Cotula turbinata

Cotula turbinata, occasionally called brass buttons and commonly known in Afrikaans as ganskos (goose food), is a soft, hairy annual reaching heights from 5 cm to 30 cm. The plant may grow a single stem or it may branch. The habit may be erect or decumbent, reflecting the extent to which added branches bow to gravity.

Flowerheads grow solitary on long, slender stalks, naked but for some minute hairs. The lower stems of the plant in picture recline, thick and purplish red, their upper continuations and side-branches not as red, appearing soft and fleshy.

The species distribution is in the west of the Western Cape from Clanwilliam to the Peninsula and eastwards to the De Hoop Nature Reserve. The photo was taken near Piketberg.

The habitat is sandy flats, slopes and disturbed land receiving winter rain. The species is not considered to be threatened in its habitat early in the twenty first century.

The plant is an escape in southwestern Australia where it is known as funnel weed (Manning, 2007; Manning and Goldblatt, 1996; Bond and Goldblatt, 1984; iNaturalist; Wikipedia; http://pza.sanbi.org; https://florabase.dpaw.wa.gov.au; http://redlist.sanbi.org).