Cuphea racemosa(L.f.) Spreng.

WFO wfo-0000630338 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Cuphea racemosa, photographed by Matias Cabezas
fig. a Matias Cabezas, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-04-30 / obs. 192604604
Cuphea racemosa, photographed by Nolan Exe
fig. b Nolan Exe, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 180176053
Cuphea racemosa, photographed by Carlos Henrique Russi
fig. c Carlos Henrique Russi, CC0 1.0 / obs. 108638028
Cuphea racemosa, photographed by Andrés Ramírez-Barrera
fig. d Andrés Ramírez-Barrera, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 58934643
Cuphea racemosa, photographed by Hugo Hulsberg
fig. e Hugo Hulsberg, CC0 1.0 / obs. 176771035
Cuphea racemosa, photographed by Morten Ross
fig. f Morten Ross, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 199829768
Cuphea racemosa, photographed by Hugo Hulsberg
fig. g Hugo Hulsberg, CC0 1.0 / obs. 157344084
Cuphea racemosa, photographed by Hugo Hulsberg
fig. h Hugo Hulsberg, CC0 1.0 / obs. 174566840

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 18 botanical countries

Regions where Cuphea racemosa is native: Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Southwest, Argentina Northeast, Argentina Northwest, Argentina South, Bolivia, Brazil Northeast, Brazil South, Brazil Southeast, Brazil West-Central, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela Mexico GulfMexico NortheastMexico SouthwestArgentina NortheastArgentina NorthwestArgentina SouthBoliviaBrazil NortheastBrazil SouthBrazil SoutheastBrazil West-CentralColombiaCosta RicaEcuadorParaguayPeruUruguayVenezuela
Native distribution of Cuphea racemosa, 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
Argentina South AGS
Bolivia BOL
Brazil Northeast BZE
Brazil South BZS
Brazil Southeast BZL
Brazil West-Central BZC
Colombia CLM
Costa Rica COS
Ecuador ECU
Paraguay PAR
Peru PER
Uruguay URU
Venezuela VEN
Mexico Gulf MXG NORTHERN AMERICA
Mexico Northeast MXE
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 58 in flower of 58 examined

Peak flowering in Apr. Each bar is the share of Cuphea racemosa 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. 58 of 58 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. 7 months have fewer than 5 examined observations, so no proportion is drawn for them. 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 43 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.

  • Cuphea bonariensis Gillies ex Hook.
  • Cuphea correntina Lourteig
  • Cuphea corymbifera Nees
  • Cuphea fruticosa Koehne
  • Cuphea fruticulosa Schrad.
  • Cuphea hirticaulis Koehne
  • Cuphea longiflora Koehne
  • Cuphea longiflora f. major Koehne
  • Cuphea longiflora f. minor Koehne
  • Cuphea nudiflora Willd. ex Steud.
  • Cuphea obtusifolia Koehne ex Bacig.
  • Cuphea origanifolia Cham. & Schltdl.
  • Cuphea origanifolia Griseb.
  • Cuphea origanifolia var. minor Koehne
  • Cuphea origanifolia var. ramosior Koehne
  • Cuphea origanifolia var. sublanata A.St.-Hil.
  • Cuphea racemosa f. corymbifera (Nees) Koehne
  • Cuphea racemosa f. divergens Koehne
  • Cuphea racemosa f. grandifolia (Koehne) Koehne
  • Cuphea racemosa f. nudiflora (Koehne) Koehne
  • Cuphea racemosa f. parvifolia (Koehne) Koehne
  • Cuphea racemosa f. polysperma (Koehne) Koehne
  • Cuphea racemosa f. robusta (Koehne) Koehne
  • Cuphea racemosa subsp. hirticaulis (Koehne) Lourteig

and 19 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. 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.