Color Challenge - Sunday - Purple: Ageratum Houstonianum - Bluemink/Flossflower

The Blue Mink with its showy pom-pom flowers which grows about 1m high, it is an annual herbaceous plant, a hermaphrodite (both male and female organs), native to the Caribbean, Central America and Mexico, and is part of the Asteraceae family.

They are perfect for adding colour to beddings, borders, containers and in rock gardens.

They have branched cluster of flower heads at the tip of each stem. The flower consists of hairy bracts with long floral projections. Each flower head has numerous tiny flowers. The blooms come in blue, pink, purple and white

The leaves are dark green, oppositely arranged at the base but are alternately arranged at the top of the stem. It is hairy, heart-shaped and toothed (2-7cm long). The stems are also hairy and green, purplish or reddish in colour.

This half-hardy plant thrives in tropical regions, full sunlight in dry or moist soils.

It is a highly invasive species in Australia and South Africa (listed as a noxious weed) as it is a rampant environmental weed which poses a threat to the biodiversity. The plant is also toxic as it contains pyrrolizidine alkaloids which cause liver lesions to crazing animals.

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