Helichrysum foetidumMoench

stinking strawflower

WFO wfo-0000011539 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Helichrysum foetidum, photographed by Di Turner
fig. a Di Turner, CC0 1.0 / 2022-05-01 / obs. 194983343
Helichrysum foetidum, photographed by Di Turner
fig. b Di Turner, CC0 1.0 / obs. 194977099
Helichrysum foetidum, photographed by Tony Rebelo
fig. c Tony Rebelo, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 191848960
Helichrysum foetidum, photographed by Justin Ponder
fig. d Justin Ponder, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 191531776
Helichrysum foetidum, photographed by Tim Kirsten
fig. e Tim Kirsten, CC0 1.0 / obs. 190044827
Helichrysum foetidum, photographed by Corli du Toit Smith
fig. f Corli du Toit Smith, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 191153802
Helichrysum foetidum, photographed by Tony Rebelo
fig. g Tony Rebelo, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 188082126
Helichrysum foetidum, photographed by Tony Rebelo
fig. h Tony Rebelo, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 187763518

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 20 botanical countries

Regions where Helichrysum foetidum is native: Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Provinces, DR Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Ghana, Gulf of Guinea Is., Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Somalia, Sudan-South Sudan, Uganda, Zambia, Saudi Arabia, Yemen BurundiCameroonCape ProvincesDR CongoEritreaEthiopiaGhanaGulf of Guinea Is.KenyaMadagascarMalawiMozambiqueNigeriaRwandaSomaliaSudan-South SudanUgandaZambiaSaudi ArabiaYemen
Native distribution of Helichrysum foetidum, 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.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Burundi BUR AFRICA
Cameroon CMN
Cape Provinces CPP
DR Congo ZAI
Eritrea ERI
Ethiopia ETH
Ghana GHA
Gulf of Guinea Is. GGI
Kenya KEN
Madagascar MDG
Malawi MLW
Mozambique MOZ
Nigeria NGA
Rwanda RWA
Somalia SOM
Sudan-South Sudan SUD
Uganda UGA
Zambia ZAM
Saudi Arabia SAU ASIA-TEMPERATE
Yemen YEM

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 184 in flower of 220 examined

Peak flowering in Jan. Each bar is the share of Helichrysum foetidum 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. 184 of 220 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.

Also published as 13 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.

  • Anaxeton foetidum (L.) Gaertn.
  • Gnaphalium argenteum Mill.
  • Gnaphalium buchingeri Sch.Bip.
  • Gnaphalium foetidum L.
  • Gnaphalium fruticans Schrank
  • Helichrysum foetidum var. intermedia Chiov.
  • Helichrysum foetidum var. microcephalum A.Rich.
  • Helichrysum foetidum var. molle Moeser
  • Helichrysum foetidum var. pallidum Less.
  • Helichrysum glutinosum A.Braun
  • Helichrysum gregorii S.Moore
  • Helichrysum uviranum De Wild.
  • Helichrysum zairense Lisowski

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. USDA PLANTS Database. common name, checklist symbol HEFO4. public domain. 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.