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Dysphania ambrosioides; photograph (c) Antoine Thivolle, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Antoine Thivolle, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-09-23

Dysphania ambrosioides (L.) Mosyakin & Clemants

Mexican tea; Wormseed; Spanish tea; Wormbush

Amaranthaceae · Oklahoma, Texas +40

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Dysphania ambrosioides, photograph (c) Antoine Thivolle, some rights reserved (CC BY)Dysphania ambrosioides, photograph (c) Tom Field, some rights reserved (CC BY)Dysphania ambrosioides, photograph (c) Tom Field, some rights reserved (CC BY)Dysphania ambrosioides, photograph (c) Tom Field, some rights reserved (CC BY)Dysphania ambrosioides, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedDysphania ambrosioides, photograph author not stated, no rights reserved 77 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
4.4°C
Record low 2.5 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
29°C
Jul at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,246mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
25–40DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Wet summers: the rain comes May to November, read as a summer growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Dysphania ambrosioides, formerly Chenopodium ambrosioides, known as epazote, Jesuit's tea, Mexican tea or wormseed, is an annual or short-lived perennial herb native to the Americas.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Dysphania ambrosioides", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (886 mm of 1,170 mm) falls in May to November, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 21.8 °C against a yearly mean of 19.5 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to May.

Rain

1,170 mm in the median year at the habitat, 886 mm of it May to November. Wettest month July at 158 mm, driest month March at 48 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 735 mm to 1,968 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,246 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,170 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 25 to 40 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 15, the highest 90th-percentile month 47).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 4.4 °C, the absolute minimum 2.5 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 20.9 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 9.4 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 0.9 °C to 19.4 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 28.9 °C in July (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 4.4 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 57 to 64% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected +940 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Dysphania ambrosioides through the yearWarmest month July, mean daily high 29 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 9.4 °C; 1,170 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.-10°0°10°20°30°40°frost20.9° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER2.5° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 25–40RH 57–64%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 93 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C20 / 11–2721 / 14–2824 / 16–3126 / 18–3327 / 21–3328 / 20–3229 / 20–3328 / 20–3326 / 20–3124 / 19–2922 / 16–2820 / 12–27
Night °C9 / 1–1910 / 2–2011 / 5–2114 / 9–2317 / 10–2419 / 11–2421 / 11–2420 / 11–2518 / 11–2415 / 10–2211 / 7–2110 / 3–20
Rain mm59 / 10–12053 / 9–12648 / 8–15164 / 15–157103 / 39–165146 / 74–331158 / 60–320157 / 56–312146 / 83–34998 / 55–21678 / 13–16360 / 7–137
DLI26 / 17–3430 / 22–3835 / 28–4439 / 33–4740 / 33–4538 / 31–4238 / 32–4236 / 33–4032 / 29–3630 / 24–3528 / 18–3325 / 15–32
RH %58 / 52–6858 / 51–6657 / 48–6657 / 48–6660 / 52–6662 / 57–6963 / 58–6863 / 57–6864 / 57–7062 / 57–6959 / 55–6859 / 53–68

Records on both sides of the equator: the 21 cells at least 10° south of it have seasons six months apart and are left out, not combined into a year no place has. These figures are across the 93 cells that remain: the 82 at least 10° north and the 11 within 10° of the equator, which stay in either way.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 93 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (97 records in those cells; 2 more cells hold records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cells are left out), with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 1803:2030 (-0.175, -78.475). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 2.5 °C, 1st-percentile night 4.4 °C, 99th-percentile day 20.9 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 93 distinct grid cells holding 97 of the 120 in-range records (2 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out) on the northern side of the equator (82 cells poleward of 10° north, 21 poleward of 10° south: the two sides' seasons are not combined, and cells within 10° of the equator stay in); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1803:2030 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 0.00_-78.750, lapse-corrected +940 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 2803 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeOklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Aruba, Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Peru, Brazil West-Central, Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast, Brazil North, Brazil South, Argentina Northeast, Argentina South, Argentina Northwest, Chile Central, Chile North, Chile South, Paraguay, Uruguay, Tristan da Cunha · introduced: Denmark, Finland, Great Britain, Sweden, Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Baleares, Corse, France, Portugal, Sardegna, Spain, Albania, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Kriti, Romania, Sicilia, Turkey-in-Europe, Yugoslavia, Ukraine, Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia, Azores, Canary Is., Cape Verde, Madeira, Benin, Ghana, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mauritania, Nigeria, Senegal, Burundi, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Congo, Gabon, Gulf of Guinea Is., Rwanda, Zaïre, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Angola, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Cape Provinces, Lesotho, Namibia, KwaZulu-Natal, Free State, Swaziland, Northern Provinces, Ascension, St.Helena, Mauritius, Madagascar, Réunion, Rodrigues, Tuva, North Caucasus, Transcaucasus, Afghanistan, East Aegean Is., Iran, Iraq, Lebanon-Syria, Palestine, Sinai, Turkey, Gulf States, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, China South-Central, China Southeast, Tibet, Japan, Korea, Ogasawara-shoto, Taiwan, Assam, Bangladesh, East Himalaya, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, West Himalaya, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Jawa, Philippines, Sulawesi, New Guinea, Norfolk Is., New South Wales, Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, Western Australia, New Zealand North, New Caledonia, Society Is., Tubuai Is., Marianas, Hawaii, Ontario, Québec, Oregon, Washington, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode I., Vermont, West Virginia, Arizona, California, Utah, New Mexico, Alabama, Delaware, Kentucky, Tennessee, District of Columbia, Mexican Pacific Is., Mexico Northwest, Bahamas, Bermuda, Cayman Is., Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Netherlands Antilles, Puerto Rico, Southwest Caribbean, Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuelan Antilles, Windward Is., French Guiana, Guyana, Surinam, Ecuador, Galápagos, Desventurados Is., Juan Fernández Is. · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker19.452, -96.929 · in the densest population, 63 records (26% of those in range)
Kew's description“perennial” · “temperate” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 247 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 97 of them in the land cells it reads, of 120 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 177 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 9 km away. 1333 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 127 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 247 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Dysphania ambrosioides, photograph 1did not loadDysphania ambrosioides, photograph 2did not loadDysphania ambrosioides, photograph 3did not loadDysphania ambrosioides, photograph 4did not loadDysphania ambrosioides, photograph 5did not loadDysphania ambrosioides, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Antoine Thivolle, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Tom Field, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0 (2).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Setaria parviflora Setaria parviflora Knotroot bristle-grass Photo: CC BY, Samantha KnightMecardonia procumbens Mecardonia procumbens Baby jump-up Photo: CC BY, Pablo H CapovillaIresine rhizomatosa Iresine rhizomatosa Juda's-bush Photo: CC BY, diana schwartzHeteranthera reniformis Heteranthera reniformis Kidneyleaf mudplantain Photo: CC BY, Anne ParkerAcaciella angustissima Acaciella angustissima Prairie acacia Photo: CC BY, saltyhikerPhysalis pubescens Physalis pubescens Low ground-cherry Photo: CC BY, Zihao Wang

Other Dysphania 9 in the reference

Dysphania anthelmintica Dysphania anthelmintica Wormseed Photo: CC BY, mel lettermanDysphania atriplicifolia Dysphania atriplicifolia Winged pigweed Photo: CC BY, Michael, Antoni and Nihat HinczewskiDysphania botrys Dysphania botrys Jerusalem oak goosefoot Photo: CC BY, Don LoarieDysphania carinata Dysphania carinata Keeled goosefoot Photo: CC0, author not statedDysphania incisa Dysphania incisa Fetid goosefoot Photo: CC0, Craig MartinDysphania multifida Dysphania multifida Cutleaf goosefoot Photo: CC BY, River AhlquistDysphania pumilio Dysphania pumilio Clammy goosefoot Photo: CC0, author not statedDysphania pusilla Dysphania pusilla Pygmy goosefoot Photo: CC BY, Aalbert RebergenDysphania schraderiana Dysphania schraderiana Schrader Goosefoot Photo: CC BY, Oleksandr Shynder

Names & registers

Also known as Agathophytum ambrosioides; Ambrina ambrosioides; Ambrina incisa; Ambrina parvula; Ambrina spathulata and 63 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Amaranthaceae
Described by
(L.) Mosyakin & Clemants
Native to
Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas +39
Wild records
247 in range · 177 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 55 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (34 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 5 at a herbarium, 16 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 0.00_-78.750, lapse-corrected +940 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22IPNI and POWO linked by Kew's number for Dysphania ambrosioides (L.) Mosyakin & Clemants (the item's: IPNI 70029925-1, POWO 1198060-2)
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 298 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…