Spermacoce ocymoidesBurm.f.

prostrate false buttonweed

WFO wfo-0000312621 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 5 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 5 times, so some figures below are different views of the same plant, taken on the same day, rather than different individuals. They are usually different parts of it: the leaf, the flower, the bark.

Spermacoce ocymoides, photographed by S.MORE
fig. a S.MORE, CC0 1.0 / 2021-12-07 / obs. 174708735
Spermacoce ocymoides, photographed by S.MORE
fig. b S.MORE, CC0 1.0 / obs. 174687842
Spermacoce ocymoides, photographed by Dinesh Valke
fig. c Dinesh Valke, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 154115320
Spermacoce ocymoides, photographed by Dinesh Valke
fig. d Dinesh Valke, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 185496952
Spermacoce ocymoides, photographed by Paulmathi Vinod
fig. e Paulmathi Vinod, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 143604162
Spermacoce ocymoides, photographed by S.MORE
fig. f S.MORE, CC0 1.0 / obs. 174708676
Spermacoce ocymoides, photographed by Dinesh Valke
fig. g Dinesh Valke, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 154115323
Spermacoce ocymoides, photographed by Dinesh Valke
fig. h Dinesh Valke, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 185496956

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 16 botanical countries

Regions where Spermacoce ocymoides is native: Bangladesh, India, Jawa, Laos, Malaya, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, New Guinea, Philippines, Solomon Is., Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam, Fiji, Vanuatu BangladeshIndiaJawaLaosMalayaMyanmarNepalNew GuineaPhilippinesSolomon Is.Sri LankaThailandVietnamFiji MaldivesVanuatu
Native distribution of Spermacoce ocymoides, 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
Bangladesh BAN ASIA-TROPICAL
India IND
Jawa JAW
Laos LAO
Malaya MLY
Maldives MDV
Myanmar MYA
Nepal NEP
New Guinea NWG
Philippines PHI
Solomon Is. SOL
Sri Lanka SRL
Thailand THA
Vietnam VIE
Fiji FIJ PACIFIC
Vanuatu VAN

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.

Also published as 22 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.

  • Bigelovia gracilis Spreng.
  • Bigelovia laevicaulis Miq.
  • Bigelovia ocymoides (Burm.f.) Miq.
  • Bigelovia parviflora Spreng.
  • Bigelovia stricta (L.f.) Blume
  • Bigelovia tenera (R.Br. ex G.Don) Heynh.
  • Borreria laevicaulis (Miq.) Ridl.
  • Borreria ocymoides (Burm.f.) DC.
  • Borreria ocymoides var. minorifolia Hochr.
  • Borreria ocymoides var. thekkumalensis Sivar. & K.T.Joseph
  • Borreria stricta (L.f.) K.Schum.
  • Borreria trichantha Miq.
  • Spermacoce aspera Vahl
  • Spermacoce hirta Sw.
  • Spermacoce laevis Spreng.
  • Spermacoce microphylla Pohl ex DC.
  • Spermacoce ramosa Wall.
  • Spermacoce stricta L.f.
  • Spermacoce tenera R.Br. ex G.Don
  • Spermacoce trichantha (Miq.) Kuntze
  • Tardavel ocymoides (Burm.f.) Hiern
  • Tardavel stricta (L.f.) Hiern

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.