Acalypha setosaA.Rich.

Cuban copperleaf

WFO wfo-0000236239 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 5 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 5 times, so some figures below are different views of the same plant, taken on the same day, rather than different individuals. They are usually different parts of it: the leaf, the flower, the bark.

Acalypha setosa, photographed by natalie
fig. a natalie, CC0 1.0 / 2021-11-12 / obs. 168550672
Acalypha setosa, photographed by natalie
fig. b natalie, CC0 1.0 / obs. 167045256
Acalypha setosa, photographed by natalie
fig. c natalie, CC0 1.0 / obs. 167045281
Acalypha setosa, photographed by natalie
fig. d natalie, CC0 1.0 / obs. 168550705
Acalypha setosa, photographed by natalie
fig. e natalie, CC0 1.0 / obs. 153383163
Acalypha setosa, photographed by natalie
fig. f natalie, CC0 1.0 / obs. 153383146
Acalypha setosa, photographed by Jade Fortnash
fig. g Jade Fortnash, CC0 1.0 / obs. 174495818
Acalypha setosa, photographed by Neptalí Ramírez Marcial
fig. h Neptalí Ramírez Marcial, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 5579619

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 17 botanical countries

Regions where Acalypha setosa is native: Mexico Central, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Southeast, Mexico Southwest, Bahamas, Belize, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Nicaragua, Puerto Rico, Venezuela Mexico CentralMexico GulfMexico SoutheastMexico SouthwestBelizeColombiaCosta RicaCubaDominican RepublicEcuadorGuatemalaHaitiHondurasNicaraguaPuerto RicoVenezuela Bahamas
Native distribution of Acalypha setosa, 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
Bahamas BAH SOUTHERN AMERICA
Belize BLZ
Colombia CLM
Costa Rica COS
Cuba CUB
Dominican Republic DOM
Ecuador ECU
Guatemala GUA
Haiti HAI
Honduras HON
Nicaragua NIC
Puerto Rico PUE
Venezuela VEN
Mexico Central MXC NORTHERN AMERICA
Mexico Gulf MXG
Mexico Southeast MXT
Mexico Southwest MXS

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.

Also published as 4 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 polystachya Spreng.
  • Acalypha scleroloba Müll.Arg. ex Pax & K.Hoffm.
  • Acalypha scleroloba Müll.Arg.
  • Ricinocarpus setosus Kuntze

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.