Biology:Lagascea mollis
| Lagascea mollis | |
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| Lagascea mollis flowering stem | |
Scientific classification 
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| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Eudicots |
| Clade: | Asterids |
| Order: | Asterales |
| Family: | Asteraceae |
| Genus: | Lagascea |
| Species: | L. mollis
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| Binomial name | |
| Lagascea mollis Cav.
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| Synonyms[1] | |
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Lagascea mollis, or silkleaf, is a species of herbaceous plant or subshrub native to the American tropics, but invasive elsewhere. It belongs to the family Asteraceae.[1]
Description
Here are field marks distinguishing silkleaf from similar flowering plants:[2]
- Stems may creep, straggle or stand upright to 1 m (3 ft 3 in) high and sometimes develop roots on the lower nodes where leaves attach.
- Leaves covered with short hairs, or trichomes, arise in pairs opposite one another, on petioles up to 27 mm (1 in) long. Blades are up to about 5.8 cm (2 1⁄2 in) long and around half as broad, and are widest below their middles; they gradually diminish to sharp tips. Blade margins are saw-toothed to nearly smooth, with 3-5 nerves arising at blade bases.
- Unlike the vast majority of Aster Family species, inflorescences appearing alone at stem tips consist of up 25 one-flowered floral heads, or capitula, so closely grouped that the inflorescence itself suggests one big floral head.
- The reduced flowers, or florets are "disc florets" with cylindrical corollas. Corollas are white to reddish purple with the tube part about 0.6 mm (1⁄32 in) long and the expanded part about 3 mm (1⁄8 in) in length, with lobes reaching 1 mm (1⁄16 in) long.
- One-seeded, cypsela-type fruits are hairy, brown to black, up to 3 mm (1⁄8 in) long, each topped by a minute "crown," the pappus. Each cypsela usually is surrounded by fused involucral bracts, or phyllaries.
Distribution
Lagascea mollis is occurs nearly throughout tropical America, from Mexico, the Caribbean and Central America south to Argentina, though it seems absent or unreported from the Amazon region.[3] Otherwise, it is nearly a pantropical weed, once even collected in Florida in the USA, probably as an ephemeral population introduced in ship ballast.[4]
Habitat
In Mexico silkleaf occurs alongside roads, abandoned areas and cultivated fields.[5]
Interactions with humans
In traditional medicine
In India, a paste made of the whole silkleaf plant mixed with camphor and mustard oil is applied on the chest and throat to treat colds, coughs and nasal congestion. A paste of the inflorescence mixed with black pepper and cow milk is given to cure dysentery.[6]
As forage
In Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula the Mayan people people regard silkleaf as forage for livestock.[7]
As a weed
In Mexico, silkleaf is considered a weed in fields of corn (maize), soybeans, rice, squash and sugarcane.[5] Also in Mexico, a study in weed control in fields of giant star grass, Cynodon plectostachyus, much grown as livestock forage, found that in a field plot of 1 hectare (2.5 acres) there were 16,590 silkleaf plants.[8]
As a potential herbicide
A phytochemical study of silkleaf found that compounds from the plant produced potent herbicidal activity on the rampant weed Johnson Grass.[9] Another study found allelopathic effects on cellular division and the first part of a seedling to emerge from the seed, the radicle, of cultivated rice plants.[10]
Taxonomy
In 1803 when Antonio José Cavanilles formally named and described Lagasca mollis, he remarked that his type specimen was from plants grown in the garden, from seeds sent from Havana.[11]
Etymology
The genus name Lagascea honors Mariano Lagasca y Segura, botanist at the Real Jardín Botánico de Madrid.[4]
The species name mollis is from the Latin mollis meaning "soft,"[12] possibly referring to silkleaf's silky-feeling leaves.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Lagascea mollis Cav.". United Kingdom: Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:134795-2.
- ↑ "Lagascea mollis Cav." (in es). published on the Internet from the Flora de Nicaragua. https://www.worldfloraonline.org/taxon/wfo-0000067218;jsessionid=587C6D42B658A0D5853050DD94711911#local.
- ↑ "Lagascea mollis Cav.". Catalogue of Life. May 15, 2026. https://www.catalogueoflife.org/data/taxon/3RVVF.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Harris, Elizabeth M.. "Lagascea Cavanilles. In Flora of North America North of Mexico (FNA)". St. Louis, MO & Harvard University Herbaria, Cambridge, MA, USA: New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press via eFloras.org. http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=117472.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Mondragón Pichardo, Juana (July 14, 2009). "Lagascea mollis Cav.". in Vibrans, Heike (in es). Mexico: Comisión Nacional para el Conocimiento y Uso de la Biodiversidad. http://www.conabio.gob.mx/malezasdemexico/asteraceae/lagascea-mollis/fichas/ficha.htm.
- ↑ Shrivastava, Chetna; Jain, Aruna (2014). "Phenological events and medicinal importance of some weeds of family Asteraceae". Indian Journal of Applied & Pure Biology (India) 29 (2): 277-282. https://www.biology-journal.org/fulltext/v29i2/ijapb29-2-13.pdf. Retrieved July 1, 2026.
- ↑ "Flora Ilustrada de la Península de Yucatán: Listado Florístico" (in es). Mérida, Yucatán, México: Centro de Investigación Científica de Yucatán, A.C.. https://www.cicy.mx/sitios/flora%20digital/documentos/Listado_floristico.pdf.
- ↑ Esqueda-Esquivel, Valentín A.; Montero-Lagunes, Maribel; Juárez-Lagunes, Frencisco I. (2009). "Efecto de métodos de control de malezas en la productividad y calidad del pasto Estrella de África (Cynodon plectostachyus (K. Schum.) Pilg.)" (in es). Tropical and Subtropical Agroecosystems (Mérida, Yucatán, México: Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán) 10: 393 - 404. https://www.revista.ccba.uady.mx/ojs/index.php/TSA/article/download/34/256. Retrieved July 1, 2026.
- ↑ Alarcón, S.R.Expression error: Unrecognized word "et". (December 2007). "Phytochemistry and phytotoxic activity of Lagascea mollis (asteraceae)" (in es). The Journal of Argentine Chemical Society (Buenos Aires, Argentina) 95 (1-2). ISSN 1852-1428. https://www.scielo.org.ar/scielo.php?pid=S1852-14282007000100004&script=sci_arttext. Retrieved July 1, 2026.
- ↑ Murillo P., Elizabeth; Viña P., Amparo; Ruíz T., Víctor H.; Pérez C., Carlos A. (2005). "Effecto alelopático de la fracción clorofórmica de Lagascea mollis Cav. (Asteraceae) sobre la germinación y el crecimiento radicular de Oryza sativa L." (in es). Vitae (Medellín, Colombia: Universidad de Antioquia) 12 (1): 63-71. ISSN 0121-4004. http://www.scielo.org.co/pdf/vitae/v12n1/v12n1a08.pdf. Retrieved July 1, 2026.
- ↑ Cavanilles, Antonio José (May 1803). "18" (in es). Anales de Ciencias Naturales. 6. Madrid: La Imprenta Real. pp. 332-333. https://bibdigital.rjb.csic.es/viewer/10138/?offset=#page=343&viewer=picture&o=bookmark&n=0&q=.
- ↑ "moil". Merriam-Webster, Incorporated. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/moil.
Wikidata ☰ Q15597139 entry
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