Emilia coccinea(Sims) G.Don

scarlet tasselflower

WFO wfo-0000023147 Accepted WFO 2026-06 7 photographs CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–g · 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.

Emilia coccinea, photographed by i_c_riddell
fig. a i_c_riddell, CC BY 4.0 / 2018-06-17 / obs. 19924498
Emilia coccinea, photographed by Kevin Faccenda
fig. b Kevin Faccenda, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 136102281
Emilia coccinea, photographed by Kevin Faccenda
fig. c Kevin Faccenda, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 113930998
Emilia coccinea, photographed by Kevin Faccenda
fig. d Kevin Faccenda, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 136102268
Emilia coccinea, photographed by Kevin Faccenda
fig. e Kevin Faccenda, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 113931009
Emilia coccinea, photographed by Kevin Faccenda
fig. f Kevin Faccenda, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 113931021
Emilia coccinea, photographed by Kevin Faccenda
fig. g Kevin Faccenda, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 113931038

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 24 botanical countries

Regions where Emilia coccinea is native: Angola, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, DR Congo, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Gulf of Guinea Is., Ivory Coast, Kenya, Liberia, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Sudan-South Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe AngolaBurundiCameroonCentral African RepublicChadCongoDR CongoEthiopiaGabonGhanaGulf of Guinea Is.Ivory CoastKenyaLiberiaMozambiqueNigeriaRwandaSierra LeoneSudan-South SudanTanzaniaTogoUgandaZambiaZimbabwe
Native distribution of Emilia coccinea, 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
Angola ANG AFRICA
Burundi BUR
Cameroon CMN
Central African Republic CAF
Chad CHA
Congo CON
DR Congo ZAI
Ethiopia ETH
Gabon GAB
Ghana GHA
Gulf of Guinea Is. GGI
Ivory Coast IVO
Kenya KEN
Liberia LBR
Mozambique MOZ
Nigeria NGA
Rwanda RWA
Sierra Leone SIE
Sudan-South Sudan SUD
Tanzania TAN
Togo TOG
Uganda UGA
Zambia ZAM
Zimbabwe ZIM

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 58 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 8.0 °C 17.8 °C 21.5 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 23.1 °C 26.4 °C 31.0 °C
Annual rainfall 777 mm 1,426 mm 2,636 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 5 mm 122 mm 492 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 58 research-grade observations of Emilia coccinea 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 16 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.

  • Cacalia coccinea Sims
  • Cacalia gracilis Bojer ex DC.
  • Cacalia mucronata B.Heyne
  • Cacalia sagittata Willd.
  • Cacalia sagittata Vahl
  • Emilia flammea Cass.
  • Emilia gracilis DC.
  • Emilia prenanthoides C.B.Rob.
  • Emilia sagittata DC.
  • Emilia sagittata var. lutea L.H.Bailey
  • Emilia sonchifolia var. javanica (Burm.f.) Mattf.
  • Emilia sonchifolia var. sagittata C.B.Clarke ex Kuntze
  • Emilia sonchifolia var. sagittata
  • Senecio auriculatus Burm.f.
  • Senecio javanicus (Burm.f.) Koord.
  • Senecio rapae F.Br.

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.