Baccharis trinervis

Baccharis trinervis is a scrambling, somewhat woody shrub or subshrub of the Asteraceae native to humid lowland regions from Mexico through Central America to tropical South America and the Caribbean. Plants reach 1-3 m, with slender, angled, often arching stems that lean on adjacent vegetation. The alternate leaves are lanceolate to elliptic-ovate, 3-10 cm long and 1-4 cm wide, glabrous, glossy green, and characterised by three prominent longitudinal veins arising near the base — the feature giving rise to the specific epithet. Leaf margins are entire or finely serrate. The species is dioecious; small whitish flower heads about 4-5 mm long are massed in showy terminal and axillary corymbose panicles. Pistillate heads contain numerous filiform florets, while staminate heads bear fewer, broader-tubed florets. The achenes are small, ribbed, and crowned by a copious whitish pappus. It colonises forest edges, roadsides, pasture margins, and secondary growth.