Click on images to enlarge
habit prior to flowering (Photo: Sheldon Navie)
habit with old flowering stems (Photo: Sheldon Navie)
once-compound leaves with several toothed leaflets (Photo: Sheldon Navie)
flower buds and female flowers (Photo: Sheldon Navie)
close-up of male flowers (Photo: Greg Jordan)
old flowers (Photo: Sheldon Navie)
mature fruit (Photo: Sheldon Navie)
close-up of seeds (Photo: Steve Hurst at USDA PLANTS Database)
Scientific Name
Sanguisorba minor Scop. subsp. muricata (Spach) Briq.
Synonyms
Poterium polygamum Waldst. & Kit.Poterium sanguisorba sensu L.Sanguisorba muricata (Spach) Gremli
Family
Rosaceae
Common Names
burnet, fodder burnet, garden burnet, little burnet, salad burnet, sheep's burnet, small burnet
Origin
Native to north-western Africa (i.e. Algeria), southern Europe (i.e. Greece, Italy, France and Spain), western Asia (i.e. Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq and Turkey) and Pakistan.
Naturalised Distribution
Widely naturalsied in southern Australia (i.e. in eastern and southern New South Wales, in the ACT, in Victoria and Tasmania, in many parts of South Australia, and in south-western Western Australia). Occasionally also naturalised in south-eastern Queensland.
Notes
Sheep's burnet (Sanguisorba minor subsp. muricata) is regarded as a minor environmental weed in South Australia and Victoria, and as a potential environmental weed or "sleeper weed" in other parts of southern Australia.