Pilea fontana(Lunell) Rydb.

lesser clearweed

WFO wfo-0001143411 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Pilea fontana, photographed by Ryan Sorrells
fig. a Ryan Sorrells, CC BY 4.0 / 2021-10-23 / obs. 165290613
Pilea fontana, photographed by Ryan Sorrells
fig. b Ryan Sorrells, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 156995146
Pilea fontana, photographed by Ryan Sorrells
fig. c Ryan Sorrells, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 156994366
Pilea fontana, photographed by Jeff D Hansen
fig. d Jeff D Hansen, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 155265831
Pilea fontana, photographed by Quinten Wiegersma
fig. e Quinten Wiegersma, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 96370808
Pilea fontana, photographed by CatherineK
fig. f CatherineK, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 24495580
Pilea fontana, photographed by Étienne Lacroix-Carignan
fig. g Étienne Lacroix-Carignan, CC0 1.0 / obs. 164847881
Pilea fontana, photographed by Étienne Lacroix-Carignan
fig. h Étienne Lacroix-Carignan, CC0 1.0 / obs. 164849216

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 24 botanical countries

Regions where Pilea fontana is native: Alabama, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Ontario, Pennsylvania, Rhode I., South Carolina, Vermont, Virginia, Wisconsin AlabamaConnecticutFloridaGeorgiaIllinoisIndianaIowaMarylandMassachusettsMichiganMinnesotaNebraskaNew JerseyNew YorkNorth CarolinaNorth DakotaOhioOntarioPennsylvaniaSouth CarolinaVermontVirginiaWisconsin Rhode I.
Native distribution of Pilea fontana, 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
Alabama ALA NORTHERN AMERICA
Connecticut CNT
Florida FLA
Georgia GEO
Illinois ILL
Indiana INI
Iowa IOW
Maryland MRY
Massachusetts MAS
Michigan MIC
Minnesota MIN
Nebraska NEB
New Jersey NWJ
New York NWY
North Carolina NCA
North Dakota NDA
Ohio OHI
Ontario ONT
Pennsylvania PEN
Rhode I. RHO
South Carolina SCA
Vermont VER
Virginia VRG
Wisconsin WIS

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 254 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -14.0 °C -8.5 °C -4.3 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 24.9 °C 26.7 °C 28.8 °C
Annual rainfall 841 mm 1,015 mm 1,271 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 110 mm 194 mm 272 mm

It is found where winters bring hard frost. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 254 research-grade observations of Pilea fontana 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 4 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.

  • Adicea fontana Lunell
  • Adicea opaca Lunell
  • Pilea opaca (Lunell) Rydb.
  • Pilea pumila f. fontana (Lunell) B.Boivin

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.