Matricaria discoidea (Pineapple Weed) - photos and description

 

 

 

 

 

 


Looking straight down on many plants

 

General: Annual plant with an upright growth habit, often with numerous flower heads. Foliage when crushed has a strong pineapple scent. Plants glabrous.

Flowers: Flower heads are discoid with tubular florets only. Flower heads terminal. Flower head measured at 4 mm diameter.

Leaves: Leaves alternate, dissected into linear lobes. Leaf highlighted in photo above was 18 mm long by 8 mm wide.

Height: Height listed in Budd's Flora to 40 cm, I measured plants to only 9 cm tall.

Habitat: Cultivated ground, waste ground and roadsides.

Abundance: Common.

Origin: Introduced. Flora of North America lists this plant as native to northwestern North America, and has spread eastward.

Synonym: Listed in some of the guides we use as Matricaria matricarioides.

When and where photographed: Photos taken July 1st, grassy trail in Aspen woods, about 20 km east of Regina, SK, and July 6th, waste ground, University of Regina, in our home of Regina, SK.