Velvet plant

Cacalia aurantiaca Blume, Bijdr. Fl. Ned. Ind., 908. 1826

Stems somewhat lax or clambering, branching, fleshy, conspicuously fuzzy-hairy (± velutinous to villous, crosswalls of hairs purplish). Leaves: petioles 0–3+ cm; blades 4–10(–15) × 2–5(–8) cm, margins raggedly toothed, faces ± velutinous to villous, hairs purplish. Heads 1–5. Calyculi: bractlets 3–6+ mm. Phyllaries 10–12+ mm, tips greenish or minutely darkened. Disc corollas yellow or orange to brick-red (drying purplish), 8–12+ mm; style-branch appendages orange, 1–2 mm. Cypselae glabrous; pappi 10–12 mm. 2n = 20.

Flowering spring–winter. Shaded, damp sites; 0–50 m; introduced; Fla.; se Asia; also introduced e Africa (including Madagascar) and Australia.

Gynura aurantiaca is a tender pot-plant that is sometimes grown outdoors. It is marginally established in the flora, persisting as an escape from cultivation in southern Florida. It may be encountered elsewhere along the Gulf Coast. The orange, filiform appendages of the style branches are distinctive; the flowers are reported to be unpleasantly scented.