Aciotis indecora(Bonpl.) Triana

WFO wfo-0001080688 Accepted WFO 2026-06 5 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–e · 2 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 2 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.

Aciotis indecora, photographed by Sam Kieschnick
fig. a Sam Kieschnick, CC BY 4.0 / 2019-06-27 / obs. 43774928

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 19 botanical countries

Regions where Aciotis indecora is native: Mexico Gulf, Mexico Southeast, Bolivia, Brazil North, Brazil Northeast, Brazil West-Central, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panamá, Peru, Suriname, Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuela Mexico GulfMexico SoutheastBoliviaBrazil NorthBrazil NortheastBrazil West-CentralColombiaCosta RicaEcuadorFrench GuianaGuatemalaGuyanaHondurasNicaraguaPanamáPeruSurinameTrinidad-TobagoVenezuela
Native distribution of Aciotis indecora, 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.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Bolivia BOL SOUTHERN AMERICA
Brazil North BZN
Brazil Northeast BZE
Brazil West-Central BZC
Colombia CLM
Costa Rica COS
Ecuador ECU
French Guiana FRG
Guatemala GUA
Guyana GUY
Honduras HON
Nicaragua NIC
Panamá PAN
Peru PER
Suriname SUR
Trinidad-Tobago TRT
Venezuela VEN
Mexico Gulf MXG NORTHERN AMERICA
Mexico Southeast MXT

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.

Where it actually grows measured, from 33 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 19.3 °C 21.6 °C 23.2 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 27.1 °C 31.2 °C 32.2 °C
Annual rainfall 2,394 mm 3,290 mm 3,885 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 133 mm 280 mm 335 mm

It is not found anywhere that gets close to freezing. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 33 research-grade observations of Aciotis indecora that carry a coordinate, and this is the range those places actually span. The 5th and 95th percentiles are used rather than the minimum and maximum, because a single cultivated specimen in a heated conservatory should not widen a tropical plant's range to the Arctic.

This is not a hardiness zone. A USDA zone is the average annual extreme minimum temperature. The figure above is the mean daily minimum of the coldest month, which is a different quantity and is typically far warmer. Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one.

Also published as 19 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.

  • Aciotis acutiflora (Mart.) Triana
  • Aciotis acutiflora var. parvifolia Cogn.
  • Aciotis anomala Brade
  • Aciotis indecora var. macrophylla Cogn.
  • Aciotis indecora var. sagotiana Cogn.
  • Aciotis laxa (DC.) Cogn.
  • Aciotis laxa var. kappleriana (Naudin) Cogn.
  • Aciotis laxa var. robusta Cogn.
  • Aciotis rostellata (Naudin) Triana
  • Aciotis viscosa (Naudin) Triana
  • Leandra montana Gleason
  • Melastoma viscosum Bonpl. ex Naudin
  • Rhexia indecora Bonpl.
  • Spennera acutiflora Mart.
  • Spennera indecora (Bonpl.) DC.
  • Spennera kappleriana Naudin
  • Spennera laxa DC.
  • Spennera rostellata Naudin
  • Spennera viscosa Naudin

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. 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.