Species
+

Aloysia virgata (Ruiz & Pav.) Juss.

Sweet Almond Bush, Sweet Almond Verbena

Climate known 55 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Aloysia virgata, known as sweet almond verbena and sweet almond bush, is a perennial plant in the family Verbenaceae native to Argentina. It grows from Central Argentina up to Brazil and Peru, with multiple instances in Yucatán, Southeastern United States, and Texas.

Text from Wikipedia, “Aloysia virgata”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Aloysia

Aloysia is a genus of flowering plants in the verbena family, Verbenaceae. They are known generally as beebrushes. They are native to the Americas, where they are distributed in temperate climates, as well as in subtropical and desert climates. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Aloysia”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Verbenaceae
Described by
(Ruiz & Pav.) Juss.
Native to
Bolivia, Peru, Brazil West-Central +7
Wild records
847 in range· 732 open

At a glance

Warmest month
29°C
Jan, mean day; nights 21 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1385mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jan 197 mm (CHELSA)
Light
22–39DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: a summer growing season, April to September in the northern hemisphere (October to March at the habitat, southern). Habitat rain 1385 mm a year, wettest January at 197 mm, driest August at 39 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 22 to 39 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 2.9 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Lippia virgata (Ruiz & Pav.) Kuntze; Lippia virgata (Ruiz & Pav.) Steud.; Priva virgata (Ruiz & Pav.) Spreng.; Verbena virgata Ruiz & Pav.; Zappania virgata (Ruiz & Pav.) Poir.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, April to September in the northern hemisphere (October to March at the habitat, southern).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (995 mm of 1385 mm) falls in October to March, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 24.2 °C against a yearly mean of 21.8 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: April to September.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 1385 mm a year, wettest January at 197 mm, driest August at 39 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1385 mm a year at the habitat, 995 mm of it October to March. Wettest month January at 197 mm, driest August at 39 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 901 mm to 1988 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 22 to 39 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 22 to 39 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 17, the highest 90th-percentile month 43).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor 2.9 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 2.9 °C, the absolute minimum -1.8 °C, 15 frost nights in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 38.8 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 12.8 °C in July (across the envelope cells 10.3 °C to 17.5 °C), warmest day 29.1 °C in January (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 2.9 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, without lapse correction; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 58 to 63% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 22 °C in Jun to 29 °C in Jan; mean night from 13 °C in Jul to 21 °C in Jan. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest night. 1385 mm of rain a year, most in Jan. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 691 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -1.8 °C and the 99th-percentile day 38.8 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-10°10°20°30°40°frost38.8° 99th-percentile day (undated)-1.8° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250300mm rainDLI 22–39RH 58–63 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 691 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C29 / 26–3229 / 27–3129 / 26–3127 / 24–2924 / 21–2822 / 20–2722 / 20–2724 / 22–3026 / 23–3128 / 25–3128 / 26–3129 / 26–31
Night °C21 / 19–2321 / 18–2320 / 18–2318 / 16–2215 / 13–2014 / 11–1813 / 10–1814 / 12–1916 / 13–2018 / 15–2219 / 17–2220 / 18–23
Rain mm197 / 121–297170 / 111–225152 / 117–21198 / 65–19781 / 27–16755 / 11–14341 / 7–11339 / 10–10176 / 22–157129 / 46–220160 / 87–206187 / 121–268
DLI37 / 34–4337 / 34–3934 / 31–3529 / 25–3224 / 20–2922 / 17–2723 / 19–2928 / 24–3332 / 29–3636 / 33–3939 / 35–4138 / 34–43
RH %63 / 58–6763 / 59–6663 / 60–6762 / 59–6662 / 58–6662 / 56–6560 / 53–6458 / 50–6358 / 52–6359 / 55–6460 / 57–6562 / 58–66

Each figure is the median across the 691 grid cells holding the 827 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 2349:2465 (-27.475, -56.725). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -1.8 °C, 1st-percentile night 2.9 °C, 99th-percentile day 38.8 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 691 distinct grid cells holding the 827 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2349:2465 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -27.50_-56.875, no lapse correction (POWER gave no cell elevation). Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 73 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeBolivia, Peru, Brazil West-Central, Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast, Brazil North, Brazil South, Argentina Northeast, Argentina Northwest, Paraguay
Kew's description“shrub” · “subtropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-25.628, -54.463 · in the densest population, 412 records (49% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 847 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 732 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 39 km away. 69 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 20 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 847 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Aloysia virgataAloysia virgataAloysia virgataAloysia virgataAloysia virgataAloysia virgataAloysia virgataAloysia virgata

Photographs: (c) Juan Cruzado Cortés, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (3); (c) Luis Recalde, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4); (c) Gabriel Jovêncio Ribeiro, some rights reserved (CC BY).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Aloysia virgata, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

ANALYSIS OF THE FLORISTIC COMPOSITION OF THE BRAZILIAN CERRADO VEGETATION III: COMPARISON OF THE WOODY VEGETATION OF 376 AREAS
J. A. Ratter, Samuel Bridgewater, J. F. Ribeiro (2003) · Edinburgh Journal of Botany
Ethnobotanical study of medicinal plants by population of Valley of Juruena Region, Legal Amazon, Mato Grosso, Brazil
Isanete Geraldini Costa Bieski, Marco Leonti, John T. Arnason, Jonathan Ferrier (2015) · Journal of Ethnopharmacology
A molecular phylogeny and classification of Verbenaceae
Hannah E. Marx, Nataly O’Leary, Yao‐Wu Yuan, Patricia Lu‐Irving (2010) · American Journal of Botany
In Vivo Neuropharmacological Effects of Neophytadiene
Maria L. González-Rivera, Juan Carlos Barragán‐Gálvez, Deisy Gasca‐Martínez, Sergio Hidalgo‐Figueroa (2023) · Molecules
A search for natural bioactive compounds in Bolivia through a multidisciplinary approach
R. Baelmans, Eric Deharo, Geneviève Bourdy, Verónica Francisca Loewe Muñoz (2000) · Journal of Ethnopharmacology
Chemical composition and antibacterial activity of essential oils from verbenaceae species: alternative sources of (E)-caryophyllene and germacrene-D
Ricardo Marques Montanari, Luiz C. A. Barbosa, Antônio J. Demuner, Cleber José da Silva (2011) · Química Nova
Síndromes de polinização e de dispersão em fragmentos da Floresta Estacional Semidecídua Montana, SP, Brasil
Leila Fumiyo Yamamoto, Luiza Sumiko Kinoshita, Fernando Roberto Martins (2007) · Acta Botanica Brasilica
Antimicrobial Activity and Chemical Composition of Essential Oils from Verbenaceae Species Growing in South America
Cristina Pérez Zamora, Carola Analía Torres, María Beatriz Núñez (2018) · Molecules
ANÁLISE FLORÍSTICA DO COMPARTIMENTO ARBÓREO DE ÁREAS DE FLORESTA ATLÂNTICA SENSU LATO NA REGIÃO DAS BACIAS DO LESTE (BAHIA, MINAS GERAIS, ESPÍRITO SANTO E RIO DE JANEIRO)
Ary Teixeira de Oliveira‐Filho, Eugênio Tameirão-Neto, Warley Augusto Caldas Carvalho, Márcio de Souza Werneck (2005) · Rodriguésia
Variáveis ambientais e a distribuição de espécies arbóreas em um remanescente de floresta estacional semidecídua montana no campus da Universidade Federal de Lavras, MG
Fernando Del Bon Espírito-Santo, Ary Teixeira de Oliveira‐Filho, Evandro Luiz Mendonça Machado, Josival Santos Souza (2002) · Acta Botanica Brasilica
Composição florística e síndromes de polinização e de dispersão da mata do Sítio São Francisco, Campinas, SP, Brasil
Luiza Sumiko Kinoshita, Roseli Buzanelli Torres, Eliana Regina Forni‐Martins, Tatiana Spinelli (2006) · Acta Botanica Brasilica
Plants of the American continent with antimalarial activity
Ingrid R. Mariath, Heloina de Sousa Falcão, José Maria Barbosa‐Filho, Layanna C. F. de Sousa (2009) · Revista Brasileira de Farmacognosia

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Aloysia 2 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 99 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.