Flueggea virosa(Roxb. ex Willd.) Royle

common bushweed

WFO wfo-0000967255 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Flueggea virosa, photographed by 五色鳥
fig. a 五色鳥, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-06-12 / obs. 205385552

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
The New York Botanical Garden
Accession
02729538
Filed as
Flueggea virosa (Roxb. ex Willd.) Voigt, 1845
Det. by
D. T. Hoàn 2016-01-01
Collected
D. T. Hoàn 2016-05-16
Origin
VN
The sheet
View the digitised specimen (CC BY 4.0)

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 76 botanical countries

Regions where Flueggea virosa is native: Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina, Burundi, Cameroon, Caprivi Strip, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Djibouti, DR Congo, Egypt, Eritrea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Kenya, KwaZulu-Natal, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Mozambique Channel Is., Namibia, Nigeria, Northern Provinces, Réunion, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Socotra, Somalia, Sudan-South Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, China North-Central, China South-Central, China Southeast, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, Yemen, Andaman Is., Assam, Bangladesh, Borneo, Cambodia, East Himalaya, India, Jawa, Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Maluku, Myanmar, Nepal, New Guinea, Nicobar Is., Philippines, South China Sea, Sri Lanka, Sulawesi, Sumatera, Thailand, West Himalaya, Northern Territory, Queensland, Western Australia AngolaBeninBotswanaBurkinaBurundiCameroonCaprivi StripCentral African RepublicChadDjiboutiDR CongoEgyptEritreaEswatiniEthiopiaGambiaGhanaGuineaGuinea-BissauIvory CoastKenyaKwaZulu-NatalMadagascarMalawiMaliMauritaniaMozambiqueNamibiaNigeriaNorthern ProvincesRwandaSenegalSierra LeoneSomaliaSudan-South SudanTanzaniaTogoUgandaZambiaZimbabweChina North-CentralChina South-CentralChina SoutheastOmanSaudi ArabiaTaiwanYemenAssamBangladeshBorneoCambodiaEast HimalayaIndiaJawaLesser Sunda Is.MalayaMalukuMyanmarNepalNew GuineaPhilippinesSri LankaSulawesiSumateraThailandWest HimalayaNorthern TerritoryQueenslandWestern Australia ComorosMozambique Channel Is.RéunionAndaman Is.Nicobar Is.South China Sea
Native distribution of Flueggea virosa, 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
Angola ANG AFRICA
Benin BEN
Botswana BOT
Burkina BKN
Burundi BUR
Cameroon CMN
Caprivi Strip CPV
Central African Republic CAF
Chad CHA
Comoros COM
Djibouti DJI
DR Congo ZAI
Egypt EGY
Eritrea ERI
Eswatini SWZ
Ethiopia ETH
Gambia GAM
Ghana GHA
Guinea GUI
Guinea-Bissau GNB
Ivory Coast IVO
Kenya KEN
KwaZulu-Natal NAT
Madagascar MDG
Malawi MLW
Mali MLI
Mauritania MTN
Mozambique MOZ
Mozambique Channel Is. MCI
Namibia NAM
Nigeria NGA
Northern Provinces TVL
Réunion REU
Rwanda RWA
Senegal SEN
Sierra Leone SIE
Socotra SOC
Somalia SOM
Sudan-South Sudan SUD
Tanzania TAN
Togo TOG
Uganda UGA
Zambia ZAM
Zimbabwe ZIM
Andaman Is. AND ASIA-TROPICAL
Assam ASS
Bangladesh BAN
Borneo BOR
Cambodia CBD
East Himalaya EHM
India IND
Jawa JAW
Lesser Sunda Is. LSI
Malaya MLY
Maluku MOL
Myanmar MYA
Nepal NEP
New Guinea NWG
Nicobar Is. NCB
Philippines PHI
South China Sea SCS
Sri Lanka SRL
Sulawesi SUL
Sumatera SUM
Thailand THA
West Himalaya WHM
China North-Central CHN ASIA-TEMPERATE
China South-Central CHC
China Southeast CHS
Oman OMA
Saudi Arabia SAU
Taiwan TAI
Yemen YEM
Northern Territory NTA AUSTRALASIA
Queensland QLD
Western Australia WAU

Not drawn on the map: Socotra. We hold no public-domain boundary for this region, so it is listed rather than guessed at.

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 66 in flower of 378 examined

Proportion of examined Flueggea virosa in flower, by month
Month In flower Examined Share 95% interval
Jan 2 52 4% 1% to 13%
Feb 3 32 9% 3% to 24%
Mar 2 29 7% 2% to 22%
Apr 4 23 17% 7% to 37%
May 2 24 8% 2% to 26%
Jun 5 25 20% 9% to 39%
Jul 5 24 21% 9% to 40%
Aug 7 28 25% 13% to 43%
Sep 5 23 22% 10% to 42%
Oct 12 28 43% 27% to 61%
Nov 10 39 26% 15% to 41%
Dec 9 51 18% 10% to 30%

Peak flowering in Oct. Each bar is the share of Flueggea virosa 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. 66 of 378 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.

Where it actually grows measured, from 2,002 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 7.4 °C 13.4 °C 19.0 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 28.3 °C 30.3 °C 35.0 °C
Annual rainfall 584 mm 1,953 mm 3,316 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 9 mm 72 mm 440 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 2,002 research-grade observations of Flueggea virosa 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. Climate from CHELSA V2.1 (Karger et al. 2017); occurrences from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Also published as 53 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.

  • Acidoton griseus (Müll.Arg.) Kuntze
  • Acidoton obovatus (Willd.) Kuntze
  • Acidoton phyllanthoides (Baill.) Kuntze
  • Acidoton virosus (Roxb. ex Willd.) Kuntze
  • Bessera inermis Spreng.
  • Bradleia dioica (Schumach. & Thonn.) Gaertn. ex Vahl
  • Cicca obovata (Willd.) Kurz
  • Cicca pentandra Blanco
  • Conami portoricensis (Kuntze) Britton
  • Diasperus hamrur (Forssk.) Kuntze
  • Diasperus portoricensis Kuntze
  • Drypetes bengalensis Spreng.
  • Flueggea abyssinica (A.Rich.) Baill.
  • Flueggea angulata (Schumach. & Thonn.) Schrank
  • Flueggea angulata Baill.
  • Flueggea comorensis Bojer
  • Flueggea keyensis (Warb.) Boerl.
  • Flueggea melanthesoides (F.Muell.) F.Muell.
  • Flueggea microcarpa Blume
  • Flueggea novoguineensis Valeton ex Hallier f.
  • Flueggea obovata (Willd.) Wall. ex Fern.-Vill.
  • Flueggea obovata (Willd.) Wall.
  • Flueggea obovata var. luxurians A.Chev. ex Beille
  • Flueggea ovalis Baill.

and 29 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. 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.