When does smartweed leaf-flower bloom in Texas?

Most often in March. Across 268 dated, research-grade observations of Phyllanthus polygonoides in Texas, the flowering season runs roughly February to June.

Peak March In flower 268 Examined 371 State Texas

Flowering 268 in flower of 371 examined

80%

88%

85%

75%

81%

65%

59%

67%

61%

59%

43%

Proportion of examined Phyllanthus polygonoides in Texas in flower, by month
Month	In flower	Examined	Share	95% interval
Jan	1	1	too few examined
Feb	4	5	80%	38% to 96%
Mar	14	16	88%	64% to 97%
Apr	68	80	85%	76% to 91%
May	47	63	75%	63% to 84%
Jun	26	32	81%	65% to 91%
Jul	17	26	65%	46% to 81%
Aug	13	22	59%	39% to 77%
Sep	31	46	67%	53% to 79%
Oct	28	46	61%	46% to 74%
Nov	16	27	59%	41% to 75%
Dec	3	7	43%	16% to 75%

Peak flowering in Mar. Each bar is the share of Phyllanthus polygonoides in Texas 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. 268 of 371 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. One month has fewer than 5 examined observations, so no proportion is drawn for it. 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.wt38fd.

What this is, and what it is not

This is a record of when people in Texas found Phyllanthus polygonoides in flower, not a forecast. It is computed only from observations made in Texas, so it is not the species’ global average dragged onto a map: the same plant flowers on different dates in different places, and that is the entire point of the page.

It will not tell you what your particular plant will do this year. Bloom time moves with the season, with altitude, and with the weather, and a warm February pulls everything forward. We publish the distribution and the sample size, and we refuse to draw a month that too few people examined.

The plant

Phyllanthus polygonoides

smartweed leaf-flower

Sourcesevery claim on this page

GBIF (iNaturalist Research-grade Observations). Dated flowering annotations in Texas. Every record achieved iNaturalist quality grade Research, which is applied upstream at export. 10.15468/dl.wt38fd. Retrieved 2026-07-14.
World Flora Online Plant List. The accepted name. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.