Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses

YERBA DE TAJO

File Size: 41 KB

Eclipta prostrata (L. ) L.

Pawnee County, Kansas

Annual

Height: 4-30 inches

Family: Asteraceae - Sunflower Family

Flowering Period: August, September

Stems:

Erect or decumbent, sometimes ascending from spreading base, usually branched, sparsely to densely pubescent, especially near tip, base sometimes glabrous, longitudinally ridged.

Leaves:

Opposite, simple, short-stalked or sessile, lanceolate to lance-linear, .8 to 4 inches long, 1/6 to 1.2 inch wide, thin, dark green, 1- or 3-nerved; surfaces sparingly pubescent; margins entire or finely toothed; tip tapering to sharp point, lower or early leaves sometimes rounded; base tapered, bases of upper leaves somewhat clasping stem.

Inflorescences:

Heads solitary or 2-3 in small clusters, small, inconspicuous, 1/6 to 2/5 across, terminal or in axils, short- to long-stalked; involucre hemispheric, bracts 10-12, in 1 or 2 series, nearly equal or inner bracts slightly shorter.

Flowers:

Ray florets 20-40, inconspicuous, slender, 1/25 to 1/8 inch long; disk florets 15-100+, corollas white, 4-toothed.

Fruits:

Achene, wedge-shaped to triangular, 1/12 to 1/10 inch long, thick, straw-colored to brown, surface warty, pappus absent or minute crown, enclosing one seed.

Habitat:

Moist, open disturbed sites, stream and river banks, lake and pond shores, seeps, marshes, ditches, gardens, fallow fields, muddy sites; sandy soils.

Distribution:

Principally east 2/3 of Kansas, scattered in west

Origin:

Native

Reproduction:

By seeds

Uses:

Introduced to India where it was used to create a black dye for hair coloring and tatooing.

Comments:

Yerba de tajo is weedy and sometimes forms mats. Spanish yerbe "herb" and tajo "ditch", alluding to it being found along ditches. Greek ekleipsis " a failing", perhaps in reference to the absent pappus.

Yerba de tajo