Plantae > Tracheophyta > Magnoliopsida > Asterales > Asteraceae > Ursinia > Ursinia odorata

Ursinia odorata (Roman Camomile)

Synonyms: Anthemis odorata; Arctotis odorata; Sphenogyne odorata

Attributes

Allergen Potential [1]  Medium
Edible [2]  May be edible. See the Plants For A Future link below for details.
Flower Type [2]  Hermaphrodite
Leaf Type [2]  Evergreen
Lifespan [2]  Perennial
Pollinators [2]  Bees, Flies, Beetles, Bats
Scent [2]  The leaves are pungently scented.
Structure [4]  Herb
Usage [2]  An infusion of the flowers is used as a hair shampoo, especially for fair hair; It is also used as a liquid feed and general plant tonic; It has fungicidal properties and its use is said to prevent damping off in seedlings; The flowers are an ingredient of 'QR' herbal compost activator; This is a dried and powdered mixture of several herbs that can be added to a compost heap in order to speed up bacterial activity and thus shorten the time needed to make the compost; The whole plant was formerly used as a strewing herb; The whole plant is insect repellent both when growing and when dried; An essential oil from the whole plant is used as a flavouring and in perfumery; Yellow to gold dyes are obtained from the flowers; The plant makes a very good ground cover; It does tend to become bare in patches;
Height [2]  6 inches (0.15 m)
Width [2]  12 inches (0.3 m)
Light Preference [3]  Mostly Sunny
Soil Acidity [3]  Moderate Acid
Soil Fertility [3]  Intermediate
Soil Moisture [3]  Damp
View Plants For A Future Record : Ursinia odorata

Protected Areas

Predators

Cucullia chamomillae (Chamomile Shark)[5]
Eupithecia succenturiata (Bordered Pug)[5]
Macdunnoughia confusa (Dewick’s Plusia)[5]
Microplontus rugulosus[5]

External References

USDA Plant Profile

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1Derived from Allergy-Free Gardening OPALS™, Thomas Leo Ogren (2000)
♦ 2Plants For A Future licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
♦ 3ECOFACT 2a Technical Annex - Ellenberg’s indicator values for British Plants, M O Hill, J O Mountford, D B Roy & R G H Bunce (1999)
♦ 4Kattge, J. et al. (2011b) TRY - a global database of plant traits Global Change Biology 17:2905-2935
♦ 5Biological Records Centre Database of Insects and their Food Plants
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0