Pilea peploides(Gaudich.) Hook. & Arn.

Pacific Island clearweed

WFO wfo-0000473386 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Pilea peploides, photographed by Cheng-Te Hsu
fig. a Cheng-Te Hsu, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-03-12 / obs. 182535388
Pilea peploides, photographed by Kevin Faccenda
fig. b Kevin Faccenda, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 179806270
Pilea peploides, photographed by Kevin Faccenda
fig. c Kevin Faccenda, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 179806355
Pilea peploides, photographed by Kevin Faccenda
fig. d Kevin Faccenda, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 176360915
Pilea peploides, photographed by Kevin Faccenda
fig. e Kevin Faccenda, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 176359137
Pilea peploides, photographed by Kevin Faccenda
fig. f Kevin Faccenda, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 120574182
Pilea peploides, photographed by Jacy Chen
fig. g Jacy Chen, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 130013492
Pilea peploides, photographed by 葉子
fig. h 葉子, CC0 1.0 / obs. 70152965

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 21 botanical countries

Regions where Pilea peploides is native: China North-Central, China South-Central, China Southeast, Inner Mongolia, Japan, Korea, Manchuria, Nansei-shoto, Primorye, Taiwan, Assam, Christmas I., East Himalaya, Jawa, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand, Vietnam, West Himalaya, Hawaii, Galápagos China North-CentralChina South-CentralChina SoutheastInner MongoliaJapanManchuriaPrimoryeTaiwanAssamEast HimalayaJawaMyanmarNepalThailandVietnamWest HimalayaHawaii KoreaNansei-shotoChristmas I.Galápagos
Native distribution of Pilea peploides, 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
China North-Central CHN ASIA-TEMPERATE
China South-Central CHC
China Southeast CHS
Inner Mongolia CHI
Japan JAP
Korea KOR
Manchuria CHM
Nansei-shoto NNS
Primorye PRM
Taiwan TAI
Assam ASS ASIA-TROPICAL
Christmas I. XMS
East Himalaya EHM
Jawa JAW
Myanmar MYA
Nepal NEP
Thailand THA
Vietnam VIE
West Himalaya WHM
Hawaii HAW PACIFIC
Galápagos GAL SOUTHERN AMERICA

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 304 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 2.6 °C 12.6 °C 20.3 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 22.1 °C 29.1 °C 31.2 °C
Annual rainfall 1,170 mm 3,385 mm 4,729 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 131 mm 530 mm 842 mm

It is found where winters are cool but frost is light or absent. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 304 research-grade observations of Pilea peploides 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 6 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 peplodes (Gaudich.) Kuntze
  • Dubrueilia peploides Gaudich.
  • Pilea peploides var. major Wedd.
  • Pilea pygmaea Miq.
  • Pilea taquetii Nakai
  • Urtica peploides (Gaudich.) Steud.

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.