Plants 20-80(-200) cm. Involu-cres 5-6 × 4-6(-7) mm. Function-ally staminate florets 6-13(-19).

Flowering Aug-Oct (year-round in south). Salt or brackish marshes and estuaries, near coast, less commonly in inland saline habitats, inland freshwater springs and ephemerally moist drainages; 0-50(-1400) m; Ala., Ariz., Ark., Calif., Fla., Ga., Kans., La., Md., Miss., Nev., N.Mex., N.C., Okla., S.C., Tex., Utah, Va.; Mexico; West Indies; Central America; South America (Colombia, Venezuela); w Africa; Pacific Islands.

Pluchea odorata var. odorata is naturalized in Hawaii. According to S. King-Jones (2001) Pluchea senegalensis Klatt is a synonym of Pluchea odorata var. odorata.

Duration: Perennial

Nativity: Native

Lifeform: Subshrub

General: Coarsely branched subshrub which can be annual, 20 cm to 2 m tall with pale tomentose to cinereous tomentose branches.

Leaves: Petiolate or sessile, with blades that are succulent when growing, drying thin, blades lance-ovate to elliptic or oblong-ovate, 4-15 cm long by 1-7 cm wide, margins shallowly serrate, with glabrate faces that are moderately to densely pubescent with crinkly hairs.

Flowers: Heads in corymbiform arrays, especially flat topped to rounded, with clusters of heads terminal on branches 7-25 cm wide, heads broadly campanulate, 5-7 mm tall, with ovate outer phyllaries, usually cream to purplish, and minutely sessile-glandular, the corollas pink to rosy purple.

Fruits: Cypselae slender 0.6-0.8 mm long, with persistent pappi of identical bristles that are silky capillary, 3-5 mm long.

Ecology: Found on moist banks of arroyos, in canyons and in marshy flats, especially salt marshes or brackish areas, often likes saline habitats below 4,500 ft (1372 m); flowers year round.

Notes: Ours is var. odorata which is distinguished by the involucres being 5-6 mm by 4-6 mm, with 6-13 functionally staminate florets, and plants sized 20-80 cm tall.

Ethnobotany: Unknown

Etymology: Pluchea is named for Noel-Antoine Pluche (1688-1761) a French naturalist, while odorata means strong odor.

Synonyms: Conyza odorata, Pluchea purpurascens

Editor: SBuckley, 2010