Kickxia spuria is a low, hairy, creeping annual weed in the snapdragon family, with rounded leaves and small snapdragon-like yellow, white and purple flowers. It is mainly a weed of cultivated and disturbed ground rather than a garden plant.
Family
Plantaginaceae (Plantain family)
Grows as
Annual
Light
Full sun, Part shade
Native range
Macaronesia, Europe to Medit.
Climate
temperate
About
Kickxia spuria is a species of flowering plant in the family Plantaginaceae known by several common names, including roundleaf cancerwort and round-leaved fluellen. It is native to Europe and Asia, but it is present on other continents as an introduced species, and sometimes a noxious weed. This is a low hairy herb with a creeping stem with many branches. It produces rounded, fuzzy leaves at wide intervals along the stem, and solitary snapdragon-like flowers. Each flower is up to 1.5 centimeters long with a narrow, pointed spur extending from the back. The lobes of the mouth are yellow, white, and deep purple, and the whole flower is fuzzy to hairy. The fruit is a spherical capsule about 4 millimeters long. This species is similar to its relative, Kickxia elatine, but for the shape of its leaves, and the hairy flower stalk, which is bare with Kickxia elatine.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Kickxia spuria by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.