Creeping oxeye

Sphagneticola trilobata, the creeping oxeye, Singapore daisy or wedelia, is a vigorous, mat-forming herbaceous perennial in the family Asteraceae, native to the Caribbean basin, Central America and northern South America and now widely naturalised as an invasive weed throughout the tropics and subtropics. The succulent, prostrate to ascending stems root readily at the nodes and form dense ground-covering carpets to about 30 centimetres tall. Opposite, sessile to short-petiolate leaves are fleshy, dark glossy green, broadly elliptic to ovate and characteristically three-lobed in their upper half, with coarsely toothed margins, 4 to 9 centimetres long. Bright yellow to deep golden-yellow flower heads are solitary on long peduncles arising from the leaf axils, about 2 to 3 centimetres across, with eight to thirteen ray florets surrounding a flat disc of tubular florets. The fruit is a small, tuberculate, three- to four-angled achene without a true pappus. It tolerates flooding, salt spray and partial shade, making it a noted pest in coastal and disturbed habitats.