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Alternanthera spinosa (Hornem.) Schult.

Amaranthaceae · Cuba, Dominican Republic +1

Cited as Kew's World Checklist cites it, Alternanthera spinosa (Hornem.) Schult.: GBIF's backbone key for this page carries the name with another author, (Hornem.) Roem. & Schult.

Photographs not checked iNaturalist was skipped (not asked) when this page was built. Not asked, or not answered, is not "none": nothing here claims there is none. Why the site says it this way.
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Habitat figuresfrom few records
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
19.5°C
Record low 17.1 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
31°C
Jul and Aug at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,508mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
24–42DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  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 May to October, read as a summer growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

From few records: 7 records in 7 grid cells. The records.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,069 mm of 1,459 mm) falls in May to October, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 26.6 °C against a yearly mean of 24.9 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to April.

Rain

1,459 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,069 mm of it May to October. Wettest month June at 226 mm, driest month December at 52 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,132 mm to 1,582 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,508 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,459 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 24 to 42 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 23, the highest 90th-percentile month 43).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 19.5 °C, the absolute minimum 17.1 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 34.1 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 19.9 °C in February (across the grid cells of the range 19.1 °C to 22.2 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 30.7 °C in August (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 19.5 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 60 to 66% 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. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected -58 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. 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

From few records: this habitat climate is read from 7 records in 7 grid cells; a page says so under 12 records or 5 cells, and shows the figures as read.

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Alternanthera spinosa through the yearWarmest months July and August, mean daily high 31 °C; coldest month February, mean nightly low 19.9 °C; 1,459 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.15°20°25°30°35°40°34.1° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER17.1° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250300mm rainDLI 24–42RH 60–66%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 7 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C25 / 25–2626 / 26–2727 / 26–2828 / 27–2929 / 27–3030 / 27–3031 / 27–3131 / 27–3130 / 26–3029 / 26–2927 / 25–2826 / 25–27
Night °C20 / 19–2220 / 19–2220 / 20–2322 / 21–2323 / 22–2424 / 23–2525 / 22–2525 / 22–2624 / 22–2524 / 22–2422 / 21–2321 / 20–22
Rain mm56 / 38–8563 / 51–11662 / 52–11281 / 71–94144 / 94–208226 / 119–256152 / 88–176181 / 95–203205 / 121–227161 / 94–19576 / 52–10552 / 48–67
DLI25 / 25–2930 / 30–3236 / 34–3741 / 36–4341 / 35–4240 / 35–4142 / 36–4340 / 37–4135 / 35–3630 / 30–3426 / 25–3224 / 23–30
RH %61 / 61–6561 / 61–6460 / 60–6460 / 59–6563 / 62–6665 / 64–6764 / 64–6664 / 64–6766 / 65–6865 / 64–6963 / 62–6762 / 61–66
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 7 grid cells holding the 7 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 1431:2197 (18.425, -70.125). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 17.1 °C, 1st-percentile night 19.5 °C, 99th-percentile day 34.1 °C. 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 7 distinct grid cells holding 7 of the 7 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1431:2197 (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 18.50_-70.000, lapse-corrected -58 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 68 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.
NativeCuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador · 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 marker23.101, -82.334 · in the densest population, 20 records (63% of those in range)
Doubtfully present inVenezuela · recorded by WCVP as doubtfully present: not part of the range records are tested against
Kew's description“seasonally dry tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 32 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 7 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 29 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 1 km away. 1 record outside the WCVP native range not used. Under a dozen records behind the climate. 25 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 of the 32 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Not checked. iNaturalist was skipped (not asked) when this page was built; GBIF's observation records with coordinates hold none. Not a statement that none exist.

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

Jacquinia aculeata Jacquinia aculeata Primulaceae Photo: Public domain, DaderotRandia spinifex Randia spinifex Rubiaceae Photo: CC BY, Robin WhiteHibiscus elatus Hibiscus elatus Malvaceae Photo: CC BY, Forest & Kim StarrCopernicia baileyana Copernicia baileyana Bailey palm Photo: CC BY, Mario GuzmánAcrocomia crispa Acrocomia crispa Cuban belly palm Photo: CC BY, Mario GuzmánEncyclia phoenicea Encyclia phoenicea Phoenician Encyclia Photo: CC BY, Roberto Jovel

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 brasiliana Alternanthera brasiliana Brazilian joyweed Photo: CC BY, Richard LittauerAlternanthera 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 Harland all 20 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Achyranthes spinosa; Alternanthera axillaris; Celosia axillaris; Illecebrum spinosum. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidata

The record

Family
Amaranthaceae
Described by
(Hornem.) Schult.
Native to
Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador
Wild records
32 in range · 29 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 2026-10-21GBIF's key 3674648 is Alternanthera spinosa (Hornem.) Roem. & Schult.; the page links Kew's Alternanthera spinosa (Hornem.) Schult., and the name is cited as Kew cites it
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; 2 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (1 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 1 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 18.50_-70.000, lapse-corrected -58 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-21
Wikipedia wikipedia nothing to reportasked 2026-10-21
iNaturalist taxon inat.taxon not asked
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild not asked
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media nothing to reportasked 2026-10-21
Wikimedia Commons commons nothing to reportasked 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 12 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…