Species
+

Cuphea hyssopifolia Kunth

False Heather, Mexican-heather, Mexican-heather, Ysopblättriges Köcherblümchen (DE)

Climate known 45 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

Cuphea hyssopifolia, the false heather, Mexican heather, Hawaiian heather or elfin herb, is a small evergreen shrub native to Mexico, Guatemala, and Honduras.

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

About the genus · Cuphea

Cuphea is a genus containing about 260 species of annual and perennial flowering plants native to warm temperate to tropical regions of the Americas. The species range from low-growing herbaceous plants to semi-woody shrubs up to 2 m tall. Commonly they are known as cupheas, or, in the case of some species, as cigar plants. More on Wikipedia ›

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

Family
Lythraceae
Described by
Kunth
Native to
Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf +10
Wild records
607 in range· 350 open

At a glance

Warmest month
28°C
May, mean day; nights 18 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1711mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Sep 301 mm (CHELSA)
Light
27–40DLI
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, June to October in the northern hemisphere (June to October at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 1711 mm a year, wettest September at 301 mm, driest February at 35 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 27 to 40 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 8.3 °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 Cuphea hyssopifolia f. hyssopifolia; Cuphea hyssopifolia f. subrevoluta Koehne; Cuphea hyssopifolia var. brachyphylla Griseb.; Cuphea rivularis Seem.; Cuphea sunubana Lourteig and 1 more.

Cultivation

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

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 (1280 mm of 1711 mm) falls in June to October, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 21.9 °C against a yearly mean of 20.6 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December to April.

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 1711 mm a year, wettest September at 301 mm, driest February at 35 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1711 mm a year at the habitat, 1280 mm of it June to October. Wettest month September at 301 mm, driest February at 35 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 704 mm to 3564 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern 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: 27 to 40 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 27 to 40 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 22, the highest 90th-percentile month 47).

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 8.3 °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 8.3 °C, the absolute minimum -0.4 °C, 1 frost night in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 38.6 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 12.9 °C in January (across the envelope cells 6.2 °C to 21.2 °C), warmest day 27.5 °C in May (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 8.3 °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, lapse-corrected to its elevation; 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: 60 to 69% 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 23 °C in Jan to 28 °C in May; mean night from 13 °C in Jan to 19 °C in Jun. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1711 mm of rain a year, most in Sep. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 458 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -0.4 °C and the 99th-percentile day 38.6 °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°frost38.6° 99th-percentile day (undated)-0.4° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 27–40RH 60–69 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 458 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 °C23 / 18–2824 / 19–2926 / 22–3027 / 23–3228 / 23–3226 / 21–3126 / 21–3026 / 21–3025 / 20–3025 / 20–2824 / 19–2823 / 18–27
Night °C13 / 6–2114 / 7–2115 / 9–2216 / 11–2318 / 12–2319 / 13–2418 / 12–2418 / 12–2418 / 12–2317 / 11–2315 / 9–2214 / 7–22
Rain mm43 / 9–14635 / 8–10539 / 7–9359 / 15–145127 / 42–368283 / 111–427259 / 113–427257 / 101–437301 / 107–483180 / 54–47574 / 11–36854 / 6–220
DLI29 / 23–3434 / 27–3838 / 33–4440 / 35–4739 / 29–4636 / 27–4136 / 27–4136 / 28–4032 / 28–3530 / 25–3427 / 23–3327 / 22–32
RH %63 / 52–6961 / 50–6760 / 48–6660 / 49–6663 / 52–7067 / 59–7366 / 59–7266 / 59–7269 / 61–7367 / 58–7466 / 55–7365 / 53–71

Each figure is the median across the 458 grid cells holding the 596 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 1422:1661 (18.875, -96.925). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -0.4 °C, 1st-percentile night 8.3 °C, 99th-percentile day 38.6 °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 458 distinct grid cells holding the 596 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1422:1661 (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 19.00_-96.875, lapse-corrected -362 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 811 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.
NativeMexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama· introduced: Morocco, Canary Is., Bangladesh, Thailand, Borneo, Jawa, Malaya, New Zealand North, Cook Is., Marianas, Hawaii, Florida, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Puerto Rico, Windward Is., Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia
Kew's description“subshrub” · “seasonally dry tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker19.457, -96.958 · in the densest population, 374 records (62% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 607 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 350 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 14 km away. 1123 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 11 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 607 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Cuphea hyssopifoliaCuphea hyssopifoliaCuphea hyssopifoliaCuphea hyssopifoliaCuphea hyssopifoliaCuphea hyssopifoliaCuphea hyssopifoliaCuphea hyssopifolia

Photographs: (c) Neptalí Ramírez Marcial, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Seema Merchant, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Andre Hosper, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Carlos Domínguez-Rodríguez, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Gannu03, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA); (c) sunnyjosef, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Alexis López Hernández, 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 Cuphea hyssopifolia, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Antitumor activity of four macrocyclic ellagitannins from Cuphea hyssopifolia
Ching-Chiung Wang, Lih-Geeng Chen, Ling-Ling Yang (1999) · Cancer Letters
Compost-Amended Media for Growth And Development Of Mexican Heather
Sandra B. Wilson, Peter J. Stoffella, D. A. Graetz (2001) · Compost Science & Utilization
Macrocyclic ellagitannin dimers, cuphiins D1 and D2, and accompanying tannins from Cuphea hyssopifolia
Lih-Geeng Chen, K.‐Y. Yen, Ling-Ling Yang, Tsutomu Hatano (1999) · Phytochemistry
In vitro immunomodulatory effects of cuphiin D1 on human mononuclear cells.
Ching Chiung Wang, Lih-Geeng Chen, Lingling Yang (2003) · PubMed
Controlled-release Fertilizer Type and Rate Affect Landscape Establishment of Seven Herbaceous Perennials
Yan Chen, Regina P. Bracy, Allen D. Owings, J. P. Quebedeaux (2011) · HortTechnology
Antioxidant and Cytotoxic Activities of Cuphea hyssopifolia Kunth (Lythraceae) Cultivated in Egypt
Mohamed R. Elgindi, Nahla Ayoub, Rola Milad, Reham Hassan Mekky (2012) · Journal of Pharmacognosy and Phytochemistry
Constituents of Organic Extracts of Cuphea hyssopifolia
José Antonio Morales‐Serna, Eréndira García-Ríos, Domingo Madrigal, Jorge Cárdenas (2011) · LA Referencia (Red Federada de Repositorios Institucionales de Publicaciones Científicas)
The Selection of Ornamental Plant for Landscape Design of Pollination Garden at Bogor Botanic Gardens
Peniwidiyanti Peniwidiyanti, Irvan Fadli Wanda, Dipta Sumeru Rinandio, Prima Wahyu Kusuma Hutabarat (2020) · Jurnal Biodjati
New records in vascular plants alien to Tenerife (Spain, Canary Islands)
Filip Verloove (2021) · Biodiversity Data Journal
Bioactive Compounds of Endemic Medicinal Plants (Cuphea spp.) Cultured in Aquaponic Systems: A Short Study
Priscila Sarai Flores-Aguilar, Amanda Kim Rico-Chávez, Eloy Rodríguez-deLeón, Humberto Aguirre-Becerra (2023) · Agriculture

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 Cuphea 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 109 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.