It is purported that in South America, creeping oxeye was used to treat symptoms of colds and flu and to reduce fevers and inflammations. The plant with its lobed, deep green, glossy leaves was introduced, not for its medicinal value, but as a decorative ground cover and erosion control. It forms a dense mat that chokes out 'weeds'. It is easy to propagate: simply clip the stolons, push the sections with the nodes into the ground, and keep moist.

Gardeners plant creeping oxeye in matter of a few minutes, then spend hours and days attempting to control or remove the plants. Pulled and tossed as trash, the bits and pieces will root and spread at the local landfill or, heaven forbid, the creek or woods behind some neighborhood. Which is the reason this plant has been elected to the "100 of the World's Worst Invasive Alien Species" list.

In Australia, New Zealand, China, and many Pacific Islands, creeping oxeye has spread into moist and wet forests displacing the native plants that animals depend on for food and nesting. And it became a worst offender in a very short time. The plant was not introduced to Hawaii until the mid-1960s and to other islands until the 1970s.

In China, creeping oxeye is not only invading native habitats but damaging rice paddies. Farmers had been treading the plants into the paddies as an organic fertilizer, but surprisingly, rice plants did poorly after creeping oxeye was used. Chinese botanists discovered that creeping oxeye has an allelopathic (defensive chemical) effect reducing the vigor of the rice plants and, consequently, yield.

(Compiled from: Atlas of Florida Vascular Plants, R.P. Wunderlin and B.F. Hansen, 2004, [S. M. Landry and K. N. Campbell (application development), Florida Center for Community Design and Research.] Institute for Systematic Botany, University of South Florida, Tampa. ; "Sphagneticola trilobata (herb)", Global Invasive Species Database, Invasive Species Specialist Group, The World Conservation Union, 2004; and "Allelopathic potential of Wedelia trilobata: effects on germination, growth, and physiological parameters of rice", Chengrong Nie, Shiming Luo, Rensen Zeng, Meihua Mo, Huashou Li, and Chuxia Lin, Fourth World Congress on Allelopathy, 2005.)