Crassocephalum crepidioides – Redflower Ragleaf

Crassocephalum crepidioides - Redflower Ragleaf, Crassocephalum (flowers)

Crassocephalum crepidioides - Redflower Ragleaf, Crassocephalum (flowers and leaves)

Crassocephalum crepidioides - Redflower Ragleaf, Crassocephalum (seeds)

Plant Name

Scientific Name: Crassocephalum crepidioides

Common Names: Redflower Ragleaf, Crassocephalum

Plant Characteristics

Duration: Annual

Growth Habit: Herb/Forb

Hawaii Native Status: Introduced. This naturalized weed is native to tropical Africa and Madagascar.

Flower Color: Burnt orange, pinkish orange, or red-orange, Red

Height: Up to 3 1/2 feet (1 m) tall

Description: The flower heads are in drooping clusters at the stem tips. The individual flower heads are narrowly bell-shaped and have yellow tipped with dull orange to red disks and no rays. The flowers are followed by erect, rounded seed heads with fluffy, white, wind-borne seeds. The leaves are green, alternate, coarsely and irregularly toothed, irregularly pinnately lobed, and elliptic, oblong, narrowly-egg-shaped, or lyre-shaped. The stems are upright and finely hairy near the top of the plant.

Here in Hawaii, Redflower Ragleaf grows along roadsides and in disturbed semi-dry to wet areas at low to middle elevations.

The similar Florida Tasselflower (Emilia fosbergii) and Scarlet Tasselflower (Emilia coccinea) have more brightly colored, erect, non-drooping flower heads.

Classification

Kingdom: Plantae – Plants
Subkingdom: Tracheobionta – Vascular plants
Superdivision: Spermatophyta – Seed plants
Division: Magnoliophyta – Flowering plants
Class: Magnoliopsida – Dicotyledons
Subclass: Asteridae
Order: Asterales
Family: Asteraceae – Aster family
Genus: Crassocephalum Moench – ragleaf
Species: Crassocephalum crepidioides (Benth.) S. Moore – redflower ragleaf

More About This Plant

Hawaii County Distribution Map