DYSPHANIA AMBROSIOIDES

Family:- AMARANTHACEAE

Common Name:- Wormseed, Jesuit's tea, Mexican tea.

Synonyms:- This species has 70 synonyms 13, Homotypic and 57 Heterotypic.

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Meaning:- Dysphania Meaning unknown

Ambrosioides (Gr) Ambrosia-like.

General description:- Strongly aromatic annual, rarely short-lived perennial.

Stems:-

a) Up to 1·2 m.

b) erect, ridged, much branched, pubescent (rarely with longer hairs).

c) with many sessile glands.

Leaves:-

a) short-stalked.

1) Blade:

a) mostly3-7 cm.

b) usually lanceolate to narrowly elliptical, margin shallowly toothed and uneven

with rounded wavy undulations (sinuate-dentate) or entire.

Flowers:-

1) Inflorescence:

a) of several slender spikes with flowers in small ± dense clusters (glomerules).

2) Perianth segments:

a) 5.

b) green.

c) hairless (glabrous).

d) fused up to halfway.

Fruit:-

1) Seeds:

a) 0·5-0·8 mm diam.

b) roundish-lenticular, obtuse at the edges.

c) almost smooth.

Key features:-

1) Sepals in fruit free in at least the upper ½.

2) Calyx neither saccate nor net-veined dorsally.

3) Seeds 0·5-0·8 mm.

4) Inflorescence distinctly in a branched racemose (paniculate).

5) Leaves entire or dentate.

Habitat:- Weed of gardens, harbours and ruderal habitats 0-400 m.

Distribution:- Mainly in coastal areas throughout Greece, but also scattered in the

north. Probably native to tropical America. Widely naturalised in C and S Europe

and elsewhere. Limited distribution on Crete.

Flowering time:- June-Oct.

Photos by:- Thomas Giannakis