HerbWildAnnualMedicinal

Soliva sessilis Ruiz & Pav.

lawn burrweed

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Description

Soliva sessilis is a small, prostrate annual herb, usually 2–10 cm tall, forming dense mats. Stems are slender, creeping, and much-branched. Leaves are alternate, deeply pinnatifid to bipinnatifid, bright green, and arranged in basal rosettes or along the stems. Flower heads are very small, sessile, and borne in the leaf axils, lacking showy ray florets. Fruits are flattened achenes armed with sharp, rigid spines that readily attach to footwear, clothing, and animal fur.

Diagnostic Characters

Vegetative

Low-growing mat-forming herb with finely divided leaves.

Floral

Tiny sessile flower heads hidden among the leaves.

Fruit & Seed

Spiny achenes that readily adhere to animals and shoes.

Distribution

Native range: South America.

Introduced range: Widely naturalized in temperate and subtropical regions worldwide.

In Pakistan: Occasionally found in lawns, gardens, and disturbed sites in Pakistan.

Phenology

Flowering

Fruiting

Flowering: February–May Fruiting: March–June

Ethnobotany & Uses

Uses

Occasionally used in traditional medicine for minor skin ailments. Common lawn weed that reduces turf quality. Spiny fruits are troublesome to people and grazing animals.

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Where it grows on campus

This species is on the campus floristic list but was not pinned during the GPS mapping survey, so it has no map records yet.

Taxonomic Notes

Soliva sessilis is easily recognized by its prostrate habit, finely dissected leaves, and sharply spiny fruits. It is commonly known as Lawn Burweed or Onehunga Weed and is accepted by Flora of Pakistan, Plants of the World Online (POWO), and World Flora Online (WFO).