''Acaena magellanica'', commonly called buzzy burr or greater burnet, is a species of flowering plant whose range includes the southern tip of

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 sout ...

and many subantarctic islands.

Description

''Acaena magellanica'' is a perennial, mat-forming plant with creeping stems, up to high. The leaves are oblong to linear-lanceolate, with 5 to 10 pairs of ovate leaflets. The flower heads are globular and grow on wiry stems well clear of the foliage. They are followed by brown, prickly seed heads; the seeds have small hooks which enables them to adhere to clothing, feathers or fur.

Distribution and habitat

The species is native to the southern part of South America. Its range includes Argentina, Chile and various sub-Antarctic islands including the

Falkland Islands The Falkland Islands (; es, Islas Malvinas, link=no ) is an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean on the Patagonian Shelf. The principal islands are about east of South America's southern Patagonian coast and about from Cape Dubouze ...

, the Kerguelen Islands, the

Prince Edward Islands The Prince Edward Islands are two small uninhabited islands in the sub-Antarctic Indian Ocean that are part of South Africa. The islands are named Marion Island (named after Marc-Joseph Marion du Fresne, 1724–1772) and Prince Edward Island ...

, Crozet Islands,

South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands ) , anthem = "God Save the King" , song_type = , song = , image_map = South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands in United Kingdom.svg , map_caption = Location of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands in the southern Atlantic Oce ...

and the

Heard Island and McDonald Islands The Territory of Heard Island and McDonald Islands (HIMI) is an Australian external territory comprising a volcanic group of mostly barren Antarctic islands, about two-thirds of the way from Madagascar to Antarctica. The group's overall size ...

. Its typical habitat is damp places such as the edge of bogs, the banks of streams, waterlogged places, meadows and forest margins. It grows from sea level to an altitude of about .

Ecology

In South Georgia, ''Acaena magellanica'' may cover the ground in dense patches. It is deciduous, and when the leaves are shed, mosses like '' Tortula robusta'', which grows underneath, flourish. The Kerguelen Islands are in the

Southern Indian Ocean Islands tundra The Southern Indian Ocean Islands tundra is a tundra ecoregion that includes several subantarctic islands in the southern Indian Ocean. Location and description The ecoregion stretches from Prince Edward Islands in the west, past the Crozet ...

ecoregion which is characterised by tussock grasses, lichens and liverworts. ''A. magellanica'' is one of the few low

forb A forb or phorb is an herbaceous flowering plant that is not a graminoid (grass, sedge, or rush). The term is used in biology and in vegetation ecology, especially in relation to grasslands and understory. Typically these are dicots without woo ...

s that grew here, but the introduction of the

European rabbit The European rabbit (''Oryctolagus cuniculus'') or coney is a species of rabbit native to the Iberian Peninsula (including Spain, Portugal, and southwestern France), western France, and the northern Atlas Mountains in northwest Africa. It has b ...

(''Oryctolagus cuniculus''), which selectively grazes the species it prefers, eliminated many of the native forbs. When the rabbit was eradicated, ''A. magellanica'' and other forbs failed to recover because years of herbivory had depleted their seed banks, and introduced species such as annual meadow grass (''Poa annua''), mouse-ear chickweed (''Cerastium fontanum'') and

dandelion ''Taraxacum'' () is a large genus of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae, which consists of species commonly known as dandelions. The scientific and hobby study of the genus is known as taraxacology. The genus is native to Eurasia and Nor ...

(''Taraxacum officinale'') out-competed them.

References

magellanica (Latin: '"Southern Land'") was a hypothetical continent first posited in antiquity and which appeared on maps between the 15th and 18th centuries. Its existence was not based on any survey or direct observation, but rather on the idea that ...

Flora of southern Chile Flora of South Argentina Flora of the subantarctic islands Île Amsterdam Plants described in 1791 {{Rosoideae-stub