Click on images to enlarge
dense infestation (Photo: Sheldon Navie)
habit (Photo: Sheldon Navie)
creeping habit (Photo: Sheldon Navie)
scrambling habit (Photo: Sheldon Navie)
leaves and flower-heads borne on very long stalks (Photo: Sheldon Navie)
paired lower leaves with deeply-toothed margins (Photo: Sheldon Navie)
close-up of hairy stems and leaf undersides (Photo: Sheldon Navie)
upper leaves, hairy stems and flower-heads from side-on (Photo: Chris Gardiner)
close-up of seeds (Photo: Sheldon Navie)
seedling (Photo: Sheldon Navie)
young plants (Photo: Sheldon Navie)
close-up of flower-head with toothed pale yellow 'petals' (Photo: Sheldon Navie)
Scientific Name
Tridax procumbens L.
Synonyms
Family
Asteraceae (New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, Tasmania, Western Australia and the Northern Territory)Compositae (South Australia)
Common Names
coat buttons, coatbuttons, Mexican daisy, tridax, tridax daisy, wild daisy
Origin
Native to Mexico, Central America (i.e. Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua) and tropical South America (i.e. Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia and Peru).
Naturalised Distribution
Widely naturalised in northern and eastern Australia (i.e. throughout large parts of Queensland, in far north-eastern New South Wales, in the northern and central parts of the Northern Territory, and in Western Australia). Also naturalised on Christmas Island, the Cocos Islands and the Coral Sea Islands.
Naturalised elsewhere in the tropical regions of the world, including in south-eastern USA (i.e. Florida), Africa (e.g. Zimbabwe), south-eastern Asia (i.e. Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam), and on numerous Pacific islands (e.g. the Galápagos Islands, Fiji, French Polynesia, Guam, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, Nauru, New Caledonia, Palau, Western Samoa, the Solomon Islands and Hawaii).
Environmental Impact
Notes
Tridax daisy (Tridax procumbens) is regarded as an environmental weed in Western Australia, the Northern Territory and Queensland.