Acalypha gracilensA.Gray

Shortstalk CopperleafSlender CopperleafSlender Threeseed MercurySlender three-seeded copperleafSlender three-seeded mercuryThree-seeded Mercuryslender threeseed mercury

WFO wfo-0000943296 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Acalypha gracilens, photographed by Josiah Londerée
fig. a Josiah Londerée, CC BY 4.0 / 2021-11-21 / obs. 169797888
Acalypha gracilens, photographed by the swamp ass
fig. b the swamp ass, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 163656819
Acalypha gracilens, photographed by Michelle W. （鍾偉瑋）
fig. c Michelle W. （鍾偉瑋）, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 161194513
Acalypha gracilens, photographed by natalie
fig. d natalie, CC0 1.0 / obs. 152356504
Acalypha gracilens, photographed by natalie
fig. e natalie, CC0 1.0 / obs. 131149398
Acalypha gracilens, photographed by Eric Knight
fig. f Eric Knight, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 104878765
Acalypha gracilens, photographed by Alexander Williams
fig. g Alexander Williams, CC0 1.0 / obs. 102618251
Acalypha gracilens, photographed by Adam Pitcher
fig. h Adam Pitcher, CC0 1.0 / obs. 91307914

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 31 botanical countries

Regions where Acalypha gracilens is native: Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode I., South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia AlabamaArkansasConnecticutFloridaGeorgiaIllinoisIndianaIowaKentuckyLouisianaMaineMarylandMassachusettsMississippiMissouriNew HampshireNew JerseyNew YorkNorth CarolinaOhioOklahomaPennsylvaniaSouth CarolinaTennesseeTexasVermontVirginiaWest Virginia DelawareDistrict of ColumbiaRhode I.
Native distribution of Acalypha gracilens, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Alabama ALA NORTHERN AMERICA
Arkansas ARK
Connecticut CNT
Delaware DEL
District of Columbia WDC
Florida FLA
Georgia GEO
Illinois ILL
Indiana INI
Iowa IOW
Kentucky KTY
Louisiana LOU
Maine MAI
Maryland MRY
Massachusetts MAS
Mississippi MSI
Missouri MSO
New Hampshire NWH
New Jersey NWJ
New York NWY
North Carolina NCA
Ohio OHI
Oklahoma OKL
Pennsylvania PEN
Rhode I. RHO
South Carolina SCA
Tennessee TEN
Texas TEX
Vermont VER
Virginia VRG
West Virginia WVA

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Flowering 40 in flower of 77 examined

Peak flowering in Aug. Each bar is the share of Acalypha gracilens 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. 40 of 77 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. 6 months have fewer than 5 examined observations, so no proportion is drawn for them. 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.cgje2x.

Also published as 13 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Acalypha gracilens var. delzii Lill.W.Mill.
  • Acalypha gracilens var. fraseri (Müll.Arg.) Weath.
  • Acalypha gracilens var. gracilens
  • Acalypha virginica Michx.
  • Acalypha virginica var. fraseri Müll.Arg.
  • Acalypha virginica var. gracilens (A.Gray) Riddell
  • Acalypha virginica var. gracilens (A.Gray) Müll.Arg.
  • Acalypha virginica var. gracilescens Müll.Arg.
  • Acalypha virginica var. intermedia Riddell
  • Acalypha virginica var. ovalifolia Riddell
  • Acalypha virginica var. ramosa Riddell
  • Acalypha virginica var. rhombifolia Riddell
  • Acalypha virginica var. texana Riddell

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.