Seasonal Wild Flowers

Pineappleweed

Matricaria discoidea

Asteraceae

Rayless mayweed, M.matricoides

May to November

It is found throughout the country.

See the BSBI distribution map for Pineappleweed

It is a well known weed growing on fertile bare (disturbed)

ground in gardens, allotments and arable fields, on waste

ground, and by tracks and roads.

It also grows at the base of walls and in cracks in

pavements.

It is a neophyte which escaped from Kew Gardens in

the early 1780s and was said to be one of the fastest

spreading plants in the 20th Century.

Pineappleweed is an annual, strongly aromatic (when

crushed it smells of pineapple) herb, growing up to 40cm.

The flower heads are up to 8mm across and are on short

branches.

They have no ray florets and the disk florets are green

-yellow.

Leaves are 2 to 3 pinnate.

The linear leaves resembling soft bristles.

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Pineappleweed covering newly

exposed bare mud

Flowerheads and leaves

Close-up of flowerheads

Leaves