Billygoat weed (Ageratum conyzoides)

Bandotan or billygoat weed (Ageratum conyzoides) is a plant species in Asteraceae, terna smells hard, erect or lying down, up to 120 cm high, roots on the part that touches the ground, hairy stems and often have many branches with one or many compound flowers at the ends.

A. conyzoides has stemmed leaves and is located alternately or face to face especially located at the bottom. The leaves are round eggs with the base of the heart or rounded or tapered and the tip is obtuse or tapered, 2-10 cm long, 0.5-5 cm wide, serrated edge, both surfaces with long hair with glands on the underside.

Flowers with the same sex gather in the upper cusps and three or more cusps gather in the terminal panicles. The panicle stems are 6-8 mm long, consisting of 60-70 individuals at the end of the hairy stems with 2-3 oval-shaped leaf pads. Crowns with narrow tubes, white or purple.

Billygoat weed produces achenium fruit in the shape of a square, 2 mm long, scaly hair and white. Flowering and fruiting throughout the year to produce up to 40,000 seeds per individual and rated as a very disturbing weed on the plantation.

Bandotan is widespread throughout the tropics, very expansive, often growing in dry fields, house yards, road sides, embankments, waterfronts, shrub areas and living up to an altitude of 3000 m.

Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Tracheophyta
Subphylum: Angiospermae
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Asterales
Family: Asteraceae
Subfamily: Asteroideae
Tribe: Eupatorieae
Subtribe: Ageratinae
Genus: Ageratum
Species: Ageratum conyzoides

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