Plantae > Tracheophyta > Magnoliopsida > Caryophyllales > Amaranthaceae > Dysphania > Dysphania botrys

Dysphania botrys (Jerusalem-oak; Jerusalem oak goosefoot; Jerusalem oak)

Synonyms:

Wikipedia Abstract

Dysphania botrys (syn. Chenopodium botrys), the Jerusalem oak goosefoot, sticky goosefoot or feathered geranium, is a flowering plant in the genus Dysphania (the glandular goosefoots). It is native to the Mediterranean region. Jerusalem oak goosefoot was formerly classed in the genus Ambrosia, with the binomial name Ambrosia mexicana. It is naturalised in the United States and Mexico, the old species synonym deriving from the latter.
View Wikipedia Record: Dysphania botrys

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 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 plants will reduce their 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
Pollinators [2]  Wind
Scent [2]  The dried flower spikes are aromatic.
Structure [4]  Herb
Usage [2]  Gold/green dyes can be obtained from the whole plant; The dried plant is a moth repellent. The aromatic and ornamental flower spikes are used; The whole plant is very aromatic and is used as a scent in pillows, bags, baskets etc;
Height [2]  24 inches (0.6 m)
Light Preference [3]  Mostly Sunny
Soil Acidity [3]  Neutral
Soil Fertility [3]  Intermediate
Soil Moisture [3]  Mostly Dry
View Plants For A Future Record : Dysphania botrys

Protected Areas

Predators

Aythya affinis (Lesser Scaup)[5]

External References

USDA Plant Profile

NatureServe Explorer

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
♦ 3Ellenberg, H., Weber, H.E., Dull, R., Wirth, V., Werner, W., Paulissen, D. (1991) Zeigerwerte von Pflanzen in Mitteleuropa. Scripta Geobotanica 18, 1–248
♦ 4Kattge, J. et al. (2011b) TRY - a global database of plant traits Global Change Biology 17:2905-2935
♦ 5Jorrit H. Poelen, James D. Simons and Chris J. Mungall. (2014). Global Biotic Interactions: An open infrastructure to share and analyze species-interaction datasets. Ecological Informatics.
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
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