The correspondence of Ferdinand von Mueller: ¶ Several notices having lately appeared in various Victorian journals concerning the Hypochoeris radicata, which latterly made its appearance in our colony, causes you to wish some fuller informatio...

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72.05.00b

Plant names

Carduus arvensis
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Cryptostemma calendulareum
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Cyperus rotundus
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Hypochoeris glabra
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Hypochoeris radicata
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Picris Nieraoioides
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Taraxacum
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Preferred Citation:

Ferdinand von Mueller to the Weekly Times, 1872-05 [72.05.00b]. R.W. Home, Thomas A. Darragh, A.M. Lucas, Sara Maroske, D.M. Sinkora, J.H. Voigt and Monika Wells (eds), Correspondence of Ferdinand von Mueller, <https://vmcp.rbg.vic.gov.au/id//letters/1870-9/1872/72-05-00b-final.odt>, accessed June 4, 2026

Letter not found. The text given here is from 'Noxious weeds', Weekly times (Melbourne), 1 June 1872, pp. 6-7 (B72.06.02). It is introduced by 'Baron von Mueller has kindly furnished us with the following valuable information concerning the undermentioned weeds, which will, we feel sure, be of interest to many of our readers:—'.

Several notices having lately appeared in various Victorian journals concerning the , which latterly made its appearance in our colony, causes you to wish some fuller information on this plant.

No letter of request has been found.

It one of the most common weeds of almost the whole of Europe. It may thus have come to us from the Atlantic, or Mediterranean, or from the Baltic or North Sea. In Britain, it is to be found everywhere. It occurs also in North Africa and West Asia. The downy hairs of the pappus crowning the little seedlike fruits, are similar to those of the dandelion (taraxacum), of the picris, and of various thistles and other allied plants. The seeds are thus readily wafted onward through the air when the plant is once fairly established, and they adhere thus also easily to packing material, such as hay, or straw, or anything else in which merchandise is brought to us. Indeed, it is rather curious that the did not long since find its way to this colony, considering our extensive mercantile traffic with Europe. As early as 1847 I saw the congeneric in South Australia, and that particular species I noticed near Melbourne as far back as 1852. But as it is an annual herb, and smaller than , which is perennial, it neither falls so readily into view, nor does it maintain its ground with the same obstinacy. To show with what capriciousness certain weeds show themselves in one country, remaining absent from another, may be instanced by this very , mentioned above. While the latter is comparatively frequent in England, it hardly occurs in Scotland, and is absent in Ireland, though it extends into Sweden, and Norway, and the Alps. The precise date of the spread of in Australia can probably not be fixed. Dr. Woolls noticed it several, if not many, years ago at Parramatta, and it is enumerated from them

there?

in the third volume of the "Flora of Australia" in 1866;

Bentham (1863-78), vol. 3, p. 677.

while, on the other hand, the so-called Cape Weed, (

Typesetter's misreading of calendulaceum?

), which was recorded 40 years ago from Swan River by Baron von Huegel,

Bentham (1837a), p. 67.

has only within the last few years made its appearance near Sydney, though it was near Melbourne for more than twenty years. The Cryptostemma again has only quite recently shown itself in Tasmania. Again the perennial European thistle ( ), the worst of all, existed for many years in Tasmania, but has come only quite late over to us. In Dr. Hooker's "Manual of New Zealand Plants," vol ii., p. 760, finished in 1867,

Hooker (1864-7).

the is given as naturalised in the Northern Island, but the , which we had here since such a very long time, is not yet there. is one of the most dreadful weeds immigrated into North America, and established also in East Australia since many years, of which plant we must endeavour to keep free. I fear our traffic will bring yet many other weeds into our colony as bad as thistles or sorrel. Thus in New Zealand now already 170 species of European plants are already immigrated and permanently naturalised. Dr. Robert Brown, the companion of Captain Flinders saw the sow thistle and the

Typesetter's misreading of Picris hieracioides?

(the latter a near ally to the ) already about seventy years ago wild at Port Jackson.

R. Brown (1814), p. 592.

In conclusion, I would only yet remark that the name Hypochoeris is derived, from the fact that pigs, when in quest of food, seek to get the roots of this plant, and this may possibly indicate some of the means to get rid of this weed on pasture land, roadsides, and other localities.