Scientific Name: Chenopodium ambrosioides L.
Family: Chenopodiaceae (Goosefoot Family)
Common name: Mexican-tea
Description: Typically an annual plant, but in the South mostly a perennial herb from a stout root; strongly pungent.
Range and Habitat: Native to tropical America and naturalized throughout much of eastern North America in cultivated and fallow fields, pastures, vacant lots, and along railroads and road banks.
In Porcher’s time… Mexican tea essential oil was used as a tonic and antispasmodic, particularly in the treatment of chorea in infants.
See the historical entry on this plant as it appears in Resources of the Southern Fields and Forests