Parthenium weed (whitetop weed) – Parthenium hysterophorus

Parthenium weed is native to the New World, most likely Mexico and Central America, but it is impossible to accurately define its original range. Over time, the species has spread - mainly by human action - to eastern North America, to the Caribbean islands, throughout South America, tropical and southern Africa, to islands in the Indian Ocean, and to the Indian subcontinent, China, Japan, Australia and the Pacific islands - to more than 50 countries in all. As an alien species, parthenium weed is particularly abundant in India and the eastern parts of Australia. In Europe, individual specimens of the species have been found in Belgium (in 1999 and 2013) and Poland (in 1938), but it has not become established. Closest to Europe, the species is common in Israel.