Nilo Gandhe / Flossflower
Ageratum houstonianum
- Habit
- Herb
- Found in India
- Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand & more
- Flowering
- Throughout the year
How to identify Nilo Gandhe
Identify Nilo Gandhe by combining habit, leaf characters, flower or fruit details, location, and its family pattern. Do not rely on one feature alone.
- Look for a herb habit.
- Confirm leaf surface: Pubescent (softly hairy).
- Confirm flower colour: Purple.
- Confirm flower arrangement: Head.
- In season, compare flowering and fruiting time: Throughout the year.
- In India, compare location records such as Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Assam and nearby regions.
- Confirm it sits within the Asteraceae family pattern, then compare close relatives before deciding it is Nilo Gandhe.
Plant Details
- Scientific name
- Ageratum houstonianum
- Genus
- Ageratum
- Family
- Asteraceae
- Habit
- Herb
- Habitat
- Forest edges near streams at high elevations
- Native to
- Tropical America
- Distribution
- Pantropical weed
- Found in India
- Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Himachal Pradesh, Delhi, Arunachal Pradesh, Punjab, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Meghalaya, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Mizoram, Jammu & Kashmir, Jharkhand, Manipur, Nagaland, Tripura, Chandigarh, Karnataka, Sikkim
- Flowering & fruiting
- Throughout the year
- Conservation status
- Not Evaluated (NE)
Leaf characters
- Leaf surface
- Pubescent (softly hairy)recorded
Typical of the family
- Arrangement
- Alternate
Characters marked “recorded” are for Nilo Gandhe itself; the rest are typical of the Asteraceae family.
Flower & fruit characters
- Flower colour
- PurplerecordedPurple or violet
- Flower arrangement
- HeadrecordedA dense, tight cluster of many small stalkless flowers, packed into a rounded or flat head.“The flower heads are borne in dense corymbs.” — Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0
Typical of the family
- Flower symmetry
- Actinomorphic (radially symmetrical)
- Inflorescence
- Head
- Fruit
- Achene
Characters marked “recorded” are for Nilo Gandhe itself; the rest are typical of the Asteraceae family — flowering plants only.
Local Names
- Nepali
- निलो गन्धे NIlo Gandhe, गन्धे झार Gandhe Jhaar
About Nilo Gandhe
Flossflower (Ageratum houstonianum) belongs to the Asteraceae family, where it grows as a herb. In India it has been recorded in Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand and 23 other states. It grows in forest edges near streams at high elevations. It flowers and fruits through much of the year.
Uses
Parts of this plant are reported as poisonous — treat it as unsafe to eat and wash your hands after handling.
Asteraceae
Daisy/Sunflower family
Nilo Gandhe belongs to the Asteraceae family.
The illustration represents the family — not necessarily this exact species.
Explore the Asteraceae familySnap it. Know it.
Point your camera at Nilo Gandhe or any plant and SASYA identifies it instantly — on-device, offline, and private.
Common plant problems
If you are starting from symptoms instead of a diagnosis, use the plant disease symptom checker to narrow the cause before treating.
All plant problem & care guides