Arctotheca populifolia

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Arctotheca populifolia
Arctotheca populifolia flower yellow.JPG
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Asterids
Order: Asterales
Family: Asteraceae
Genus: Arctotheca
Species:
A. populifolia
Binomial name
Arctotheca populifolia
Synonyms [1]
Synonymy
  • Anemonospermos verbascifoliaKuntze
  • Arctotheca niveaK.Lewin
  • Arctotis nivea(G.Nicholson) K.Lewin
  • Arctotis populifoliaP.J.Bergius
  • Arctotis verbascifoliaHarv.
  • Cryptostemma niveumG.Nicholson
  • Microstephium niveum(L.f.) Less.
  • Microstephium populifolium(P.J.Bergius) Druce
  • Osteospermum niveumL.f.

Arctotheca populifolia is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae known by the common names beach daisy, [2] Cape beach daisy, South African beach daisy, coast capeweed, dune arctotheca, beach pumpkin, [3] sea pumpkin, [4] dune cabbage, [5] and in South Africa, seepampoen, tonteldoek, and strandgousblom. [6] This species is native to coastal areas of the Cape Provinces and KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa, and of Mozambique. [7] It was introduced to Australia and is now a common weed of coastal areas in New South Wales, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, and Western Australia. [3]

Contents

Description

This plant is a perennial herb with thick, ribbed, decumbent stems growing in clumps up to 30 centimeters tall. The herbage is woolly, gray, and fleshy. [2] [8] The white-haired leaves have oval blades up to 6 centimeters long by 5 wide, with smooth or toothed edges. The inflorescence is borne on a woolly, erect peduncle up to 11 centimeters tall. The flower head is about 2 centimeters wide with yellow ray florets 5 to 7 millimeters long and yellow disc florets in the center. The fruit is a white-woolly cypsela about half a centimeter long. [2]

Ecology

This plant is a pioneer species of sandy coastal habitat types, such as dunes. It is a main factor in the formation of dune hummocks, a dune type formed in its native South Africa when wind deposits sand around it and other newly established beach plants. [5] One small form of dune hummock is a nabkha. This plant and its associate Gazania rigens form nabkhas that are inhabited by a variety of small animals such as nematodes and the sand flea Talorchestia capensis . [9]

The ability of the plant to colonize bare sand has helped it take hold on the Australian coastline. It was planted for beach stabilization in Western Australia until it became apparent that it was invasive. Native Spinifex grasses are now used for this purpose. [10] The beach daisy is now a coastal weed of much of temperate Australia. It can also grow on basaltic soils, allowing it to move inland from beaches to grasslands. [3]

The seeds of the plant are wind-dispersed, but because they remain viable in fresh and salt water, they are also commonly dispersed on the water. As a coastal species, they are carried on ocean currents. [8] [11] [12] The seeds can also be transported in soil and plant waste. [8]

As an invasive species, it competes with native plants such as hairy spinifex (Spinifex sericeus). It binds sand more efficiently, holding more of it and thus changing the topography of the dune systems. This process can interrupt the flow of seawater into and out of coastal lakes. [3] Even seedlings one centimeter tall can accumulate sand, building tiny dunes of their own. [5] Many shorebirds nest on bare sand beaches because they can more easily see predators, so the buildup of vegetation and hilly dunes interferes with their nesting. [11]

The flowers are pollinated by bees and flies. [6] [8] The plant is host to the arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus Septoglomus fuscum . [13] The seeds of the plant are a favored food item of the African hairy-footed gerbil (Gerbillurus paeba), which also eats T. capensis, the sand flea that lives in the dunes around the plant. [14]

Related Research Articles

<i>Osteospermum</i> Genus of plants

Osteospermum, is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the Calenduleae, one of the smaller tribes of the sunflower/daisy family Asteraceae. They are known as the daisybushes or African daisies. Its species have been given several common names, including African daisy, South African daisy, Cape daisy and blue-eyed daisy.

<i>Arctotheca calendula</i> Species of plant

Arctotheca calendula is a plant in the sunflower family commonly known as capeweed, plain treasureflower, cape dandelion, or cape marigold because it originates from the Western Cape Province in South Africa. It is also found in neighboring KwaZulu-Natal.

<i>Osteospermum moniliferum</i> Species of plant

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<i>Ammophila arenaria</i> Species of flowering plant in the grass family Poaceae

Ammophila arenaria is a species of grass in the family Poaceae. It is known by the common names marram grass and European beachgrass. It is one of two species of the genus Ammophila. It is native to the coastlines of Europe and North Africa where it grows in the sands of beach dunes. It is a perennial grass forming stiff, hardy clumps of erect stems up to 1.2 metres (3.9 ft) in height. It grows from a network of thick rhizomes which give it a sturdy anchor in its sand substrate and allow it to spread upward as sand accumulates. These rhizomes can grow laterally by 2 metres in six months. One clump can produce 100 new shoots annually.

<i>Gazania</i> Genus of flowering plants

Gazania is a genus of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae, native to Southern Africa.

<i>Spinifex</i> (coastal grass) Genus of grasses

Spinifex is a genus of perennial coastal plants in the grass family.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sandhill dunnart</span> Species of marsupial

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<i>Gazania linearis</i> Species of flowering plant

Gazania linearis is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae, with thin linear leaves, native to South Africa.

<i>Gazania rigens</i> Perennial plant in the daisy family from South Africa

Gazania rigens, sometimes called treasure flower, is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae, native to coastal areas of southern Africa. It is naturalised elsewhere and is widely cultivated as an ornamental plant.

<i>Arctotheca</i> Genus of plants

Arctotheca is a small genus of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae. They are annuals or perennials native to southern Africa. It is becoming an invasive weed in other parts of the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Angulate tortoise</span> Species of tortoise

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<i>Chaenactis glabriuscula</i> Species of flowering plant

Chaenactis glabriuscula, with the common name yellow pincushion, is a species of flowering plant in the daisy family. It is native to California and Baja California.

<i>Lupinus tidestromii</i> Species of legume

Lupinus tidestromii is a rare species of lupine known by the common names clover lupine and Tidestrom's lupine. It is endemic to the coastline of California just to the north and south of the Golden Gate in Sonoma, Marin, and Monterey Counties. It is a plant of the sand dunes at separate beach locations in these counties. A very limited amount of this plant's habitat remains; it is a federally listed endangered species. Construction of golf courses on the Monterey Peninsula caused the extirpation of two known occurrences, and boardwalks were built at Asilomar State Beach to prevent trampling of the delicate dune habitat there.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cape Flats Dune Strandveld</span> Endangered vegetation type endemic to the coastal areas around Cape Town

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<i>Spinifex sericeus</i> Species of grass

Spinifex sericeus, commonly known as hairy spinifex, rolling spinifex, beach spinifex or coastal spinifex, is a dioecious perennial grass.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nabkha</span>

A nabkha, nebkha or nebka is a type of sand dune. Other terms used include coppice dune and dune hummock or hummocky dune, but these more accurately refer to similar, but different, sand dune types. Authors have also used the terms phytogenic hillock, bush-mound, shrub-coppice dune, knob dune, dune tumulus, rebdou, nebbe, and takouit.

<i>Arctotis venusta</i> Species of plant

Arctotis venusta is a species of South African plants in the family Asteraceae. Common names include silver arctotis, kusgousblom, and blue-eyed African daisy. It is native to South Africa, Lesotho, Botswana, Namibia, and Zimbabwe. The species is widely cultivated as an ornamental, and has become naturalized in parts of the United States, Australia, and Central and South America, where it has escaped from gardens to become a noxious weed.

<i>Salix repens</i> Species of shrub

Salix repens, the creeping willow, is a small, shrubby species of willow in the family Salicaceae, growing up to 1.5 metres in height. Found amongst sand dunes and heathlands, it is a polymorphic species, with a wide range of variants. In the UK, at least, these range from small, prostrate, hairless plants at one end of the spectrum to taller, erect or ascending silky-leaved shrubs at the other. This wide variation in form has resulted in numerous synonyms.

<i>Olearia exiguifolia</i> Species of Asteraceae

Olearia exiguifolia commonly known as small-leaved daisy bush, is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae and is endemic to south-western Australia. It is an erect or straggly shrub with broadly egg-shaped leaves with the narrower end towards the base, and white and yellow, daisy-like inflorescences.

<i>Gazania maritima</i> Species of plant

Gazania maritima is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae, native to the Western Cape province, South Africa.

References

  1. ↑ The Plant List Arctotheca populifolia (P.J.Bergius) Norl.
  2. 1 2 3 Arctotheca populifolia. New South Wales Flora Online. National Herbarium, Royal Botanic Garden, Sydney.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Arctotheca populifolia. Weeds of Australia: Biosecurity Queensland Edition. University of Queensland.
  4. ↑ Manning, John C. (2007). Field Guide to Fynbos. Struik. p. 414. ISBN   978-1-77007-265-7.
  5. 1 2 3 Elliott, B.L.; et al. (2000). "Patterns of development and succession of vegetated hummocks in slacks of the Alexandria coastal dune field, South Africa" (PDF). Journal of Coastal Conservation. 6 (1): 79–88. doi:10.1007/bf02730471. S2CID   56205721.
  6. 1 2 Arctotheca populifolia. South African National Biodiversity Institute, PlantZAfrica.com.
  7. ↑ Arctotheca populifolia (P.J.Bergius) Norl. Plants of the World Online . Retrieved 30 September 2023.
  8. 1 2 3 4 Brown, K. L. and K. A. Bettink. (2009 onwards). Arctotheca populifolia. Swan Weeds: Management Notes. FloraBase — The Western Australian Flora. Department of Environment and Conservation.
  9. ↑ Hesp, P.; McLachlan, A. (February 2000). "Morphology, dynamics, ecology and fauna of Arctotheca populifolia and Gazania rigens nabkha dunes". Journal of Arid Environments. 44 (2): 155–172. doi:10.1006/jare.1999.0590.
  10. ↑ Dixon, Kingsley W. (2011). Coastal Plants: A Guide to the Identification and Restoration of Plants of the Perth Region. CSIRO Publishing. p. 238. ISBN   978-0-643-10222-4.
  11. 1 2 Volunteers battle beach daisies. Archived 2012-09-07 at the Wayback Machine Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources. Government of South Australia. June 29, 2012.
  12. ↑ Salleh, A. Message in a bottle helps fight weeds. ABC Science. February 15, 2008.
  13. ↑ Błaszkowski J, Chwat G, Kovács GM, Gáspár BK, Ryszka P, Orlowska E, Pagano MC, Araújo FS, Wubet T, Buscot F (2013). "Septoglomus fuscum and S. furcatum, two new species of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (Glomeromycota)". Mycologia. 105 (3): 670–680. doi:10.3852/12-127. PMID   23233507. S2CID   25942004.
  14. ↑ Ascaray, C.A.; McLachlan, A.; Randall, R.M. (1990). "Food preferences of Gerbillurus paeba exilis in a coastal dunefield, South Africa". Acta Theriologica. 35 (3–4): 181–9. doi: 10.4098/AT.arch.90-22 .
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