Chromolaena odorata(L.) R.M.King & H.Rob.

Jack in the bush

WFO wfo-0000067484 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Chromolaena odorata, photographed by Center for Urban Ecology
fig. a Center for Urban Ecology, CC0 1.0 / 2022-05-18 / obs. 198698738
Chromolaena odorata, photographed by Center for Urban Ecology
fig. b Center for Urban Ecology, CC0 1.0 / obs. 197059298
Chromolaena odorata, photographed by Francisco Farriols Sarabia
fig. c Francisco Farriols Sarabia, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 194319865
Chromolaena odorata, photographed by Josiah Londerée
fig. d Josiah Londerée, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 193388503
Chromolaena odorata, photographed by Ben Machado
fig. e Ben Machado, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 194221002
Chromolaena odorata, photographed by Josiah Londerée
fig. f Josiah Londerée, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 191778167
Chromolaena odorata, photographed by Ong Jyh Seng
fig. g Ong Jyh Seng, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 191038136
Chromolaena odorata, photographed by Center for Urban Ecology
fig. h Center for Urban Ecology, CC0 1.0 / obs. 189625557

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 42 botanical countries

Regions where Chromolaena odorata is native: Florida, Mexico Central, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southeast, Mexico Southwest, Texas, Argentina Northeast, Argentina Northwest, Bahamas, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil North, Brazil Northeast, Brazil South, Brazil Southeast, Brazil West-Central, Cayman Is., Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Leeward Is., Nicaragua, Panamá, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Suriname, Trinidad-Tobago, Turks-Caicos Is., Venezuela, Windward Is. FloridaMexico CentralMexico GulfMexico NortheastMexico NorthwestMexico SoutheastMexico SouthwestTexasArgentina NortheastArgentina NorthwestBelizeBoliviaBrazil NorthBrazil NortheastBrazil SouthBrazil SoutheastBrazil West-CentralColombiaCosta RicaCubaDominican RepublicEcuadorEl SalvadorFrench GuianaGuatemalaGuyanaHaitiHondurasJamaicaNicaraguaPanamáParaguayPeruPuerto RicoSurinameTrinidad-TobagoVenezuela BahamasCayman Is.Leeward Is.Turks-Caicos Is.Windward Is.
Native distribution of Chromolaena odorata, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Argentina Northeast AGE SOUTHERN AMERICA
Argentina Northwest AGW
Bahamas BAH
Belize BLZ
Bolivia BOL
Brazil North BZN
Brazil Northeast BZE
Brazil South BZS
Brazil Southeast BZL
Brazil West-Central BZC
Cayman Is. CAY
Colombia CLM
Costa Rica COS
Cuba CUB
Dominican Republic DOM
Ecuador ECU
El Salvador ELS
French Guiana FRG
Guatemala GUA
Guyana GUY
Haiti HAI
Honduras HON
Jamaica JAM
Leeward Is. LEE
Nicaragua NIC
Panamá PAN
Paraguay PAR
Peru PER
Puerto Rico PUE
Suriname SUR
Trinidad-Tobago TRT
Turks-Caicos Is. TCI
Venezuela VEN
Windward Is. WIN
Florida FLA NORTHERN AMERICA
Mexico Central MXC
Mexico Gulf MXG
Mexico Northeast MXE
Mexico Northwest MXN
Mexico Southeast MXT
Mexico Southwest MXS
Texas TEX

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Flowering 1,857 in flower of 2,259 examined

Peak flowering in Dec. Each bar is the share of Chromolaena odorata observations in which someone actually recorded the reproductive state and found the plant in flower, not the raw number of flowering records. That distinction matters: people observe plants far more in spring than in winter, so a bare count of flowering records partly measures when people go outside. Dividing by the number examined removes that. 1,857 of 2,259 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. This is still a global aggregate and not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres. Where a species has fewer than 30 flowering records we do not draw this chart at all. Computed from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Where it actually grows measured, from 2,007 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 8.3 °C 14.8 °C 23.8 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 26.3 °C 30.3 °C 36.0 °C
Annual rainfall 675 mm 1,524 mm 3,316 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 17 mm 108 mm 256 mm

It is barely found anywhere that freezes. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 2,007 research-grade observations of Chromolaena odorata that carry a coordinate, and this is the range those places actually span. The 5th and 95th percentiles are used rather than the minimum and maximum, because a single cultivated specimen in a heated conservatory should not widen a tropical plant's range to the Arctic.

This is not a hardiness zone. A USDA zone is the average annual extreme minimum temperature. The figure above is the mean daily minimum of the coldest month, which is a different quantity and is typically far warmer. Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one. Climate from CHELSA V2.1 (Karger et al. 2017); occurrences from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Also published as 49 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Chromolaena clematitis (DC.) Pruski
  • Chrysocoma maculata Vell.
  • Chrysocoma maculata Vell.Conc.
  • Chrysocoma volubilis Vell.Conc.
  • Eupatorium affine Hook. & Arn.
  • Eupatorium atriplicifolium Vahl
  • Eupatorium brachiatum Sw. ex Wikstr.
  • Eupatorium clematitis DC.
  • Eupatorium conyzoides Mill.
  • Eupatorium conyzoides Vahl
  • Eupatorium conyzoides f. angustiflorum Cuatrec.
  • Eupatorium conyzoides f. conyzoides
  • Eupatorium conyzoides f. glabrata Hassl.
  • Eupatorium conyzoides subsp. conyzoides
  • Eupatorium conyzoides var. angustiflorum Cuatrec.
  • Eupatorium conyzoides var. conyzoides
  • Eupatorium conyzoides var. extensa Hieron.
  • Eupatorium conyzoides var. floribunda Hieron.
  • Eupatorium conyzoides var. glabrescens Steetz
  • Eupatorium conyzoides var. heterolepis Griseb.
  • Eupatorium conyzoides var. incanum Baker
  • Eupatorium conyzoides var. paucidentatum Baker
  • Eupatorium conyzoides var. pauciflorum Baker
  • Eupatorium conyzoides var. scaberulum Hassl.

and 25 more.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.