Launaea sarmentosa (Willd.) Sch. Bip.

Common Name : Beach Launaea
Family : Asteraceae

Habit: An annual or perennial, rosulate, creeping, glabrous.

Stem: Stems several, flagelliform, creeping, 20-90 cm, branched; nodes 4-15 cm apart, with adventitious roots and secondary leaf rosettes.

Leaves: Rosette leaves spatulate, 3-8 × 0.6-1 cm, sinuate-dentate to pinnately lobed, attenuate towards base, margin weakly to distinctly denticulate, apex acute, obtuse, or rounded.

Flowers: Capitulum solitary, terminating secondary leaf rosettes along stems, with usually 14-18 florets; corolla yellow.

Fruits: Achenes weakly dimorphic, brownish to blackish, columnar to cylindric, 3-5 mm; outer achenes with 5 thick soft ribs, smooth, apex pointed to subtruncate; inner achenes with 4 ribs. Pappus 4-8 mm, caducous with pappus disk.