Muehlenbeckia tamnifolia(Kunth) Meisn.

WFO wfo-0000452322 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Muehlenbeckia tamnifolia, photographed by Andrés Ramírez-Barrera
fig. a Andrés Ramírez-Barrera, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-04-09 / obs. 187194201
Muehlenbeckia tamnifolia, photographed by Sue Carnahan
fig. b Sue Carnahan, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 177358547
Muehlenbeckia tamnifolia, photographed by Andrés Ramírez-Barrera
fig. c Andrés Ramírez-Barrera, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 144771521
Muehlenbeckia tamnifolia, photographed by Andrés Ramírez-Barrera
fig. d Andrés Ramírez-Barrera, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 107604384
Muehlenbeckia tamnifolia, photographed by Andrés Ramírez-Barrera
fig. e Andrés Ramírez-Barrera, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 106422246
Muehlenbeckia tamnifolia, photographed by Andrés Ramírez-Barrera
fig. f Andrés Ramírez-Barrera, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 91619209
Muehlenbeckia tamnifolia, photographed by Andrés Ramírez-Barrera
fig. g Andrés Ramírez-Barrera, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 90442045
Muehlenbeckia tamnifolia, photographed by Andrés Ramírez-Barrera
fig. h Andrés Ramírez-Barrera, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 90441062

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 15 botanical countries

Regions where Muehlenbeckia tamnifolia is native: Mexico Central, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Southeast, Mexico Southwest, Argentina Northwest, Bolivia, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Panamá, Peru, Venezuela Mexico CentralMexico GulfMexico SoutheastMexico SouthwestArgentina NorthwestBoliviaColombiaCosta RicaEcuadorEl SalvadorGuatemalaHondurasPanamáPeruVenezuela
Native distribution of Muehlenbeckia tamnifolia, 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
Argentina Northwest AGW SOUTHERN AMERICA
Bolivia BOL
Colombia CLM
Costa Rica COS
Ecuador ECU
El Salvador ELS
Guatemala GUA
Honduras HON
Panamá PAN
Peru PER
Venezuela VEN
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 290 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 4.0 °C 8.3 °C 10.4 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 14.0 °C 18.1 °C 20.2 °C
Annual rainfall 926 mm 1,350 mm 2,419 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 102 mm 161 mm 316 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 290 research-grade observations of Muehlenbeckia tamnifolia 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 19 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.

  • Calacinum tamnifolium (Kunth) J.F.Macbr.
  • Muehlenbeckia benthamii Endl.
  • Muehlenbeckia leptobotrys Meisn.
  • Muehlenbeckia peruviana Meisn.
  • Muehlenbeckia peruviana var. cuspidata Standl. ex J.F.Macbr.
  • Muehlenbeckia quadrangulata Endl.
  • Muehlenbeckia stuebelii Lindau ex Hieron.
  • Muehlenbeckia tamnifolia f. tenuifolia H.Gross
  • Muehlenbeckia tamnifolia var. hartwegii Meisn.
  • Muehlenbeckia tamnifolia var. humboldtii Meisn.
  • Muehlenbeckia tamnifolia var. laxiflora Meisn.
  • Muehlenbeckia tamnifolia var. oligobotrys H.Gross
  • Polygonum dombeyanum Kuntze
  • Polygonum flexuosum Benth.
  • Polygonum leptobotrys (Meisn.) Kuntze
  • Polygonum quadrangulatum M.Martens & Galeotti
  • Polygonum tamnifolium Kunth
  • Polygonum tamnifolium var. xerocarpum Kuntze
  • Sarcogonum tamnifolium (Kunth) Rusby

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. 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.