Sphenocleaceae FAMILY

Sphenoclea zeylanica

Edibility

3/5

Medicinal

0/5

Safety & Hazards

None known

Cultivation Details

HabitAnnual

Growth—

A plant of lowland tropical and subtropical areas, both in regions with all year rainfall and those with a distinct dry season^[1]. Originally native to Africa, the plant has spread widely as a weed through many areas of the tropics and subtropics. Almost every flower on every inflorescence sets fruit; only one or two flowers are open at once on any one head so the seed is produced over a long season^[1]. It has become invasive in some areas^[2].

Propagation

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

Pollinators

Data unavailable

References

[1]Flora Malesiana Series 1 — Various · Nationaal Herbarium Nederiand, Universiteit Leiden branch · http://www.archive.org ↩︎A massive treatment of the plants of the Malaysian Archipelago. Much of it has been made available to download from the Internet
[2]Pacific Island Ecosystems at Risk — http://www.hear.org/pier/scientificnames/index.html ↩︎A very good website detailing weed species that have been introduced into the Pacific Islands.
[3]Cornucopia II — Facciola. S. · Kampong Publications, California. · 1998 · ISBN 0-9628087-2-5 ↩︎The second edition of an excellent guide to the edible uses of plants, though it does not give any details of cultivation etc.