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Acmella oleracea
Asteraceae FAMILY

Acmella oleracea

Acmella oleracea

Edibility
3/5
Medicinal
3/5

Safety & Hazards

None known

Cultivation Details

HabitPerennial
Growth—

Prefers a sunny position[1]. Plants have escaped from cultivation in New Caledonia, where the species is classified as 'Invasive'[2]. There is a wild form with much stronger flavoured leaves that is occasionally used in salads but is more commonly used medicinally, especially to treat toothache[3, PFAF]. A cultivated form 'Oleracea' has milder flavoured leaves and has become very popular in Brazil both as a salad and an addition to soups[3]. It has been suggested that Acmella oleracea was mostly likely derived through cultivation from Acmella alba (L’Hér.) R. K. Jansen in central Peru[4].

Propagation

Seed - requires a temperature of 21°c to germinate[5]. Germination takes place in about 2 weeks[6]. Cuttings when the plant is not in flower[5]. Cite as: Tropical Plants Database, Ken Fern. tropical.theferns.info. 2026-02-19. <tropical.theferns.info/viewtropical.php?id=Acmella+oleracea>

Pollinators

Data unavailable

References

  1. [1]The New RHS Dictionary of Gardening. 1992. — Huxley. A. · MacMillan Press · 1992 · ISBN 0-333-47494-5 ↩︎Excellent and very comprehensive, though it contains a number of silly mistakes. Readable yet also very detailed.
  2. [2]Pacific Island Ecosystems at Risk — http://www.hear.org/pier/scientificnames/index.html ↩︎A very good website detailing weed species that have been introduced into the Pacific Islands.
  3. [3]Cornucopia II — Facciola. S. · Kampong Publications, California. · 1998 · ISBN 0-9628087-2-5 ↩︎The second edition of an excellent guide to the edible uses of plants, though it does not give any details of cultivation etc.
  4. [4]The Systematics of Acmella (Asteraceae-Heliantheae) — Jansen R.K. · American Society of Plant Taxonomists · 1985 ↩︎
  5. [5]Protabase - Plant Resources of Tropical Africa. — http://www.prota.org ↩︎An excellent on-line database with detailed information on over 3,200 species of useful plants of Africa.
  6. [6]Desert Tropicals — http://www.desert-tropicals.com/ ↩︎The main focus of the site is succulent plants, but it also contains information on a wide range of other species. Usually at least one good photograph, plus basic information about the plant and its cultivation.
  7. [7]Notes on Acmella (Asteraceae: Heliantheae) in Taiwan — Chung K.F. et al · 2008 ↩︎
  8. [8]Dictionary of Economic Plants. — Uphof. J. C. Th. · Weinheim · 1959 · ISBN - ↩︎An excellent and very comprehensive guide but it only gives very short descriptions of the uses without any details of how to utilize the plants. Not for the casual reader.
  9. [9]Medicinal Plants of the Guianas — DeFilipps, R. A.; Maina, S. L.; & Crepin, J. · Smithsonian Museum · http://botany.si.edu/bdg/medicinal/index.html ↩︎A down-loadable PDF document of a book in pre-publication awaiting illustration. An excellent, if rather terse, guide to the traditional medicinal uses of the plants of the region
  10. [10]Flowers of India — http://www.flowersofindia.net/ ↩︎A wed site of native Indian plants, plus cultivated and naturalized species. It has good quality photos and terse details on more than 3,000 species and cultivars.
  11. [11]Enciclopedia de las Plantas Útiles del Ecuador — de la Torre, L., Navarrete H., P. Muriel M., Macía M.J. & Ba · Herbario QCA de la Escuela de Ciencias Biológicas de la Pontific · 2008 · ISBN 978-9978-77-135-8 ↩︎
  12. [12]Plants of Possible Insecticidal Value - A Review of the Literature up to 1941 — McIndoo N.E. · USDA; Bureau of Entomology and Plant Quarantine · 1945 ↩︎Information on the insecticidal properties (or not) of almost 1,200 species of plant. Rather dated but still with information hard to obtain elsewhere. It can be downloaded from the Intenet
  13. [PFAF]Plants for a Future — pfaf.org ↩︎