False Ragweed, Cicutilla

Parthenium hysteropherus

Family: Asteraceae

Plant Description: Annual, 3-23 cm high, with 1- to 2-pinnatifid leaves 10-20 cm long, strong smell, alternate leaves, twice lobed. Heads in corymbs, mostly 3-5 mm wide. Disks and rays white or greenish white; disk flowers infertile.

Plant Trivia: A weed pets and hay fever plant.

Field Identification: Flowers resemble tiny cabbages.

Occurrence: Common on various soils in waste places and fields and along roads or sometimes in pastures and woods

Bloom Period: Spring-Fall

Plant Use:

Key to the species of Parthenium:

  1. Upper leaves mostly pinnatifid……………………………………………….P. confertum

Upper leaves entire or slightly lobed……………………. ………..P. histerophorus