False Sow-thistle

Scientific Name:

Reichardia tingitana

False Sow-thistle plant
Photo: A J Brown

Status:

Native to the Mediterranean. Naturalised in Western Australia, South Australia, New South Wales and Victoria.

Plant Description:

Annual to perennial tap-rooted herb with fleshy and hairless leaves with minutely prickly margins. Basal leaves oblanceolate (lance-shaped with the narrow end attached to the stem), 2-17 cm long, 0.5-7 cm wide and often lobed. Stem leaves broad lanceolate, 2-10 cm long, up to 2 cm wide and generally without lobes but toothed.

Flowers yellow with a purplish base and the outer ‘petals’ (flowers) red-striped. Outer bracts of the involucre (cup of bracts around the flower-head) with wide scarious (dry and papery) margins.

Habitat:

Scattered on coastal sand dunes and on sandy soils in the far north-west of Victoria.

Region	Salinity Class	Waterlogging Class
Mallee	S0, S1, S2	W0, W1

Comments:

False Sow-thistle belongs to a group of mainly yellow-flowered daisies in the Tribe Lactuceae. The plants in this tribe are characterised by having a basal rosette of leaves (flat-weeds), milky sap in their stems and their flower-heads consisting entirely of ray florets (i.e. no ‘eye’ to the daisy). See Key to Yellow Daisy Flat-weeds.

Flower of False Sow-thistle
Photo: A J Brown

Involucre of bracts in flower-bud of False Sow-thistle
Photo: A J Brown

Leaf of False Sow-thistle
Photo: A J Brown

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