Mercurialis annuaL.

annual mercury

WFO wfo-0000241716 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Mercurialis annua, photographed by Daniel Cahen
fig. a Daniel Cahen, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-06-12 / obs. 205534692
Mercurialis annua, photographed by Andrew Skotnicki
fig. b Andrew Skotnicki, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 204043145
Mercurialis annua, photographed by David Lazarus
fig. c David Lazarus, CC0 1.0 / obs. 202395496
Mercurialis annua, photographed by Marc Riera
fig. d Marc Riera, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 199167884
Mercurialis annua, photographed by Quentin Groom
fig. e Quentin Groom, CC0 1.0 / obs. 197466049
Mercurialis annua, photographed by Christian Berg
fig. f Christian Berg, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 198320936
Mercurialis annua, photographed by Jon Mortin
fig. g Jon Mortin, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 193819312
Mercurialis annua, photographed by Josep Gesti
fig. h Josep Gesti, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 192950733

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 44 botanical countries

Regions where Mercurialis annua is native: Algeria, Azores, Canary Is., Egypt, Libya, Madeira, Morocco, Selvagens, Tunisia, Cyprus, East Aegean Is., Gulf States, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon-Syria, North Caucasus, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Sinai, Transcaucasus, Türkiye, Albania, Austria, Baleares, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Central European Russia, Corse, Czechia-Slovakia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Kriti, Krym, NW. Balkan Pen., Romania, Sardegna, Sicilia, Spain, Switzerland, Ukraine AlgeriaEgyptLibyaMoroccoSelvagensTunisiaCyprusEast Aegean Is.Gulf StatesIranIraqLebanon-SyriaNorth CaucasusPalestineSaudi ArabiaSinaiTranscaucasusTürkiyeAlbaniaAustriaBelarusBelgiumBulgariaCentral European RussiaCorseCzechia-SlovakiaFranceGermanyGreeceHungaryItalyKritiKrymNW. Balkan Pen.RomaniaSiciliaSpainSwitzerlandUkraine AzoresCanary Is.MadeiraBalearesSardegna
Native distribution of Mercurialis annua, 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
Albania ALB EUROPE
Austria AUT
Baleares BAL
Belarus BLR
Belgium BGM
Bulgaria BUL
Central European Russia RUC
Corse COR
Czechia-Slovakia CZE
France FRA
Germany GER
Greece GRC
Hungary HUN
Italy ITA
Kriti KRI
Krym KRY
NW. Balkan Pen. YUG
Romania ROM
Sardegna SAR
Sicilia SIC
Spain SPA
Switzerland SWI
Ukraine UKR
Cyprus CYP ASIA-TEMPERATE
East Aegean Is. EAI
Gulf States GST
Iran IRN
Iraq IRQ
Lebanon-Syria LBS
North Caucasus NCS
Palestine PAL
Saudi Arabia SAU
Sinai SIN
Transcaucasus TCS
Türkiye TUR
Algeria ALG AFRICA
Azores AZO
Canary Is. CNY
Egypt EGY
Libya LBY
Madeira MDR
Morocco MOR
Selvagens SEL
Tunisia TUN

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 1,008 in flower of 1,366 examined

Peak flowering in Sep. Each bar is the share of Mercurialis annua 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. 1,008 of 1,366 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.

Also published as 35 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.

  • Discoplis serrata Raf.
  • Mercurialis ambigua L.f.
  • Mercurialis annua f. ambigua (L.f.) Knoche
  • Mercurialis annua f. ciliata (C.Presl) Pax & K.Hoffm.
  • Mercurialis annua f. cordata Wirtg.
  • Mercurialis annua f. cuneatolanceolata Wirtg.
  • Mercurialis annua f. lanceolata Wirtg.
  • Mercurialis annua f. ovata Wirtg.
  • Mercurialis annua f. verticillata Bolzon
  • Mercurialis annua lus. ambigua (L.f.) Müll.Arg.
  • Mercurialis annua subsp. ambigua (L.f.) Arcang.
  • Mercurialis annua subsp. ambigua (L.f.) Maire
  • Mercurialis annua subvar. euannua Litard.
  • Mercurialis annua subvar. serrata Litard.
  • Mercurialis annua var. ambigua (L.f.) Mérat
  • Mercurialis annua var. ambigua (L.f.) Duby
  • Mercurialis annua var. angustifolia Gaudin
  • Mercurialis annua var. camberiensis Chabert
  • Mercurialis annua var. capillacea Guépin
  • Mercurialis annua var. dioica Moris
  • Mercurialis annua var. genuina Müll.Arg.
  • Mercurialis annua var. intermixta Merino
  • Mercurialis annua var. laciniata Müll.Arg.
  • Mercurialis annua var. monoica Moris

and 11 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.