Conyza bilbaoana J.Rémy
Canadian fleabane
Erect annual to biennial herb, up to 1.5 m tall. Stems ridged, sparsely hispid, becoming almost glabrous below. Cauline lvs elliptic to narrow-oblanceolate or linear, flat, apetiolate and cuneate, acute, entire, remotely serrate, or shallowly 1-pinnatifid, usually almost glabrous except for short cilia, sometimes sparsely to moderately scaberulous, 40-80-(120) × 3-10-(20) mm; uppermost lvs smaller, often ± linear. Infl. a long, leafy pyramidal panicle with dominant main axis. Capitula 1.5-2.5 mm diam.; receptacle with raised flanges between pits. Inner involucral bracts narrow-triangular, green, later tinged purple, glabrous, 3.2-4 mm long; outer bracts glabrous or with few hairs or ciliate. Outer florets filiform or with inconspicuous ligules < 0.5 mm long, cream, later tinged purple. Achenes obovoid-cylindric, sparsely hairy, 1.2-1.4 mm long; pappus hairs cream.
N.; S.: throughout.
S. America 1855
Waste places, riverbeds, cultivated land, and rocky hillsides.
FL Sep-May-(Aug).
This sp. has usually been misidentified in N.Z., and elsewhere in the S. Hemisphere as C. canadensis (Michael, op. cit.). C. bilbaoana is easily distinguished from C. canadensis sens. strict. by the inconspicuous ligules, and the narrow-triangular, inner involucral bracts (Fig. 19). It has also been known in N.Z. as Erigeron canadensis and E. acris.
