Boehmeria caudataSw.

WFO wfo-0000567423 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Boehmeria caudata, photographed by Cajá-manga
fig. a Cajá-manga, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-01-20 / obs. 177545309
Boehmeria caudata, photographed by Cajá-manga
fig. b Cajá-manga, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 177548460
Boehmeria caudata, photographed by Cajá-manga
fig. c Cajá-manga, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 176296500
Boehmeria caudata, photographed by Tony Rebelo
fig. d Tony Rebelo, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 31087336
Boehmeria caudata, photographed by Tony Rebelo
fig. e Tony Rebelo, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 31087216
Boehmeria caudata, photographed by Tony Rebelo
fig. f Tony Rebelo, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 31087043
Boehmeria caudata, photographed by Tony Rebelo
fig. g Tony Rebelo, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 31087028
Boehmeria caudata, photographed by Thalia M. Mite
fig. h Thalia M. Mite, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 200721890

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 24 botanical countries

Regions where Boehmeria caudata is native: Mexico Central, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Southeast, Mexico Southwest, Argentina Northeast, Argentina Northwest, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil North, Brazil Northeast, Brazil South, Brazil Southeast, Brazil West-Central, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panamá, Paraguay, Peru, Venezuela Mexico CentralMexico GulfMexico SoutheastMexico SouthwestArgentina NortheastArgentina NorthwestBelizeBoliviaBrazil NorthBrazil NortheastBrazil SouthBrazil SoutheastBrazil West-CentralColombiaCosta RicaEcuadorEl SalvadorGuatemalaHondurasNicaraguaPanamáParaguayPeruVenezuela
Native distribution of Boehmeria caudata, 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
Argentina Northeast AGE SOUTHERN AMERICA
Argentina Northwest AGW
Belize BLZ
Bolivia BOL
Brazil North BZN
Brazil Northeast BZE
Brazil South BZS
Brazil Southeast BZL
Brazil West-Central BZC
Colombia CLM
Costa Rica COS
Ecuador ECU
El Salvador ELS
Guatemala GUA
Honduras HON
Nicaragua NIC
Panamá PAN
Paraguay PAR
Peru PER
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.

Where it actually grows measured, from 160 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 4.9 °C 10.3 °C 15.9 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 19.2 °C 26.4 °C 29.8 °C
Annual rainfall 1,043 mm 1,856 mm 2,509 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 32 mm 247 mm 443 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 160 research-grade observations of Boehmeria caudata 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 21 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.

  • Boehmeria ampullacea Kunth
  • Boehmeria arborescens Gardner
  • Boehmeria arguta Mart. ex Miq.
  • Boehmeria caudata var. arborescens (Gardner) Wedd.
  • Boehmeria caudata var. arguta (Mart. ex Miq.) Wedd.
  • Boehmeria caudata var. lanceolata Wedd.
  • Boehmeria caudata var. petiolaris (Kunth) Blume
  • Boehmeria caudata var. tomentosa Wedd.
  • Boehmeria flagelliformis Liebm.
  • Boehmeria guatemalensis Gand.
  • Boehmeria palmeri S.Watson
  • Boehmeria peruviana Blume
  • Boehmeria petiolaris Kunth
  • Boehmeria scabrella Blume
  • Boehmeria sordida Rusby
  • Boehmeria stipulata Glaz.
  • Boehmeria tenuistachys Rusby
  • Procris caudata (Sw.) Poir.
  • Ramium ampullaceum Kuntze
  • Ramium caudatum (Sw.) Kuntze
  • Urtica spicata Sessé & Moc.

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.