Plant of the Day 3: Tithonia diversifolia

I started a series a few days ago where I talk about plants that grow in Nigeria, be it exotic or native. Exotic plants are the ones that do not grow in an area naturally, but they were introduced from where they naturally grow. Native plants, on the other hand, are plants that grow naturally in a particular area. Today's episode is the third in the series, you can read the first and the second series here and here respectively.

If you happen to ply most major and minor Nigerian roads, the image of the plant below should be quite familiar to you.

The plant seems to have taken over the roadscapes of the Nigerian roads, killing off competitions from other plants. Locally, the plant is referred to as sepeleba (Meaning, curse fever) among the Yoruba speaking tribe of Nigeria but the more common English name is Mexican sunflower which connotes that the nativity of the plant in South America. Scientifically, the plant is known as Tithonia diversifolia.

Exotic plant species, if they eventually survive have been reported to often end up outcompeting the local/native species and end up displacing the latter from their natural habitats. T. diversifolia is a good example to reinforce this theory. While growing up in Nigeria, a completely different but native plant species known locally as akintola and scientifically as Chromolaena odorata use to dominate the vegetation around the various roads.

Tithonia probably got introduced into Nigeria as a result of its numerous ethnobotanical uses and since then, it has gradually spread and eventually taken over the entire horizon. Hardly can anyone walk a few steps along any major or minor motorable ways in Nigeria without encountering this plant.

Interestingly, my undergraduate research project was on this plant and one of the properties that made it such a bully among other plants. The property involves the capacity of the plant to produce chemicals that limit the growth of other plants within a certain radius from where it is growing. This property is specifically known as allelopathic property while the chemical produced is referred to as allelochemicals.

The plant belongs to Asteraceae flowering plant family, the same family with sunflower. It grows as a shrub to a maximum height of 2-3 m and produces flowers similar to that of sunflower. It usually flowers towards the end of the rainy season, hence, I could not get an image of its flowering because we are currently at the peak of the rainy season in Nigeria.

T diversifolia has been a major plant of research among plant scientists within and outside Nigeria perhaps due to its ability to spread over a large area within a short period. During the course of this research, a lot of ethnobotanical uses of the plant were discovered. Apart from its ornamental use due to its beautiful flower, the aqueous extract is locally utilized in the treatment of fever.

In addition, it has been reported in some medical cases to be used as an anti-inflammatory as well as an anti-oxidant agent among several other uses. If you really wish to see some publications about the leaves of this plant and its various potentials, I suggest you head here.

Thank you for reading.

All images used were taking using Samsung Galaxy A Tab(2016)