Family: Asteraceae
High Risk Traits:
- Broad climate suitability and elevation range
- Grows in temperate and tropical climates
- Widely naturalized worldwide, including the Hawaiian Islands of Maui and Hawaii
- A disturbance-adapted weed that impacts several crops
- Categorized as an environmental weed in Australia (but not currently recognized as a serious weed of natural areas in the Hawaiian Islands)
- Other Sonchus species are invasive
- Prickly leaves
- Potentially allelopathic
- Host of several economically important plant pests and parasites
- Tolerates many soil types
- Reproduces by seeds
- Self-compatible
- An annual, able to reach maturity in one growing season
- Seeds dispersed by wind, water, by adhering to animals, vehicles, other machinery, as a produce contaminant, and internally by animals
- Capable of prolific seed production
- Seeds may persist in the soil for one year in the field, and possibly longer
- Difficult to control mechanically due to taproot
Low Risk Traits:
- Typically invades disturbed or degraded habitats rather than intact native ecosystems
- Palatable to livestock
- Probably shade intolerant; thrives in areas with full sun
- Certain herbicides may provide effective control
