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Alternanthera brasiliana; photograph (c) Richard Littauer, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Richard Littauer, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-08-20

Alternanthera brasiliana (L.) Kuntze

Brazilian joyweed; Ruby Leaf; Purple joyweed

Amaranthaceae · Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast +30

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Alternanthera brasiliana, photograph (c) Alexis López Hernández, some rights reserved (CC BY)Alternanthera brasiliana, photograph (c) Alexis López Hernández, some rights reserved (CC BY)Alternanthera brasiliana, photograph (c) Alexis López Hernández, some rights reserved (CC BY)Alternanthera brasiliana, photograph (c) Alexis López Hernández, some rights reserved (CC BY)Alternanthera brasiliana, photograph (c) Alexis López Hernández, some rights reserved (CC BY)Alternanthera brasiliana, photograph author not stated, no rights reserved 83 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Coldest month, mean nightly low
15.0°C
Jul at the habitat, not a floor; extremes not used (the weather cell's ground is too far off) CHELSA
Warmest month, mean daily high
28°C
Jan, Feb, Mar and Dec at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,543mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
24–37DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in the habitat's months, not shifted
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Wet summers: the rain comes October to March (the habitat's months, not shifted), read as a summer growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Not shifted: the shift rule does not apply to this habitat. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Alternanthera brasiliana, also known as large purple alternanthera, metal weed, bloodleaf, parrot leaf, ruby leaf, Brazilian joyweed, purple alternanthera, purple joyweed, is a flowering plant of the amaranth family that is native to the forests of South America and as well as Central America, ranging from northeastern Mexico to northeastern Argentina. It is grown as an ornamental plant.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Alternanthera brasiliana", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,039 mm of 1,474 mm) falls in October to March, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 24.1 °C against a yearly mean of 22.5 °C). 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

1,474 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,039 mm of it October to March. Wettest month January at 226 mm, driest month August at 42 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,096 mm to 2,258 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,543 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,474 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: 24 to 37 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 17, the highest 90th-percentile month 42).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 15.0 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range 10.3 °C to 22.2 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 28.4 °C in February (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: none read. The nearest figure is 15.0 °C, the coldest month's mean nightly low, July, 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.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 62 to 64% 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

Habitat climate of Alternanthera brasiliana through the yearWarmest months January, February, March and December, mean daily high 28 °C; coldest month July, mean nightly low 15.0 °C; 1,474 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA. Habitat months, southern hemisphere.5°10°15°20°25°30°35°°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 24–37RH 62–64%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 301 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C28 / 25–3128 / 25–3128 / 24–3027 / 23–2925 / 21–2924 / 19–2924 / 19–2925 / 20–3026 / 21–3127 / 23–3227 / 23–3128 / 24–31
Night °C21 / 18–2421 / 18–2421 / 17–2419 / 16–2417 / 13–2316 / 11–2315 / 10–2216 / 11–2218 / 13–2319 / 15–2420 / 16–2421 / 17–24
Rain mm226 / 66–319174 / 80–271171 / 102–285116 / 67–24288 / 31–25758 / 12–25251 / 7–20642 / 15–13580 / 34–155125 / 27–182149 / 33–225194 / 52–314
DLI36 / 31–4137 / 31–4034 / 30–3630 / 24–3326 / 20–3124 / 17–3025 / 19–3330 / 24–3633 / 26–3936 / 31–4037 / 33–4136 / 31–42
RH %64 / 61–6964 / 61–6964 / 61–6964 / 60–6864 / 58–6963 / 55–6962 / 52–6762 / 50–6662 / 53–6662 / 57–6863 / 59–6864 / 60–69

Records on both sides of the equator: the 80 cells at least 10° north of it have seasons six months apart and are left out, not combined into a year no place has. These figures are across the 301 cells that remain: the 223 at least 10° south and the 78 within 10° of the equator, which stay in either way.

The daily extremes were not used: the record low, 16.1 °C, is warmer than the coldest month's mean nightly low across the range, 15 °C, which no night series of the habitat can give. 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 16.1 °C, 1st-percentile night 17.9 °C.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 301 grid cells holding the 327 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 2041:2060 (-12.075, -76.975). Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 301 distinct grid cells holding 327 of the 410 in-range records on the southern side of the equator (80 cells poleward of 10° north, 223 poleward of 10° south: the two sides' seasons are not combined, and cells within 10° of the equator stay in); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2041:2060 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -12.00_-76.875, lapse-corrected -973 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 222 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 the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeMexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Belize, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Aruba, Bahamas, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Netherlands Antilles, Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuelan Antilles, Windward Is., French Guiana, Guyana, Surinam, Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil West-Central, Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast, Brazil North, Brazil South, Argentina Northeast, Paraguay · introduced: Benin, Gambia, The, Guinea, Cameroon, Comoros, Assam, East Himalaya, Andaman Is., Cambodia, Myanmar, South China Sea, Thailand, Jawa, Malaya, Marquesas, Pitcairn Is., Society Is., Tuamotu, Tubuai Is., Hawaii, Florida, Jamaica, Puerto Rico · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker-8.105, -38.64 · in the densest population, 390 records (35% of those in range)
Kew's description“subshrub or helophyte” · “seasonally dry tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 1125 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 327 of them in the land cells it reads, of 410 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 1056 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 1 km away. 555 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 715 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 1125 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Alternanthera brasiliana, photograph 1did not loadAlternanthera brasiliana, photograph 2did not loadAlternanthera brasiliana, photograph 3did not loadAlternanthera brasiliana, photograph 4did not loadAlternanthera brasiliana, photograph 5did not loadAlternanthera brasiliana, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Alexis López Hernández, some rights reserved (CC BY) (5); author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0.

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Inga laurina Inga laurina Sacky sac bean Photo: CC BY, Matteo BellucciCestrum laevigatum Cestrum laevigatum Inkberry Bush Photo: CC0, author not statedDioscorea dodecaneura Dioscorea dodecaneura Ornamental yam Photo: CC BY, Paulo MascarettiBougainvillea spectabilis Bougainvillea spectabilis Great bougainvillea Photo: CC BY, Raúl A. Ruiz M.Vriesea fenestralis Vriesea fenestralis Bromeliaceae Photo: CC BY, Diogo LuizTrimezia gracilis Trimezia gracilis Iridaceae Photo: CC BY, Victor Farjalla Pontes

Other Alternanthera 19 in the reference

Alternanthera aquatica Alternanthera aquatica Hassler's alternanthera Photo: CC BY-SA, Krzysztof Ziarnek, KenraizAlternanthera bettzickiana Alternanthera bettzickiana Calico-plant Photo: CC BY, Silvia TenAlternanthera caracasana Alternanthera caracasana Washerwoman Photo: CC0, author not statedAlternanthera denticulata Alternanthera denticulata Lesser joyweed Photo: CC BY-SA, Greg TasneyAlternanthera echinocephala Alternanthera echinocephala Sea-urchin joyweed Photo: CC BY, Mike BradyAlternanthera ficoidea Alternanthera ficoidea Amaranthaceae Photo: CC BY, Andrew AllenAlternanthera filifolia Alternanthera filifolia Three-leafed chaff flower Photo: CC BY, Jacob SaucierAlternanthera flavescens Alternanthera flavescens Yellow joyweed Photo: CC BY, Kenzie Anderson-BellAlternanthera flavicoma Alternanthera flavicoma Amaranthaceae Photo: CC BY, Andrea GantzerAlternanthera halimifolia Alternanthera halimifolia Hairy joyweed Photo: CC BY, Ellky Arteta ParedesAlternanthera nahui Alternanthera nahui Nahui Photo: CC BY, William HarlandAlternanthera paronychioides Alternanthera paronychioides Smooth joyweed Photo: CC BY, Adam Kamal all 20 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Achyranthes brasiliana; Achyranthes geniculata; Alternanthera brasiliana f. angustifolia; Alternanthera brasiliana f. bicolor; Alternanthera brasiliana f. obtusifolia and 24 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Amaranthaceae
Described by
(L.) Kuntze
Native to
Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf +29
Wild records
1125 in range · 1056 open

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 record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-21
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-21
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-21names fetched 2026-10-21
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 56 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (41 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 7 at a herbarium, 8 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-21
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-21NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -12.00_-76.875, lapse-corrected -973 m at 6.5 °C/km; read, and set aside: the record low, 16.1 °C, is warmer than the coldest month's mean nightly low across the range, 15 °C, which no night series of the habitat can give, so no cold floor is shown
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-21
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-21
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.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 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-21
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every 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 178 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…