Close to S. asper, and likely to be an autotetraploid derived from S. asper subsp. glaucescens (Boulos, 1973); resembles the African S. gigas, a tetraploid which may have had a parallel origin from S. asper.

Author: Not yet available


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