




33 photographs › At a glance
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Summary
Alternanthera bettzickiana, commonly known as calico-plant, is a species of flowering plant in the family Amaranthaceae. It is commonly used as an ornamental edging plant. Native to South America, its cultivar 'Red' is similar in appearance to some of the Alternanthera dentata and Alternanthera brasiliana varieties.
Quoted from Wikipedia, "Alternanthera bettzickiana", CC BY-SA 4.0.
Cultivation
Seasons
The rain rule reads no short rainy season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,418 mm of 1,868 mm) takes 8 months, September to April. Mean temperature moves 7.3 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere. The habitat lies within 10° of the equator, where the shift rule does not apply, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.
Rain
1,868 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,418 mm of it September to April. Wettest month February at 205 mm, driest month August at 97 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,156 mm to 3,585 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,956 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,868 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, southern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.
Light
Open sky over the habitat: 22 to 33 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 16, the highest 90th-percentile month 43).
Warmth and air
Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 14.6 °C in August (across the grid cells of the range 10.3 °C to 21.8 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 27.5 °C in February (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: none read. The nearest figure is 14.6 °C, the coldest month's mean nightly low, August, in the median year (CHELSA); a month's mean of its nightly lows is warmer than the nights a floor is read from. The daily extremes were read at a weather cell whose ground is too far above or below the typical spot to correct for, and are not used.
Relative humidity at the habitat: 65 to 67% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.
How this section is made
Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.
Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: 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 moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.
Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.
Light. 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.
Temperature. CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. No cold floor is read without a daily extremes series; the coldest month's mean nightly low named in its sentence is not one. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.
Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.
Climate across the habitat
Habitat months, southern hemisphere
Mean daily high from 21 °C in Jun, Jul and Aug to 28 °C in Feb; mean nightly low from 15 °C in Jun, Jul, Aug and Sep to 21 °C in Jan, Feb and Mar. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low, centred on the 4 months in a row that tie for it. 1,868 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added), the wettest month Feb. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 24 habitat cells. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.
Figures by month
| Figure | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day °C | 27 / 20–30 | 28 / 20–29 | 27 / 20–29 | 25 / 20–29 | 22 / 19–28 | 21 / 18–27 | 21 / 18–28 | 21 / 19–28 | 22 / 19–29 | 23 / 20–29 | 25 / 20–29 | 27 / 20–29 |
| Night °C | 21 / 13–23 | 21 / 13–23 | 21 / 14–23 | 19 / 14–23 | 16 / 11–22 | 15 / 10–22 | 15 / 9–22 | 15 / 10–22 | 15 / 11–22 | 16 / 12–23 | 18 / 13–23 | 20 / 13–23 |
| Rain mm | 200 / 66–399 | 205 / 84–402 | 198 / 99–454 | 179 / 102–514 | 129 / 94–513 | 99 / 39–391 | 125 / 25–311 | 97 / 13–241 | 148 / 20–259 | 165 / 26–269 | 157 / 48–260 | 166 / 80–325 |
| DLI | 33 / 23–41 | 32 / 25–37 | 30 / 26–36 | 26 / 23–36 | 24 / 19–35 | 22 / 16–33 | 23 / 18–34 | 25 / 22–37 | 28 / 23–40 | 31 / 24–38 | 33 / 24–41 | 33 / 23–43 |
| RH % | 67 / 62–71 | 67 / 63–71 | 66 / 63–71 | 66 / 64–72 | 66 / 62–72 | 66 / 62–73 | 66 / 59–73 | 66 / 57–72 | 65 / 59–72 | 66 / 62–72 | 65 / 62–72 | 66 / 63–71 |
The daily extremes were not used: the correction for elevation, -1796 m, is beyond the 1,000 m either way that a lapse rate is applied over, so the weather cell's ground is other terrain than the typical spot's. So no cold floor is read for this species, and the coldest month's mean nightly low is not taken as one. What that cell gave, so corrected, over 44 years: absolute minimum 18.9 °C, 1st-percentile night 21.0 °C.
How this section is made
Natural habitat
How this section is made
Photographs
Photographs: (c) Silvia Ten, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0 (2); (c) Rony Ristow, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) renjus box, some rights reserved (CC BY).
Related
Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.
Vriesea rodigasiana Bromeliaceae Photo: CC BY, Fabrício Mil Homens Riella
Dorstenia carautae Moraceae Photo: CC BY, Fabrício Mil Homens Riella
Attalea dubia Arecaceae Photo: CC BY, Fabrício Mil Homens Riella
Urera nitida Urticaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Nicollas Michels
Philodendron glaziovii Araceae Photo: CC BY, Celso Henrique Varela Rios
Octomeria grandiflora Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY, topeunaOther Alternanthera 19 in the reference
Alternanthera brasiliana Brazilian joyweed Photo: CC BY, Richard Littauer
Alternanthera caracasana Washerwoman Photo: CC0, author not stated
Alternanthera denticulata Lesser joyweed Photo: CC BY-SA, Greg Tasney
Alternanthera echinocephala Sea-urchin joyweed Photo: CC BY, Mike Brady
Alternanthera ficoidea Amaranthaceae Photo: CC BY, Andrew Allen
Alternanthera filifolia Three-leafed chaff flower Photo: CC BY, Jacob Saucier
Alternanthera flavescens Yellow joyweed Photo: CC BY, Kenzie Anderson-Bell
Alternanthera flavicoma Amaranthaceae Photo: CC BY, Andrea Gantzer
Alternanthera halimifolia Hairy joyweed Photo: CC BY, Ellky Arteta Paredes
Alternanthera nahui Nahui Photo: CC BY, William Harland
Alternanthera paronychioides Smooth joyweed Photo: CC BY, Adam Kamal all 20 ›Names & registers
Also known as Achyranthes amabilis; Achyranthes bettzichiana; Achyranthes bettzickiana; Achyranthes cyclophylla; Achyranthes ficoidea subsp. bettzichiana and 49 more. (GBIF Backbone)
Under another author Alternanthera paronychioides Klotzsch and Alternanthera paronychioides Klotzsch ex K.Koch and Alternanthera paronychioides Regel is an older name of this species, not Alternanthera paronychioides, a species of the reference. (GBIF Backbone)
The record
Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →
Where this page came from built 2026-10-21
gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-21gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-21gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-21names fetched 2026-10-21wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 22 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (13 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 2 at a herbarium, 7 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)climate answeredasked 2026-10-21climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-21NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -10.50_-77.500, lapse-corrected -1796 m at 6.5 °C/km; read, and set aside: the correction for elevation, -1796 m, is beyond the 1,000 m either way that a lapse rate is applied over, so the weather cell's ground is other terrain than the typical spot's, so no cold floor is shownwikidata answeredasked 2026-10-21IPNI and POWO linked by Kew's number for Alternanthera bettzickiana (Regel) G.Nicholson (the item's: IPNI 59128-1, POWO 10291-2)wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-21inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22inat.photos.cultivated not askedgbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-21openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshotEvery source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 81 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.






