Aeluropus lagopoides(L.) Thwaites

mamoncillo

WFO wfo-0000842029 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 3 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 3 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.

Aeluropus lagopoides, photographed by Dinesh Valke
fig. a Dinesh Valke, CC BY-SA 4.0 / 2012-11-24 / obs. 131270042
Aeluropus lagopoides, photographed by Arabella Willing
fig. b Arabella Willing, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 111946764
Aeluropus lagopoides, photographed by Dinesh Valke
fig. c Dinesh Valke, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 131270029
Aeluropus lagopoides, photographed by Arabella Willing
fig. d Arabella Willing, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 111946769
Aeluropus lagopoides, photographed by Dinesh Valke
fig. e Dinesh Valke, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 131270047
Aeluropus lagopoides, photographed by Arabella Willing
fig. f Arabella Willing, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 111946771
Aeluropus lagopoides, photographed by dhfischer
fig. g dhfischer, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 93241883
Aeluropus lagopoides, photographed by Arabella Willing
fig. h Arabella Willing, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 111946761

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 40 botanical countries

Regions where Aeluropus lagopoides is native: Algeria, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Socotra, Somalia, Sudan-South Sudan, Tunisia, Western Sahara, Afghanistan, Cyprus, East Aegean Is., Gulf States, Iran, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Kirgizstan, Kuwait, Lebanon-Syria, Oman, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Sinai, Tadzhikistan, Transcaucasus, Türkiye, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Yemen, Bangladesh, India, Nicobar Is., Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Kriti, Sicilia AlgeriaDjiboutiEgyptEritreaEthiopiaLibyaMauritaniaMoroccoSomaliaSudan-South SudanTunisiaWestern SaharaAfghanistanCyprusEast Aegean Is.Gulf StatesIranIraqKazakhstanKirgizstanKuwaitLebanon-SyriaOmanPalestineSaudi ArabiaSinaiTadzhikistanTranscaucasusTürkiyeTurkmenistanUzbekistanYemenBangladeshIndiaPakistanSri LankaKritiSicilia Nicobar Is.
Native distribution of Aeluropus lagopoides, 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
Afghanistan AFG ASIA-TEMPERATE
Cyprus CYP
East Aegean Is. EAI
Gulf States GST
Iran IRN
Iraq IRQ
Kazakhstan KAZ
Kirgizstan KGZ
Kuwait KUW
Lebanon-Syria LBS
Oman OMA
Palestine PAL
Saudi Arabia SAU
Sinai SIN
Tadzhikistan TZK
Transcaucasus TCS
Türkiye TUR
Turkmenistan TKM
Uzbekistan UZB
Yemen YEM
Algeria ALG AFRICA
Djibouti DJI
Egypt EGY
Eritrea ERI
Ethiopia ETH
Libya LBY
Mauritania MTN
Morocco MOR
Socotra SOC
Somalia SOM
Sudan-South Sudan SUD
Tunisia TUN
Western Sahara WSA
Bangladesh BAN ASIA-TROPICAL
India IND
Nicobar Is. NCB
Pakistan PAK
Sri Lanka SRL
Kriti KRI EUROPE
Sicilia SIC

Not drawn on the map: Socotra. We hold no public-domain boundary for this region, so it is listed rather than guessed at.

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 92 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 7.4 °C 14.6 °C 22.1 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 30.8 °C 41.1 °C 46.3 °C
Annual rainfall 63 mm 122 mm 1,204 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 0 mm 2 mm 11 mm

It is barely found anywhere that freezes. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 92 research-grade observations of Aeluropus lagopoides 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 67 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.

  • Aeluropus bombycinus Fig. & De Not.
  • Aeluropus brevifolius Nees ex Asch. & Schweinf.
  • Aeluropus brevifolius var. longifolius Chiov.
  • Aeluropus brevifolius var. pygmaeus Chiov.
  • Aeluropus concinnus Fig. & De Not.
  • Aeluropus erythraeus Mattei
  • Aeluropus erythraeus var. scandens Mattei
  • Aeluropus laevis Trin.
  • Aeluropus lagopodioides Trin. ex Thwaites
  • Aeluropus lagopoides subsp. repens (Desf.) Tzvelev
  • Aeluropus lagopoides var. glabrifolia Czopanov
  • Aeluropus lagopoides var. hispidulus Halácsy
  • Aeluropus lagopoides var. mesopotamicus (Nábelek) Bor
  • Aeluropus lagopoides var. repens (Desf.) Khodash.
  • Aeluropus littoralis subsp. repens (Desf.) Trab.
  • Aeluropus littoralis var. mesopotamicus (Nábelek) Bor
  • Aeluropus littoralis var. repens (Desf.) Coss. & Durieu
  • Aeluropus longespicatus Parsa
  • Aeluropus massauensis (Fresen.) Mattei
  • Aeluropus mesopotamicus Nábelek
  • Aeluropus mucronatus var. erythraeus A.Terracc.
  • Aeluropus niliacus (Spreng.) Steud.
  • Aeluropus niloticus Edgew.
  • Aeluropus pubescens Trin. ex Steud.

and 43 more.

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.