Spermacoce remotaLam.

woodland false buttonweed

WFO wfo-0000312699 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Spermacoce remota, photographed by Ong Jyh Seng
fig. a Ong Jyh Seng, CC BY-SA 4.0 / 2022-06-02 / obs. 202611139
Spermacoce remota, photographed by Greg Tasney
fig. b Greg Tasney, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 202373317
Spermacoce remota, photographed by Lexi Amico
fig. c Lexi Amico, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 203734334
Spermacoce remota, photographed by rockybajada
fig. d rockybajada, CC0 1.0 / obs. 200149307
Spermacoce remota, photographed by Leila Dasher
fig. e Leila Dasher, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 197015172
Spermacoce remota, photographed by Greg Tasney
fig. f Greg Tasney, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 196736800
Spermacoce remota, photographed by Josiah Londerée
fig. g Josiah Londerée, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 196364676
Spermacoce remota, photographed by Josiah Londerée
fig. h Josiah Londerée, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 186461479

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 46 botanical countries

Regions where Spermacoce remota is native: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mexico Central, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southeast, Mexico Southwest, Texas, Argentina Northwest, Bahamas, Belize, Bermuda, Bolivia, Brazil North, Brazil Northeast, Brazil South, Brazil Southeast, Cayman Is., Central American Pacific Is., Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Leeward Is., Nicaragua, Panamá, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Southwest Caribbean, Suriname, Trinidad-Tobago, Uruguay, Venezuela, Windward Is. AlabamaFloridaGeorgiaLouisianaMexico CentralMexico GulfMexico NortheastMexico NorthwestMexico SoutheastMexico SouthwestTexasArgentina NorthwestBelizeBoliviaBrazil NorthBrazil NortheastBrazil SouthBrazil SoutheastCentral American Pacific Is.ColombiaCosta RicaCubaDominican RepublicEcuadorEl SalvadorFrench GuianaGuatemalaGuyanaHaitiHondurasJamaicaNicaraguaPanamáParaguayPeruPuerto RicoSouthwest CaribbeanSurinameTrinidad-TobagoUruguayVenezuela BahamasBermudaCayman Is.Leeward Is.Windward Is.
Native distribution of Spermacoce remota, 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
Argentina Northwest AGW SOUTHERN AMERICA
Bahamas BAH
Belize BLZ
Bermuda BER
Bolivia BOL
Brazil North BZN
Brazil Northeast BZE
Brazil South BZS
Brazil Southeast BZL
Cayman Is. CAY
Central American Pacific Is. CPI
Colombia CLM
Costa Rica COS
Cuba CUB
Dominican Republic DOM
Ecuador ECU
El Salvador ELS
French Guiana FRG
Guatemala GUA
Guyana GUY
Haiti HAI
Honduras HON
Jamaica JAM
Leeward Is. LEE
Nicaragua NIC
Panamá PAN
Paraguay PAR
Peru PER
Puerto Rico PUE
Southwest Caribbean SWC
Suriname SUR
Trinidad-Tobago TRT
Uruguay URU
Venezuela VEN
Windward Is. WIN
Alabama ALA NORTHERN AMERICA
Florida FLA
Georgia GEO
Louisiana LOU
Mexico Central MXC
Mexico Gulf MXG
Mexico Northeast MXE
Mexico Northwest MXN
Mexico Southeast MXT
Mexico Southwest MXS
Texas TEX

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 407 in flower of 427 examined

Peak flowering in Jul. Each bar is the share of Spermacoce remota 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. 407 of 427 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 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 vaginata (Willd.) Spreng.
  • Borreria assurgens (Ruiz & Pav.) Griseb.
  • Borreria malacophylla Standl. & L.O.Williams
  • Borreria remota (Lam.) Bacigalupo & E.L.Cabral
  • Borreria vaginata (Willd.) F.Dietr.
  • Borreria wydleriana DC.
  • Spermacoce assurgens Ruiz & Pav.
  • Spermacoce chapmanii Torr. & A.Gray
  • Spermacoce dichotoma Willd. ex Steud.
  • Spermacoce echioides Kunth
  • Spermacoce hebecarpa DC.
  • Spermacoce hondurensis Govaerts
  • Spermacoce lanceolata Link
  • Spermacoce parviflora Salisb.
  • Spermacoce sexangularis Sieber ex Steud.
  • Spermacoce suffrutescens Jacq.
  • Spermacoce suffruticosa Spreng.
  • Spermacoce tenuior var. commersonii Verdc.
  • Spermacoce tetragona DC.
  • Spermacoce vaginata Willd.
  • Spermacoce wydleriana (DC.) Kuntze
  • Tessiera pubescens Miq.

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. USDA PLANTS Database. common name, checklist symbol SPAS2. public domain. 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.