Arctotheca calendula

(L.) Levyns

Cape dandelion, Capeweed

AsteraceaeLeavesRoots

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What to Eat

Edible parts: Pollen, Root, Young leaves, Caution

The young leaves are eaten raw as a snack or cooked as a vegetable, and the pollen is used in cooking. The roots are also edible.

Where to Find It

It is a temperate or subtropical plant. In Argentina it grows from sea level to 500 m above sea level.

Africa, Argentina, Australia, Chile, Hawaii, Pacific, South Africa, Southern Africa, South America, Tasmania,

Countries: Angola, Argentina, Australia, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Benin, Bolivia, Brazil, Botswana, Congo (DRC), Central African Republic, Congo (Republic), Cote d'Ivoire, Chile, Cameroon, Colombia, Cape Verde, Djibouti, Algeria, Ecuador, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Fiji, Micronesia, Gabon, French Guiana, Ghana, Gambia, Guinea, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Kenya, Kiribati, Comoros, Liberia, Lesotho, Libya, Morocco, Madagascar, Marshall Islands, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Nauru, New Zealand, Peru, Papua New Guinea, Palau, Paraguay, Rwanda, Solomon Islands, Seychelles, Sudan, Sierra Leone, Senegal, Somalia, Suriname, South Sudan, Sao Tome & Principe, Eswatini, Chad, Togo, Tunisia, Tonga, Tuvalu, Tanzania, Uganda, United States, Uruguay, Venezuela, Vanuatu, Samoa, South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe

How to Identify

An annual herb. It has a short stem or no stem. It can grow 30 cm high and 80 cm wide. It has a taproot and ring of leaves at the base. The leaves are 5-25 cm long and 2-6 cm wide. The leaf stalks are 6 cm long. They clasp the stem. The leaves are spear shaped and backward pointing. They have deep lobes and are felted underneath. The flower head is 1.5 cm across and yellow.

Wikipedia

Source ↗

Arctotheca calendula is a plant in the sunflower family commonly known as capeweed, plain treasureflower, cape dandelion, or cape marigold because it occurs in the Western Cape Province in South Africa. It has a wide distribution in coastal areas of South Africa, extending from Namaqualand to Cape Point and as far as KwaZulu-Natal.

Other Information

Probably only a very minor edible plant.

Notes

Arctotheca calendula (L.) Levyns

Names & Synonyms

Alloiozonium arctotideum KunzeArctotheca calendulacea (R. Br.)Arctotheca calendulacea (L.) K. LewinArctotheca calendulaceum LewinArctotis calendula L.Arctotis hypochondriaceae Willd.Arctotis speciosa Salisb.Arctotis tristis L.Cryptostemma calendula (L.) DruceCryptostemma calendulaceum (L.) R. Br.Cryptostemma runcinatum R. Br.Cryptostemma triste (L.) Domin

References (9)

Facciola, S., 1998, Cornucopia 2: a Source Book of Edible Plants. Kampong Publications, p 33
http://permaculture.org.au/resources/pw-edible-weeds-and-foraging-around-perth.pdf
Kunkel,
J. S. African Bot. 8:284. 1942 (As Arctotheca calendula (L.) Levyns)
Peters, C. R., O'Brien, E. M., and Drummond, R.B., 1992, Edible Wild plants of Sub-saharan Africa. Kew. p 87 - eaten by baboons.
Ruiters-Welcome, A. K., 2019, Food plants of southern Africa. Ph.D. thesis. Univ. of Johannesburg p 32
Tasmanian Herbarium Vascular Plants list p 3 (Arctotheca calendula ?)
Welcome, A. K. & Van Wyk, B.-E., 2019, An inventory and analysis of the food plants of southern Africa. South African Journal of Botany 122 (2019) 136–179
Youngblood, D., 2004, Identification and Quantification of Edible Plant Foods in the Upper (Nama) Karoo, South Africa. Economic Botany 58 (Supplement) :S43-S65