Cuphea carthagenensis(Jacq.) J.F.Macbr.

Colombian waxweed

WFO wfo-0000629888 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Cuphea carthagenensis, photographed by Kevin Faccenda
fig. a Kevin Faccenda, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-05-29 / obs. 203964886
Cuphea carthagenensis, photographed by Don Loarie
fig. b Don Loarie, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 203248410
Cuphea carthagenensis, photographed by Kevin Faccenda
fig. c Kevin Faccenda, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 199038375
Cuphea carthagenensis, photographed by Florencia Grattarola
fig. d Florencia Grattarola, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 197621942
Cuphea carthagenensis, photographed by Kevin Faccenda
fig. e Kevin Faccenda, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 182526738
Cuphea carthagenensis, photographed by Greg Tasney
fig. f Greg Tasney, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 176563108
Cuphea carthagenensis, photographed by Thomas Mesaglio
fig. g Thomas Mesaglio, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 174904714
Cuphea carthagenensis, photographed by S.MORE
fig. h S.MORE, CC0 1.0 / obs. 174687427

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 32 botanical countries

Regions where Cuphea carthagenensis is native: Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, 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, French Guiana, Galápagos, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Leeward Is., Nicaragua, Panamá, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Trinidad-Tobago, Uruguay, Venezuela, Windward Is. Mexico CentralMexico NortheastMexico SoutheastMexico SouthwestArgentina NortheastArgentina NorthwestBelizeBoliviaBrazil NorthBrazil NortheastBrazil SouthBrazil SoutheastBrazil West-CentralColombiaCosta RicaEcuadorEl SalvadorFrench GuianaGuatemalaGuyanaHondurasNicaraguaPanamáParaguayPeruSurinameTrinidad-TobagoUruguayVenezuela GalápagosLeeward Is.Windward Is.
Native distribution of Cuphea carthagenensis, 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
El Salvador ELS
French Guiana FRG
Galápagos GAL
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
Windward Is. WIN
Mexico Central MXC NORTHERN AMERICA
Mexico Northeast MXE
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.

Flowering 418 in flower of 425 examined

Peak flowering in Feb. Each bar is the share of Cuphea carthagenensis 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. 418 of 425 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.

Also published as 9 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.

  • Balsamona pinto Vand.
  • Cuphea balsamona Cham. & Schltdl.
  • Cuphea divaricata Pohl ex Koehne
  • Cuphea peplidioides Mart. ex Koehne
  • Cuphea pinto (Vand.) Kuntze
  • Cuphea prunellifolia A.St.-Hil.
  • Lythrum carthagenense Jacq.
  • Parsonsia balsamona (Cham. & Schltdl.) Standl.
  • Parsonsia pinto (Vand.) A.Heller

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.