Crotalaria micansLink

Caracas rattlebox

WFO wfo-0000210917 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

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.

Crotalaria micans, photographed by Hugo Hulsberg
fig. a Hugo Hulsberg, CC0 1.0 / 2014-03-17 / obs. 174114935
Crotalaria micans, photographed by Lin Scott
fig. b Lin Scott, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 69115021
Crotalaria micans, photographed by Fede y Vani
fig. c Fede y Vani, CC0 1.0 / obs. 170664331
Crotalaria micans, photographed by Fede y Vani
fig. d Fede y Vani, CC0 1.0 / obs. 170664341
Crotalaria micans, photographed by Fede y Vani
fig. e Fede y Vani, CC0 1.0 / obs. 170664359
Crotalaria micans, photographed by Fede y Vani
fig. f Fede y Vani, CC0 1.0 / obs. 170664377
Crotalaria micans, photographed by Fede y Vani
fig. g Fede y Vani, CC0 1.0 / obs. 170782821
Crotalaria micans, photographed by Fede y Vani
fig. h Fede y Vani, CC0 1.0 / obs. 170782842

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 33 botanical countries

Regions where Crotalaria micans is native: Mexico Central, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Northwest, 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, French Guiana, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Leeward Is., Nicaragua, Panamá, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Trinidad-Tobago, Uruguay, Venezuela, Venezuelan Antilles, Windward Is. Mexico CentralMexico GulfMexico NortheastMexico NorthwestMexico SoutheastMexico SouthwestArgentina NortheastArgentina NorthwestBelizeBoliviaBrazil NorthBrazil NortheastBrazil SouthBrazil SoutheastBrazil West-CentralColombiaCosta RicaEcuadorFrench GuianaGuatemalaGuyanaHondurasNicaraguaPanamáParaguayPeruSurinameTrinidad-TobagoUruguayVenezuela Leeward Is.Venezuelan AntillesWindward Is.
Native distribution of Crotalaria micans, 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
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
French Guiana FRG
Guatemala GUA
Guyana GUY
Honduras HON
Leeward Is. LEE
Nicaragua NIC
Panamá PAN
Paraguay PAR
Peru PER
Suriname SUR
Trinidad-Tobago TRT
Uruguay URU
Venezuela VEN
Venezuelan Antilles VNA
Windward Is. WIN
Mexico Central MXC NORTHERN AMERICA
Mexico Gulf MXG
Mexico Northeast MXE
Mexico Northwest MXN
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 98 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 4.4 °C 11.8 °C 18.8 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 19.7 °C 28.3 °C 31.4 °C
Annual rainfall 1,054 mm 1,865 mm 3,726 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 29 mm 158 mm 657 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 98 research-grade observations of Crotalaria micans 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 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.

  • Crotalaria anagyroides Kunth
  • Crotalaria anagyroides var. angustifolia Micheli
  • Crotalaria anagyroides var. minor Micheli
  • Crotalaria brachystachya Benth.
  • Crotalaria dombeyana DC.
  • Crotalaria stipulata Vell.
  • Crotalaria triphylla Vell.

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.