Heliotropium angiospermumMurray

scorpion's-tail

WFO wfo-0000718386 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Heliotropium angiospermum, photographed by Lauren Gillett
fig. a Lauren Gillett, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-06-04 / obs. 203206335
Heliotropium angiospermum, photographed by Center for Urban Ecology
fig. b Center for Urban Ecology, CC0 1.0 / obs. 197062465
Heliotropium angiospermum, photographed by johnyochum
fig. c johnyochum, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 194130371
Heliotropium angiospermum, photographed by Josiah Londerée
fig. d Josiah Londerée, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 193387304
Heliotropium angiospermum, photographed by Center for Urban Ecology
fig. e Center for Urban Ecology, CC0 1.0 / obs. 194422920
Heliotropium angiospermum, photographed by Casey H. Richart
fig. f Casey H. Richart, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 194513189
Heliotropium angiospermum, photographed by Jay Pruett
fig. g Jay Pruett, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 194472317
Heliotropium angiospermum, photographed by Center for Urban Ecology
fig. h Center for Urban Ecology, CC0 1.0 / obs. 189478501

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 37 botanical countries

Regions where Heliotropium angiospermum is native: Florida, Mexico Central, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southeast, Mexico Southwest, Texas, Bahamas, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil Northeast, Brazil South, Brazil Southeast, Cayman Is., Chile North, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Galápagos, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Leeward Is., Netherlands Antilles, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Southwest Caribbean, Trinidad-Tobago, Turks-Caicos Is., Venezuela, Venezuelan Antilles, Windward Is. FloridaMexico CentralMexico GulfMexico NortheastMexico NorthwestMexico SoutheastMexico SouthwestTexasBelizeBoliviaBrazil NortheastBrazil SouthBrazil SoutheastChile NorthColombiaCosta RicaDominican RepublicEl SalvadorGuatemalaHaitiHondurasJamaicaNicaraguaParaguayPeruPuerto RicoSouthwest CaribbeanTrinidad-TobagoVenezuela BahamasCayman Is.GalápagosLeeward Is.Netherlands AntillesTurks-Caicos Is.Venezuelan AntillesWindward Is.
Native distribution of Heliotropium angiospermum, 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
Bahamas BAH SOUTHERN AMERICA
Belize BLZ
Bolivia BOL
Brazil Northeast BZE
Brazil South BZS
Brazil Southeast BZL
Cayman Is. CAY
Chile North CLN
Colombia CLM
Costa Rica COS
Dominican Republic DOM
El Salvador ELS
Galápagos GAL
Guatemala GUA
Haiti HAI
Honduras HON
Jamaica JAM
Leeward Is. LEE
Netherlands Antilles NLA
Nicaragua NIC
Paraguay PAR
Peru PER
Puerto Rico PUE
Southwest Caribbean SWC
Trinidad-Tobago TRT
Turks-Caicos Is. TCI
Venezuela VEN
Venezuelan Antilles VNA
Windward Is. WIN
Florida FLA NORTHERN AMERICA
Mexico Central MXC
Mexico Gulf MXG
Mexico Northeast MXE
Mexico Northwest MXN
Mexico Southeast MXT
Mexico Southwest MXS
Texas TEX

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 686 in flower of 693 examined

Peak flowering in Jan. Each bar is the share of Heliotropium angiospermum 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. 686 of 693 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 1,974 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 9.4 °C 15.6 °C 23.6 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 27.1 °C 30.2 °C 36.0 °C
Annual rainfall 420 mm 1,236 mm 1,607 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 8 mm 133 mm 211 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 1,974 research-grade observations of Heliotropium angiospermum 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 20 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.

  • Heliophytum parviflorum (Murray) DC.
  • Heliophytum parviflorum (Murray) DC.
  • Heliophytum parviflorum var. subellipticum DC.
  • Heliophytum portoricense Bello
  • Heliophytum portoricensis Bello
  • Heliotropium foetidum Salzm. ex DC.
  • Heliotropium lancifolium Sessé & Moc.
  • Heliotropium lanciofolium Sessé & Moc.
  • Heliotropium latifolium Willd. ex Lehm.
  • Heliotropium oblongifolium M.Martens & Galeotti
  • Heliotropium parviflorum L.f.
  • Heliotropium patebilcense Kunth
  • Heliotropium patibilcense Kunth
  • Heliotropium rugosum Matt. & Galeotti
  • Heliotropium scorpioides Kunth
  • Heliotropium synzystachyum Ruiz & Pav.
  • Schobera angiosperma (Murray) Scop.
  • Schobera angiosperma (Murray) Britton
  • Schobera hirsuta Raf.
  • Tournefortia synzystachya Roem. & Schult.

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.