Boerhavia erectaL.

erect spiderling

WFO wfo-0000567944 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Boerhavia erecta, photographed by Rachel Stringham
fig. a Rachel Stringham, CC BY 4.0 / 2021-09-28 / obs. 160402820
Boerhavia erecta, photographed by Northcut
fig. b Northcut, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 143613356
Boerhavia erecta, photographed by Reid Hardin
fig. c Reid Hardin, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 140469372
Boerhavia erecta, photographed by Paulmathi Vinod
fig. d Paulmathi Vinod, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 139694584
Boerhavia erecta, photographed by Beah Vega
fig. e Beah Vega, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 115688544
Boerhavia erecta, photographed by Tyler Cannon
fig. f Tyler Cannon, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 82257394
Boerhavia erecta, photographed by Alexis López Hernández
fig. g Alexis López Hernández, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 68103452
Boerhavia erecta, photographed by Alexis López Hernández
fig. h Alexis López Hernández, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 68103804

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 43 botanical countries

Regions where Boerhavia erecta is native: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mexico Central, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southeast, Mexico Southwest, Mississippi, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Aruba, Bahamas, Belize, Bolivia, Cayman Is., Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Galápagos, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Leeward Is., Netherlands Antilles, Nicaragua, Panamá, Peru, Puerto Rico, Southwest Caribbean, Turks-Caicos Is., Windward Is. AlabamaArizonaArkansasFloridaGeorgiaLouisianaMexico CentralMexico GulfMexico NortheastMexico NorthwestMexico SoutheastMexico SouthwestMississippiNew MexicoNorth CarolinaOklahomaSouth CarolinaTexasBelizeBoliviaColombiaCosta RicaCubaDominican RepublicEcuadorEl SalvadorGuatemalaHaitiHondurasJamaicaNicaraguaPanamáPeruPuerto RicoSouthwest Caribbean ArubaBahamasCayman Is.GalápagosLeeward Is.Netherlands AntillesTurks-Caicos Is.Windward Is.
Native distribution of Boerhavia erecta, 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
Aruba ARU SOUTHERN AMERICA
Bahamas BAH
Belize BLZ
Bolivia BOL
Cayman Is. CAY
Colombia CLM
Costa Rica COS
Cuba CUB
Dominican Republic DOM
Ecuador ECU
El Salvador ELS
Galápagos GAL
Guatemala GUA
Haiti HAI
Honduras HON
Jamaica JAM
Leeward Is. LEE
Netherlands Antilles NLA
Nicaragua NIC
Panamá PAN
Peru PER
Puerto Rico PUE
Southwest Caribbean SWC
Turks-Caicos Is. TCI
Windward Is. WIN
Alabama ALA NORTHERN AMERICA
Arizona ARI
Arkansas ARK
Florida FLA
Georgia GEO
Louisiana LOU
Mexico Central MXC
Mexico Gulf MXG
Mexico Northeast MXE
Mexico Northwest MXN
Mexico Southeast MXT
Mexico Southwest MXS
Mississippi MSI
New Mexico NWM
North Carolina NCA
Oklahoma OKL
South Carolina SCA
Texas TEX

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 187 in flower of 213 examined

Peak flowering in Mar. Each bar is the share of Boerhavia erecta 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. 187 of 213 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. One month has fewer than 5 examined observations, so no proportion is drawn for it. 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.

Also published as 7 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.

  • Boerhavia elongata Salisb.
  • Boerhavia erecta f. subepunctata Heimerl
  • Boerhavia erecta subsp. thornberi (M.E.Jones) Standl.
  • Boerhavia erecta var. thornberi (M.E.Jones) Standl.
  • Boerhavia paniculata subsp. thornberi (M.E.Jones) Standl.
  • Boerhavia thornberi M.E.Jones
  • Valeriana latifolia M.Martens & Galeotti

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.