Plantae > Tracheophyta > Magnoliopsida > Caryophyllales > Amaranthaceae > Dysphania > Dysphania chilensis

Dysphania chilensis

Synonyms:

Attributes

Allergen Potential [1]  High
Edible [2]  May be edible. See the Plants For A Future link below for details.
Flower Type [2]  Hermaphrodite
Hazards [2]  The essential oil in the seed and flowering plant is highly toxic. In excess it can cause dizziness, vomiting, convulsions and even death; The plant can also cause dermatitis or other allergic reactions; The leaves and seeds of all members of this genus are more or less edible. However, many of the species in this genus contain saponins, though usually in quantities too small to do any harm. Although toxic, saponins are poorly absorbed by the body and most pass straight through without any problem. They are also broken down to a large extent in the cooking process. Saponins are found in many foods, such as some beans. Saponins are much more toxic to some creatures, such as fish, and hunting tribes have traditionally put large quantities of them in streams, lakes etc in order to stupefy or kill the fish; The plants also contain some oxalic acid, which in large quantities can lock up some of the nutrients in the food. However, even considering this, they are very nutritious vegetables in reasonable quantities. Cooking the plant will reduce its content of oxalic acid. People with a tendency to rheumatism, arthritis, gout, kidney stones or hyperacidity should take especial caution if including this plant in their diet since it can aggravate their condition;
Lifespan [2]  Annual/Perennial
Pollinators [2]  Wind
Scent [2]  The bruised leaves emit an unpleasant foetid odour.
Structure [3]  Shrub
Usage [2]  The plant is used as a fumigant against mosquitoes and is also added to fertilizers to inhibit insect larvae; Gold/green dyes can be obtained from the whole plant;
Height [2]  39 inches (1 m)
Width [2]  28 inches (0.7 m)
View Plants For A Future Record : Dysphania chilensis

Protected Areas

Ecosystems

Predators

Pholisora catullus (Common sootywing skipper)[4]
Rachiplusia ou (Gray Looper Moth)[4]
Staphylus mazans (Mazans Scallopwing)[4]
Sylvilagus bachmani (Brush Rabbit)[5]

External References

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
♦ 3Kattge, J. et al. (2011b) TRY - a global database of plant traits Global Change Biology 17:2905-2935
♦ 4HOSTS - a Database of the World's Lepidopteran Hostplants Gaden S. Robinson, Phillip R. Ackery, Ian J. Kitching, George W. Beccaloni AND Luis M. Hernández
♦ 5Sylvilagus bachmani, Joseph A. Chapman, MAMMALIAN SPECIES No. 34, pp. 1-4 (1974)
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