Asteraceae FAMILY

Guizotia scabra

Edibility

2/5

Medicinal

2/5

Safety & Hazards

None known

Cultivation Details

HabitPerennial

Growth—

A plant of drier areas in the tropics, where it is found at elevations up to 1,200 metres^[1]. In Tanzania it grows in areas where the mean annual rainfall is in the range 1,100 - 1,700 mm^[1]. Succeeds in a variety of soils^[1]. A common weed plant in east Africa, where it often invades a field immediately after a major crop has been harvested^[1]. The plant often grows profusely and gregariously as a weed, making it easy to harvest when mature^[1].

Propagation

Seed - Cite as: Tropical Plants Database, Ken Fern. tropical.theferns.info. 2026-02-20. <tropical.theferns.info/viewtropical.php?id=Guizotia+scabra>

Pollinators

Insects

References

[1]Edible Wild Plants of Tanzania — Ruffo, C.K.: Birnie, A. & Tengnas, B. · Regional Land Management Unit; Nairobi. · 2002 · ISBN 9966-896-60-0 ↩︎A very well presented, simple guide to growing and utilizing wild food plants in Tanzania, with line drawings of each plant, a description, habitat and range, non-food as well as food uses, plus basic information on growing the plants.
[2]Protabase - Plant Resources of Tropical Africa. — http://www.prota.org ↩︎An excellent on-line database with detailed information on over 3,200 species of useful plants of Africa.
[3]The Useful Plants of West Tropical Africa. — Burkil. H. M. · Royal Botanic Gardens; Kew. · 1985 - 2004 ↩︎Brief descriptions and details of the uses of over 4,000 plants. A superb, if terse, resource, it is also available electronically on the Web - see http://www.aluka.org/