Acalypha herzogiana
Acalypha herzogiana is a South American perennial plant in the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae. Kew records it as native to Bolivia, Paraguay, northeastern Argentina and southern and southeastern Brazil.[1] A cultivated form with conspicuous red flower spikes is grown in hanging baskets and as groundcover. It has often been sold or described under incorrect names, including Acalypha repens.[2]
Wild plants and cultivated forms
The 2023 South American catalogue describes the wild plant as a herb and records it in the Atlantic Forest and western dry Chaco regions, at about 200–600 metres elevation. It distinguishes wild specimens from a cultivated form of uncertain origin found in gardens and urban areas.[3]
Steinmann and Levin's 2011 investigation found two types of female flower cluster in cultivated plants. One resembles the ordinary clusters of wild Acalypha, with flowers enclosed by enlarged leafy bracts. The showy type instead contains densely packed abnormal flowers without ovaries. The authors proposed that a developmental mutation had changed structures that would normally become stamens into styles, the slender structures associated with the female part of a flower. This is their interpretation of the cultivated form, not a description of every wild plant.[2]
The Flora of North America describes the ornamental form as a perennial herb with upright, feathery red spikes of sterile flowers. It reports a local escape on Dauphin Island, Alabama, and notes that broken pieces root readily. Sterility of the cultivated form should not be assumed to prevent all vegetative spread.[4]
Identification and conservation
The accepted name was published in 1921.[1] The 2011 study identifies cultivated material previously called A. hispaniolae, A. pendula, A. reptans or A. repens as A. herzogiana. These are documented misidentifications in cultivation, rather than a claim that all those botanical names are formal synonyms.[2]
Cardiel and colleagues assigned the species a provisional Near Threatened assessment in their 2023 catalogue. This is the assessment published in that study, not a claim of a separately verified current IUCN Red List entry.[3]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. “Acalypha herzogiana”. Plants of the World Online. Accessed 9 October 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Steinmann, V. W. and Levin, G. A. (2011). “Acalypha herzogiana (Euphorbiaceae), the correct name for an intriguing and commonly cultivated species”. Brittonia 63, 500–504; abstract inspected through Illinois Experts. Accessed 9 October 2026.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Cardiel, J. M. and colleagues (2023). “Catalogue and red list of Acalypha L. (Euphorbiaceae) from South America”. European Journal of Taxonomy 886, 1–92, species 33; species treatment inspected in author-uploaded text. Accessed 9 October 2026.
- ↑ Levin, G. A. (2016). “Acalypha”. Flora of North America, volume 12; indexed introductory treatment. Accessed 9 October 2026.