Senecio angulatus
Environmental Weed (2024)
Common names
Cape ivy
Biostatus
Exotic
Category
Vascular
Structural class
Trees & Shrubs - Dicotyledons
Flower colours
Yellow
Detailed description
Glabrous, scandent, perennial herb, sometimes forming a dense tangled shrub up to 2m tall. Stems usu. sparingly branched. Leaves petiolate; petiole generally = lamina, not amplexicaul; lamina not lobed, ovate to deltoid, obtuse to acute, mucronate, obtuse to truncate at base, coarsely toothed with 1~3 convex-sided teeth on each side and lowermost teeth often distinctly larger, approx. 30~60 x 25~50mm; venation palmate-pinnate. Uppermost leaves becoming smaller, narrower, with fewer teeth or entire. Capitula in open terminal panicles. Supplementary bracts 4~7, linear to subulate, 1.5~2.5mm long. Involucral bracts 8~11, oblong, 5~6mm long. Ray florets 5; ligules yellow, 6~11mm long. Disc yellow. Achenes terete, with hairs on ribs, around 4mm long; pappus 5~7mm long. (-Webb et. al., 1988)
Similar taxa
A vigorous, sprawling climber with glossy, fleshy leaves (Porteus 1993). The leaves are fleshy, with an angular shape and thick stems. The leaves are arrow shaped with 1 to 3 convex teeth on the sides. A plant that is a scrambling shrub. The flowers are conspicuously yellow. The flower is small, five-rayed and yellow.
Habitat
Terrestrial. A plant that usually grows in drier, more open sites, mostly by the sea coast. A plant that occurs in waste places and scrubland, especially near the sea (Webb et. al. 1988). A plant that occurs at forest margins and coastal areas.
Conservation status
Not applicable
Detailed taxonomy
Family
Ecology
Flowering
March, April, May, June, July, August
Year naturalised
1940
Origin
South Africa
Reason for introduction
Ornamental
Life cycle and dispersal
Perennial. A plant that spreads out rapidly by runners. Seed is believed to be non-viable. Seeds are spread by wind.
Other information
Etymology
senecio: From the Latin senex ‘old man’ (probably referring to the bearded seeds)
Environmental Weed (2024)
This plant is named in a list of 386 environmental weeds in New Zealand 2024 prepared by DOC. 759 candidate species were considered for inclusion on this new comprehensive list of environmental weeds in New Zealand. The species considered were drawn from published lists of weed species, lists of plants that must be reported or managed by law if observed, existing national and regional programmes and agreements for pest management, and species already managed by the Department of Conservation (DOC). Candidate species were then assessed to see if they were fully naturalised and whether they have more than minor impacts in natural ecosystems. Read the full report here.
NVS code
The National Vegetation Survey (NVS) Databank is a physical archive and electronic databank containing records of over 94,000 vegetation survey plots - including data from over 19,000 permanent plots. NVS maintains a standard set of species code abbreviations that correspond to standard scientific plant names from the Ngä Tipu o Aotearoa - New Zealand Plants database.
SENANG