Alysicarpus vaginalis(L.) DC.

white moneywort

WFO wfo-0000176915 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Alysicarpus vaginalis, photographed by 五色鳥
fig. a 五色鳥, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-06-07 / obs. 204039307

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 67 botanical countries

Regions where Alysicarpus vaginalis is native: Angola, Benin, Burkina, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, DR Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eswatini, Gabon, Ghana, Gulf of Guinea Is., Kenya, KwaZulu-Natal, Madagascar, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Northern Provinces, Réunion, Rodrigues, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Socotra, Sudan-South Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, China South-Central, China Southeast, Gulf States, Hainan, Nansei-shoto, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, Yemen, Assam, Bangladesh, Bismarck Archipelago, Borneo, Cambodia, East Himalaya, India, Jawa, Laccadive Is., Laos, Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, New Guinea, Philippines, Solomon Is., South China Sea, Sri Lanka, Sumatera, Thailand, Vietnam, West Himalaya AngolaBeninBurkinaCameroonCentral African RepublicChadCongoDR CongoEquatorial GuineaEswatiniGabonGhanaGulf of Guinea Is.KenyaKwaZulu-NatalMadagascarMauritaniaMozambiqueNigerNigeriaNorthern ProvincesRwandaSierra LeoneSudan-South SudanTanzaniaTogoUgandaZambiaZimbabweChina South-CentralChina SoutheastGulf StatesHainanOmanSaudi ArabiaTaiwanYemenAssamBangladeshBismarck ArchipelagoBorneoCambodiaEast HimalayaIndiaJawaLaosLesser Sunda Is.MalayaMyanmarNepalNew GuineaPhilippinesSolomon Is.Sri LankaSumateraThailandVietnamWest Himalaya ComorosMauritiusRéunionRodriguesNansei-shotoLaccadive Is.MaldivesSouth China Sea
Native distribution of Alysicarpus vaginalis, 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
Angola ANG AFRICA
Benin BEN
Burkina BKN
Cameroon CMN
Central African Republic CAF
Chad CHA
Comoros COM
Congo CON
DR Congo ZAI
Equatorial Guinea EQG
Eswatini SWZ
Gabon GAB
Ghana GHA
Gulf of Guinea Is. GGI
Kenya KEN
KwaZulu-Natal NAT
Madagascar MDG
Mauritania MTN
Mauritius MAU
Mozambique MOZ
Niger NGR
Nigeria NGA
Northern Provinces TVL
Réunion REU
Rodrigues ROD
Rwanda RWA
Sierra Leone SIE
Socotra SOC
Sudan-South Sudan SUD
Tanzania TAN
Togo TOG
Uganda UGA
Zambia ZAM
Zimbabwe ZIM
Assam ASS ASIA-TROPICAL
Bangladesh BAN
Bismarck Archipelago BIS
Borneo BOR
Cambodia CBD
East Himalaya EHM
India IND
Jawa JAW
Laccadive Is. LDV
Laos LAO
Lesser Sunda Is. LSI
Malaya MLY
Maldives MDV
Myanmar MYA
Nepal NEP
New Guinea NWG
Philippines PHI
Solomon Is. SOL
South China Sea SCS
Sri Lanka SRL
Sumatera SUM
Thailand THA
Vietnam VIE
West Himalaya WHM
China South-Central CHC ASIA-TEMPERATE
China Southeast CHS
Gulf States GST
Hainan CHH
Nansei-shoto NNS
Oman OMA
Saudi Arabia SAU
Taiwan TAI
Yemen YEM

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.

Flowering 203 in flower of 241 examined

Proportion of examined Alysicarpus vaginalis in flower, by month
Month In flower Examined Share 95% interval
Jan 5 10 50% 24% to 76%
Feb 4 5 80% 38% to 96%
Mar 15 16 94% 72% to 99%
Apr 25 28 89% 73% to 96%
May 25 27 93% 77% to 98%
Jun 16 21 76% 55% to 89%
Jul 16 17 94% 73% to 99%
Aug 19 22 86% 67% to 95%
Sep 26 30 87% 70% to 95%
Oct 18 25 72% 52% to 86%
Nov 23 24 96% 80% to 99%
Dec 11 16 69% 44% to 86%

Peak flowering in Nov. Each bar is the share of Alysicarpus vaginalis 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. 203 of 241 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. 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.

Where it actually grows measured, from 2,018 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 12.1 °C 15.5 °C 23.9 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 27.1 °C 30.1 °C 31.3 °C
Annual rainfall 987 mm 1,926 mm 3,622 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 57 mm 145 mm 593 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 2,018 research-grade observations of Alysicarpus vaginalis 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. Climate from CHELSA V2.1 (Karger et al. 2017); occurrences from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Also published as 34 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.

  • Alysicarpus cylindricus (Poir.) Desv.
  • Alysicarpus diversifolius Wall.
  • Alysicarpus monilifer var. venosus Blatt. & Hallb.
  • Alysicarpus nummularifolius (L.) DC.
  • Alysicarpus nummularifolius var. angustatus Ohwi
  • Alysicarpus nummulariifolius DC.
  • Alysicarpus nummulariifolius var. angustatus Ohwi
  • Alysicarpus nummulariifolius var. surinamensis Meisn.
  • Alysicarpus nummularioides Zipp. ex Span.
  • Alysicarpus nummularius Baill.
  • Alysicarpus rubibarna Buch.-Ham. ex Wall.
  • Alysicarpus rupicola Edgew.
  • Alysicarpus scaber Spreng.
  • Alysicarpus scaber Span.
  • Alysicarpus trifoliatus Stocks ex Baker
  • Alysicarpus vaginalis var. diversifolius Chun
  • Alysicarpus vaginalis var. nummulariifolius (DC.) Miq.
  • Alysicarpus vaginalis var. parvifolius Verdc.
  • Alysicarpus vaginalis var. stocksii Baker
  • Alysicarpus vaginalis var. villosus Verdc.
  • Alysicarpus varius Wall.
  • Fabricia cylindrica (Poir.) Kuntze
  • Fabricia nummulariifolia (DC.) Kuntze
  • Hallia vaginalis (L.) J.St.-Hil.

and 10 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.