Cuphea viscosissimaJacq.

blue waxweed

WFO wfo-0000630537 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Cuphea viscosissima, photographed by Mark Richman
fig. a Mark Richman, CC BY 4.0 / 2021-09-26 / obs. 159969563
Cuphea viscosissima, photographed by Elias
fig. b Elias, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 156810100
Cuphea viscosissima, photographed by Thomas Koffel
fig. c Thomas Koffel, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 98736126
Cuphea viscosissima, photographed by Thomas Koffel
fig. d Thomas Koffel, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 96359369
Cuphea viscosissima, photographed by Ashwin Srinivasan
fig. e Ashwin Srinivasan, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 81290270
Cuphea viscosissima, photographed by mefisher
fig. f mefisher, CC0 1.0 / obs. 44734007
Cuphea viscosissima, photographed by Judy Gallagher
fig. g Judy Gallagher, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 11462371
Cuphea viscosissima, photographed by Judy Gallagher
fig. h Judy Gallagher, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 5876218

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 34 botanical countries

Regions where Cuphea viscosissima is native: Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southwest, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia AlabamaArkansasConnecticutFloridaGeorgiaIllinoisIndianaIowaKansasKentuckyLouisianaMarylandMassachusettsMexico NortheastMexico NorthwestMexico SouthwestMississippiMissouriNebraskaNew HampshireNew JerseyNew YorkNorth CarolinaOhioOklahomaPennsylvaniaSouth CarolinaTennesseeTexasVermontVirginiaWest Virginia DelawareDistrict of Columbia
Native distribution of Cuphea viscosissima, 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
Alabama ALA NORTHERN AMERICA
Arkansas ARK
Connecticut CNT
Delaware DEL
District of Columbia WDC
Florida FLA
Georgia GEO
Illinois ILL
Indiana INI
Iowa IOW
Kansas KAN
Kentucky KTY
Louisiana LOU
Maryland MRY
Massachusetts MAS
Mexico Northeast MXE
Mexico Northwest MXN
Mexico Southwest MXS
Mississippi MSI
Missouri MSO
Nebraska NEB
New Hampshire NWH
New Jersey NWJ
New York NWY
North Carolina NCA
Ohio OHI
Oklahoma OKL
Pennsylvania PEN
South Carolina SCA
Tennessee TEN
Texas TEX
Vermont VER
Virginia VRG
West Virginia WVA

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 91 in flower of 99 examined

Peak flowering in Aug. Each bar is the share of Cuphea viscosissima 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. 91 of 99 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 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.

  • Cuphea albida Raf.
  • Cuphea brownei Jacq.
  • Cuphea petiolata (L.) Koehne
  • Lythrum cuphea L.f.
  • Lythrum petiolatum L.
  • Melfona purpurea Raf.
  • Parsonsia petiolata (L.) Rusby

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.