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Pictured: Pluchea odorata — the species. This variety isn’t separately illustrated.
Asteraceae family

Sweetscent (var. odorata) Pluchea odorata var. odorata variety

Native

Sweetscent (var. odorata) is an annual shrub native to the lower 48 states, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. It grows to 4.9 ft in part shade – shade.

Growing & care

USDA PLANTS · TRY
Conditions
Sources · Conditions
USDA PLANTS — Sun · Soil & moisture
USDA — SoilPH — Soil pH
USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503) — Fertility Requirement / Soil Adaptation — Fertility need · Adapts to
USDA — Temp-Min °F — Hardiness
Sun
Part shade – shade
Soil & moisture
Medium moisture
Soil pH
4.5–7
Fertility need
Low
Adapts to
Medium (loam), Fine (clay)
Hardiness
USDA zone 6+
Size & form
Sources · Size & form
USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503) — Height, Mature — Height
USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503) — Planting Density (per acre) — Spacing
USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503) — Growth Rate / Spread / Growth Form / Lifespan / Active Growth Period / Seed Period — Spread · Growth rate · Growth form · Active growth
USDA PLANTS — Lifespan
USDA PLANTS — FoliageTexture — Foliage
Height
4.9 ft
Spacing
6–8 ft apart from USDA planting density
Spread
None — clumping
Growth rate
Moderate
Growth form
Single crown
Lifespan
Annual · short-lived
Foliage
medium texture
Active growth
Summer
In the garden
Sources · In the garden
USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503) — Propagation Method / Commercial Availability — Propagate by · In the trade
USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503) — Germination (cold stratification) — Seed starting
USDA PLANTS — Seed Period — Seeds ripen
USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503) — Foliage Texture / Browse Palatability / Resprout — Resprouts if cut
Propagate by
Seed, Bare root, Container
Seed starting
No stratification needed
Seeds ripen
Summer – Autumn seed-collection / harvest window
In the trade
Routinely available
Resprouts if cut
No
Shrub layer — Sits in the shrub of a layered food forest or polyculture.Open guide →
derived roles
When to sow · for your area

Sow timing keys off your local last- and first-frost dates.

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 ~4 caterpillar species

Pluchea supports ~4 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 modest genus.

Recorded feeding on Pluchea in North America, including:

Bucculatrix plucheae · ribbed cocoon-maker moth Dichomeris setosella · twirler moth Eublemma minima · Everlasting Bud Moth Oidaematophorus lienigianus · plume moth Schinia intrabilis · owlet moth Synchlora frondaria · Southern Emerald Moth
+ 2 more species →
Tyria jacobaeae · Cinnabar Unadilla floridensis · snout moth
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.
Sources for this entry (22) 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)
[17] Invasive / introduced status — USDA PLANTS (DwCA, Zenodo 17903503) — native status
[18] Ecological value — Warren II 2026 (CC0) · Tallamy host-use counts
[19] Conservation rank — NatureServe Explorer (CC BY)
[20] Caterpillar host count — Warren II 2026 (Dryad, CC0) · Tallamy host-use counts
[21] Caterpillar species — NHM HOSTS (CC0)
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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).

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