Cinderella-weed

Synedrella nodiflora, commonly called Cinderella weed or nodeweed, is an erect or ascending annual herb in the Asteraceae family typically reaching 30-80 cm in height. The plant produces opposite, ovate to lanceolate, finely serrate leaves on slender hairy stems and bears small sessile yellow flowerheads clustered in the leaf axils, each head containing a few short ray florets and several disc florets. The achenes are dimorphic—peripheral ones flattened and winged, central ones cylindrical with stiff awns—facilitating dispersal by adhering to clothing and animal fur. The species is native to tropical America from Mexico and the West Indies south through Central and South America and has become a pantropical weed of roadsides, gardens, plantations, and disturbed ground throughout Africa, Asia, northern Australia, and Pacific islands. It thrives in moist, fertile, partially shaded conditions and reproduces prolifically by seed year-round in warm climates.