The small marsh flower ''Cotula coronopifolia'' bears the common names brass buttons, golden buttons, and buttonweed. The
flower heads
A pseudanthium (Greek for "false flower"; ) is an inflorescence that resembles a flower. The word is sometimes used for other structures that are neither a true flower nor a true inflorescence. Examples of pseudanthia include flower heads, compos ...
are bright yellow
discoid
Discoid may refer to:
* Disk (mathematics), the region in a plane enclosed by a circle
Medicine
* Furosemide, a medication sold under the trade name Discoid
* Discoid meniscus, a human anatomical variant
* Discoid lupus erythematosus, a chroni ...
heads that look like thick buttons. Individual plants spread stems along the ground and send up the knobby flowers at intervals. The plant is native to southern
Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
, as well as
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 List of islands of New Zealand, smaller islands. It is the ...
, but it has been introduced to other parts of the world (
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located enti ...
,
North
North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography.
Etymology
The word ''no ...
+
South America
South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the souther ...
, etc.).
[Flora of North America, Brass-buttons, cotule, Cotula coronopifolia Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 2: 892. 1753. ]
/ref>
Brass buttons are common plants that occupy a specialized