This introduction from north America has always been treated like half hardy annual in British gardens. With our increasingly mild winters and warm summers this plant is beginning to thrive and can become a persistent self-seeding nuisance. Outside the garden it is seen more and more and this one, a long way from any garden, had probably survived as a seed dropped by a bird or been dumped in waste soil.

E. californica has now naturalised itself throughout the British Isles and is very common in central and southern England and the coast regions of Wales. Records diminish as you go north but it is still found in Scotland as far north as Inverness. In Ireland it is not common and mostly found on the eastern coast.

Field near River Mersey, Didsbury, Manchester 3rd May 2007

Added on 1th June 2007, updated 10th January 2009, updated 29th March 2010