The open plant encyclopedia
Snap a photo or search by any name to see how to care for it, where it comes from, whether it's safe, and a 3D model you can turn.
The plants people record most in your country, and ones that grow there wild.
Filter by what you want to do, shape, origin, country, care and safety.
Pluchea odorata
Also called Saltmarsh Fleabane, Sweet Scent, Shrubby Camphorweed, Annual Marsh Fleabane, Shrubby Fleabane, Marsh Fleabane, Sweetscent Kreyòl
Pluchea odorata is a strongly aromatic annual or perennial herb in the daisy family, growing up to about 1 m tall with pinkish-purple flower clusters. It is a wetland and coastal plant that does best in moist or saline soil, and its leaves are used in teas in the Caribbean.
Pluchea odorata is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae. Common names include sweetscent, saltmarsh fleabane and shrubby camphorweed.
Native to the United States, Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, and northern South America, it inhabits wetlands and other coastal habitats and moist inland areas, often in saline substrates. It is an introduced species and a noxious weed in Hawaii and New Caledonia.
In some parts of the Caribbean, saltmarsh fleabane is a widely consumed medicinal herbal tea. The hot tea made from the leaves is a stimulant. It stimulates perspiration, in the manner of pleurisy root or pennyroyal, and is diuretic. It is a safe and reliable menstrual stimulant when flow begins late, is scanty, and there are clotty cramps. Moreover, it is antispasmodic, thus relieving cramping. It similarly inhibits spasms and cramps from diarrhea and stomach ache. Used as an eyewash it reduces redness and pain from hay fever, wind and dust. Tea concentrate has been marketed as a coffee substitute. Unlike coffee which is a vasoconstrictor, sweetscent tea is a vasodilator. It is contraindicated for people who get migraines, during pregnancy, and should be used in moderation.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Pluchea odorata by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
