From Ferdinand von Mueller to the Weekly Times   [May 1872]

Several notices having lately appeared in various Victorian journals concerning the Hypochoeris radicata, which latterly made its appearance in our colony, causes you to wish some fuller information on this plant.¹ It one of the most common weeds of almost the whole of Europe. It may thus have come to us from the Atlantic, or Mediterranean, or from the Baltic or North Sea. In Britain, it is to be found everywhere. It occurs also in North Africa and West Asia. The downy hairs of the pappus crowning the little seedlike fruits, are similar to those of the dandelion (taraxacum), of the picris, and of various thistles and other allied plants. The seeds are thus readily wafted onward through the air when the plant is once fairly established, and they adhere thus also easily to packing material, such as hay, or straw, or anything else in which merchandise is brought to us. Indeed, it is rather curious that the Hypochoeris radicata did not long since find its way to this colony, considering our extensive mercantile traffic with Europe. As early as 1847 I saw the congeneric Hypochoeris glabra in South Australia, and that particular species I noticed near Melbourne as far back as 1852. But as it is an annual herb, and smaller than Hypochoeris radicata, which is perennial, it neither falls so readily into view, nor does it maintain its ground with the same obstinacy. To show with what capriciousness certain weeds show themselves in one country, remaining absent from another, may be instanced by this very Hypochoeris glabra, mentioned above. While the latter is comparatively frequent in England, it hardly occurs in Scotland, and is absent in Ireland, though it extends into Sweden, and Norway, and the Alps. The precise date of the spread of Hypochoeris radicata in Australia can probably not be fixed. Dr. Woolls noticed it several, if not many, years ago at Parramatta, and it is enumerated from them² in the third volume of the "Flora of Australia" in 1866;³ while, on the other hand, the so-called Cape Weed, (Cryptostemma calendulareum⁴), which was recorded 40 years ago from Swan River by Baron von Huegel,⁵ has only within the last few years made its appearance near Sydney, though it was near Melbourne for more than twenty years. The Cryptostemma again has only quite recently shown itself in Tasmania. Again the perennial European thistle (Carduus arvensis), the worst of all, existed for many years in Tasmania, but has come only quite late over to us. In Dr. Hooker's "Manual of New Zealand Plants," vol ii., p. 760, finished in 1867,⁶ the Hypochoeris radicata is given as naturalised in the Northern Island, but the Hypochoeris glabra, which we had here since such a very long time, is not yet there. Cyperus rotundus is one of the most dreadful weeds immigrated into North America, and established also in East Australia since many years, of which plant we must endeavour to keep free. I fear our traffic will bring yet many other weeds into our colony as bad as thistles or sorrel. Thus in New Zealand now already 170 species of European plants are already immigrated and permanently naturalised. Dr. Robert Brown, the companion of Captain Flinders saw the sow thistle and the Picris Nieraoioides⁷ (the latter a near ally to the Hypochoeris radicata) already about seventy years ago wild at Port Jackson.⁸ In conclusion, I would only yet remark that the name Hypochoeris is derived, from the fact that pigs, when in quest of food, seek to get the roots of this plant, and this may possibly indicate some of the means to get rid of this weed on pasture land, roadsides, and other localities.

Carduus arvensis

Cryptostemma calendulareum

Cyperus rotundus

Hypochoeris glabra

Hypochoeris radicata

Picris Nieraoioides

Taraxacum