Mexican fleabane
Erigeron karvinskianus
Family · Asteraceae · Harmless
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The little daisy covering levada walls and stone walls in Madeira and the Azores, with flowers that open white and turn pink then purple on the same plant.
Walls and rocks · Roadsides and waste ground · Town and roadside · Streams and ditches
Also known asLatin American fleabane, Santa Barbara daisy
How to tell it
A delicate branched plant hanging from wall cracks. Small leaves, the lower ones three-lobed at the tip. Heads one to two centimetres with many fine rays, white when they open and progressively pink or purple with age, so the same patch carries flowers of several colours at once.
What it is confused with
No dangerous lookalikes known in the Iberian Peninsula.
What it is for
No use
It is a discreet and very widespread invader: it does not kill forest like kahili ginger, but it occupies the rock crevices where endemics would live, which is exactly where they have no alternative. It came from Mexico as a garden ornamental.
Where it occurs
Each square is an area with recorded observations of this plant. The lighter background is the set of areas where any of the entries has been observed, and serves as a reference. Note what this is not: it is not where the plant lives, it is where people record it, so trails and towns always look fuller than the mountains. Data from GBIF.
Sources
Community
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