Dianthera pectoralis(Jacq.) J.F.Gmel.

freshcut

WFO wfo-0000642952 Accepted WFO 2026-06 3 photographs CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–c · 2 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 2 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.

Dianthera pectoralis, photographed by Amanda Fisher
fig. a Amanda Fisher, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-01-14 / obs. 175919851
Dianthera pectoralis, photographed by Amanda Fisher
fig. b Amanda Fisher, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 178823406
Dianthera pectoralis, photographed by Amanda Fisher
fig. c Amanda Fisher, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 175919874

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.

The specimen a real sheet, in a real collection

Herbarium
Smithsonian, US National Herbarium
Accession
US 1197435
Filed as
Dianthera pectoralis (Jacq.) J.F.Gmel.
Det. by
not recorded on this sheet
Collected
J. S. de la Cruz 1923-07-11
Origin
GY
The sheet
View the digitised specimen (CC0 1.0)

A real pressed plant, in a real collection, under the accession number above. Not an illustration of one. The holding institution does not serve this sheet’s image to third parties, so there is no photograph here. The record is real and the link goes to it. Where we hold no openly licensed sheet for a species this section is simply absent, and where a sheet never recorded who determined it, that field stays empty rather than being filled in. Roughly half of all herbarium sheets never recorded a determiner, which is ordinary.

Native range 25 botanical countries

Regions where Dianthera pectoralis is native: Mexico Central, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Southeast, Mexico Southwest, Argentina Northeast, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil North, Brazil Northeast, Brazil West-Central, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panamá, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Venezuela Mexico CentralMexico GulfMexico NortheastMexico SoutheastMexico SouthwestArgentina NortheastBelizeBoliviaBrazil NorthBrazil NortheastBrazil West-CentralColombiaCosta RicaEcuadorEl SalvadorFrench GuianaGuatemalaGuyanaHondurasNicaraguaPanamáParaguayPeruSurinameVenezuela
Native distribution of Dianthera pectoralis, 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
Belize BLZ
Bolivia BOL
Brazil North BZN
Brazil Northeast BZE
Brazil West-Central BZC
Colombia CLM
Costa Rica COS
Ecuador ECU
El Salvador ELS
French Guiana FRG
Guatemala GUA
Guyana GUY
Honduras HON
Nicaragua NIC
Panamá PAN
Paraguay PAR
Peru PER
Suriname SUR
Venezuela VEN
Mexico Central MXC NORTHERN AMERICA
Mexico Gulf MXG
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.

Where it actually grows measured, from 45 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 15.1 °C 21.2 °C 24.1 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 25.0 °C 29.7 °C 33.8 °C
Annual rainfall 1,242 mm 2,858 mm 4,755 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 28 mm 205 mm 415 mm

It is not found anywhere that gets close to freezing. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 45 research-grade observations of Dianthera pectoralis 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 17 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.

  • Dianthera pectoralis (Jacq.) Murray
  • Ecbolium pectorale (Jacq.) Kuntze
  • Ecbolium willdenowii Kuntze
  • Justicia pectoralis Jacq.
  • Justicia pectoralis var. latifolia Bremek.
  • Justicia pectoralis var. macrophyllus Durkee
  • Justicia pectoralis var. ovata Wassh.
  • Justicia pectoralis var. pectoralis
  • Justicia pectoralis var. stenophylla Leonard
  • Justicia procumbens T.Anderson ex Nees
  • Justicia stuebelii Lindau
  • Leptostachya pectoralis (Jacq.) Nees & Mart.
  • Psacadocalymma pectorale (Jacq.) Bremek.
  • Rhytiglossa pectoralis (Jacq.) Nees
  • Rhytiglossa pectoralis var. monostachya Nees
  • Rhytiglossa scabra Nees
  • Stethoma pectoralis (Jacq.) Raf.

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.