Lepidagathis alopecuroidea(Vahl) R.Br. ex Griseb.

pata de gallina

WFO wfo-1000051133 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Lepidagathis alopecuroidea, photographed by Daniel Cahen
fig. a Daniel Cahen, CC BY 4.0 / 2020-02-04 / obs. 60861674
Lepidagathis alopecuroidea, photographed by J. L. Gómez-Hechavarría
fig. b J. L. Gómez-Hechavarría, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 118440263
Lepidagathis alopecuroidea, photographed by Alan Weakley
fig. c Alan Weakley, CC0 1.0 / obs. 196148348
Lepidagathis alopecuroidea, photographed by Elliot Greiner
fig. d Elliot Greiner, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 181581896
Lepidagathis alopecuroidea, photographed by Elliot Greiner
fig. e Elliot Greiner, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 181584802
Lepidagathis alopecuroidea, photographed by Daniel Cahen
fig. f Daniel Cahen, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 60920330
Lepidagathis alopecuroidea, photographed by Eric Knight
fig. g Eric Knight, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 12610509
Lepidagathis alopecuroidea, photographed by Guillaume Delaitre
fig. h Guillaume Delaitre, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 193664257

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 3451905
Filed as
Lepidagathis alopecuroidea (Vahl) R.Br. ex Griseb.
Det. by
Granville, J. J. de, (CAY), Institut de Recherche pour le Developpement (IRD) (FRENCH GUIANA)
Collected
J.-J. de Granville & F. Crozier 2002-08-14
Origin
GF
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 47 botanical countries

Regions where Lepidagathis alopecuroidea is native: Angola, Benin, Burkina, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, DR Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Sudan-South Sudan, Tanzania, Mexico Central, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Southeast, Mexico Southwest, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil North, Brazil West-Central, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Leeward Is., Nicaragua, Panamá, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Suriname, Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuela, Windward Is. AngolaBeninBurkinaCameroonCentral African RepublicChadCongoDR CongoGabonGhanaGuineaIvory CoastLiberiaMaliNigeriaSenegalSierra LeoneSudan-South SudanTanzaniaMexico CentralMexico GulfMexico SoutheastMexico SouthwestBelizeBoliviaBrazil NorthBrazil West-CentralColombiaCosta RicaCubaDominican RepublicEcuadorFrench GuianaGuatemalaGuyanaHaitiHondurasNicaraguaPanamáParaguayPeruPuerto RicoSurinameTrinidad-TobagoVenezuela Leeward Is.Windward Is.
Native distribution of Lepidagathis alopecuroidea, 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
Belize BLZ SOUTHERN AMERICA
Bolivia BOL
Brazil North BZN
Brazil West-Central BZC
Colombia CLM
Costa Rica COS
Cuba CUB
Dominican Republic DOM
Ecuador ECU
French Guiana FRG
Guatemala GUA
Guyana GUY
Haiti HAI
Honduras HON
Leeward Is. LEE
Nicaragua NIC
Panamá PAN
Paraguay PAR
Peru PER
Puerto Rico PUE
Suriname SUR
Trinidad-Tobago TRT
Venezuela VEN
Windward Is. WIN
Angola ANG AFRICA
Benin BEN
Burkina BKN
Cameroon CMN
Central African Republic CAF
Chad CHA
Congo CON
DR Congo ZAI
Gabon GAB
Ghana GHA
Guinea GUI
Ivory Coast IVO
Liberia LBR
Mali MLI
Nigeria NGA
Senegal SEN
Sierra Leone SIE
Sudan-South Sudan SUD
Tanzania TAN
Mexico Central MXC NORTHERN AMERICA
Mexico Gulf MXG
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 75 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 17.5 °C 20.9 °C 23.0 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 24.5 °C 27.9 °C 31.4 °C
Annual rainfall 1,522 mm 2,397 mm 3,546 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 128 mm 288 mm 507 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 75 research-grade observations of Lepidagathis alopecuroidea 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.

  • Adenosma chenopodiifolia (Poir.) Spreng.
  • Aetheilema alopecuroideum (Vahl) Spreng.
  • Aetheilema haenkei Nees
  • Justicia procumbens Thiéb.-Bern. ex Nees
  • Lepidagathis hyssopifolia (Benth.) T.Anderson
  • Lepidagathis laguroidea (Nees) T.Anderson
  • Lepidagathis lanceolata (Nees) Wassh.
  • Lepidagathis laurentii De Wild.
  • Ruellia alopecuroidea Vahl
  • Ruellia chenopodiifolia Poir.
  • Ruellia lagopodes Ryan ex Nees
  • Teliostachya alopecuroidea (Vahl) Nees
  • Teliostachya hyssopifolia Benth.
  • Teliostachya laguroidea Nees
  • Teliostachya lanceolata Nees
  • Teliostachya lanceolata var. crispa Nees
  • Teliostachya petraea Leonard

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. USDA PLANTS Database. common name, checklist symbol TEAL. public domain. 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.