Floss flower
Ageratum houstonianum Mill.
- light
- Sun–part
- water
- Medium
- tall
- 23 cm
- wide
- 28 cm
Asteraceae
Also called Bluemink, Flossflower, Hawaii Blue, Mexican Ageratum, Garden Ageratum
Formerly Ageratum mexicanum, Ageratum pinetorum, Ageratum wendlandii, Alomia pinetorum, and 2 more
When it flowers
Flowers December to June in the tropics.
Read from iNaturalist photographs of it in flower. A month counts at 50% of the best month's flowering share (smoothed over three months) and 10% of its flowering count, from at least 100 flowering observations in the band.
If a child, a pet or anyone may have eaten a plant, contact a doctor or vet straight away, or call the National Poisons Information Centre (AIIMS, New Delhi) on 1800 116 117, free and open 24 hours.
Something wrong with it?About it
- Grows as
- Annual or perennialKew's checklist, not yet checked
- Climate
- SubtropicalKew's checklist, not yet checked
- Wild in
- Mexico to C. AmericaKew's checklist, not yet checked
- Light
- Full sun to part shade (3 h or more)Read from NC State Extension, one source
- Height
- 15 cm to 30 cmRead from NC State Extension, one source
- Spread
- 25 cm to 30 cmRead from NC State Extension, one source
- Water
- Average: moist, well drainedRead from NC State Extension, one source
- Flowers
- White, pink, blueRead from NC State Extension and RHS, checked by a majority of its sourcesBacked by both sources
Not known yet: coldest it survives, heat, hottest it survives.
Grow it with
Suggested by a rule, not by a gardener: same climate (kew), flowering when this plant does not (inaturalist), and a different shape.
Cape leadwortFlowers July to November, when this does not
Cotton RosemallowFlowers July to November, when this does not
Crimson bottlebrushFlowers July to November, when this does not
LantanaFlowers July to November, when this does not
Mexican petuniaFlowers July to November, when this does not
Society garlicFlowers July to November, when this does not
In other languages (12)
- Spanish
- Yerba del zopilote, Flor de garrapata
- Hawaiian
- maile hohono
- Chinese
- 熊耳草, 紫花藿香薊, 墨西哥香薊
- Czech
- nestařec americký
- Finnish
- meksikonsinitähtönen
- German
- Gewöhnlicher Leberbalsam
- Russian
- Агератум Гаустона, Агератум Хьюстона
- Japanese
- ムラサキカッコウアザミ, アゲラタム
- Estonian
- mehhiko päsmaslill
- Dutch
- Ageratum
- Swedish
- ageratum
- Korean
- 불로화
Where this comes from
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-24, CC0-1.0 (observation counts)
- Wikidata, read 2026-10-24, CC0-1.0
- Kew's checklist, read 2026-10-24, CC-BY-4.0
- NC State Extension, read 2026-10-25, fact, cited
- RHS, read 2026-10-25, fact, cited
- Wikimedia Commons, read 2026-10-24, CC BY-SA 2.0
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC BY
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC BY
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC BY
- 3D model: Ageratum houstonianum (built for Vanagrha) by Vanagrha, own
A fact “checked by a majority of its sources” was settled by a vote of the pages it was read from, not by a person reading it; one marked “one source” rests on that page alone. Anything else not marked checked has not been checked yet. Where nothing is known, the page says so rather than guess.