© Morgan Stickrod · CC BY-NC
iNaturalist — CC, credited & licensed per image
Asteraceae family
Dwarf Bur Ragweed Ambrosia pumila
Native
Also known as: San Diego ambrosia
Dwarf Bur Ragweed is a perennial wildflower native to the lower 48 states. It blooms May – Sep.
More about this plant
Ambrosia pumila is a rare species of herbaceous perennial plant known by the common names San Diego ragweed and San Diego ambrosia. It is native to far southern California, Baja California, and Baja California Sur. It grows in floodplains and open grasslands in proximity to wetland areas. Wikipedia →
Growing & care
USDA PLANTS · TRY Conditions
Sources · Conditions
Cold hardiness (derived) — Hardiness
- Hardiness
- ≥ zone 11 derived from its U.S. range
Size & form
Sources · Size & form
USDA PLANTS — Lifespan
- Lifespan
- Perennial
In the garden
Herb layer — Sits in the herb of a layered food forest or polyculture.Open guide →
derived roles The garden year bloom → fruit → fall colour
J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
Bloom
Bloom (the flower's colour)
Bloom · May – Sep — 51 obs · Herbarium specimens — Park et al. 2023 (CC BY 4.0)
Species characteristics from USDA PLANTS (public domain) + TRY (CC BY) — general guidance, not a
guarantee for your exact site. Deer "browsing" is documented palatability, not a deer-proof claim.
Wildlife & pollinators
How pollinator value is scored →❧ Caterpillar hosts ~48 caterpillar species
Ambrosia supports ~48 caterpillar species.
Native butterfly & moth caterpillars are the base of the terrestrial food web — most songbirds rear their young almost entirely on them. As a host for native Lepidoptera this is a strong genus.
Recorded feeding on Ambrosia in North America, including:
+ 8 more species → ↑ show fewer
Keystone count (genus-level) from Warren II 2026 (CC0) · Tallamy host-use records. Named species (a documented Nearctic sample, not exhaustive) from NHM HOSTS (CC0).
Species thumbnails re-hosted from iNaturalist — Creative Commons, credited per image (hover for credit). Click any species to see it on iNaturalist. Not exhaustive; many taxa have no openly-licensed photo yet.
Related plants
More Ambrosia →
Native
Ambrosia Leaf Bur Ragweed
Ambrosia ambrosioides
●●●○○ 
Native
Annual Ragweed
Ambrosia artemisiifolia
●●●○○ 
Native
Burrobush
Ambrosia dumosa
●●●○○ 
Native
Coastal Ragweed
Ambrosia hispida
●●●○○ 
Native
Cuman Ragweed
Ambrosia psilostachya
●●●○○ 
Native
Flatspine Bur Ragweed
Ambrosia acanthicarpa
●●●○○ Same genus / family, ranked by ecological value — from the PlantKey catalog
Sources for this entry (17) Open & cited
[01] Scientific name & family — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)
[02] Growth habit & duration — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)
[03] Native status & distribution — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503)
[04] Common name — USDA PLANTS (via GBIF)
[05] Invasive / introduced status — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503) — native status
[06] Wetland indicator — USACE National Wetland Plant List (2022)
[07] Photos — iNaturalist — CC, credited per image
[08] Description — Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)
[09] Ecological value — Warren II 2026 (CC0) · Tallamy host-use counts
[10] Bloom period — Herbarium specimens — Park et al. 2023 (CC BY 4.0)
[11] Conservation rank — NatureServe Explorer (CC BY)
[12] Federal ESA status — USFWS ECOS (U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service)
[13] Cold hardiness (derived) — Derived from U.S. range × USDA PHZM zones
[14] Other common names — Wikidata (CC0)
[15] Caterpillar host count — Warren II 2026 (Dryad, CC0) · Tallamy host-use counts
[16] Caterpillar species — NHM HOSTS (CC0)
[17] County range — GBIF Open Data — open-licensed occurrences (CC0/CC-BY) → county
Spot an error or have a better photo? Every field links to its source, and the whole dataset is open.
Cite this page Open data, please attribute
PlantKey’s data is open under CC BY-SA 4.0 — free to reuse and adapt, with attribution and the same licence. Photos keep their own per-image licence + credit (see Sources above).
Citation
Loading…
BibTeX
Loading…