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Elephantopus mollis; photograph (c) Yu-Huang Wang, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Yu-Huang Wang, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-09-04

Elephantopus mollis Kunth

Soft elephantsfoot; Elephant's-foot; False tobacco; Tobacco-weed

Asteraceae · Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast +36

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Elephantopus mollis, photograph (c) Guillaume Delaitre, some rights reserved (CC BY)Elephantopus mollis, photograph (c) Ong Jyh Seng, some rights reserved (CC BY)Elephantopus mollis, photograph (c) Guillaume Delaitre, some rights reserved (CC BY)Elephantopus mollis, photograph (c) Guillaume Delaitre, some rights reserved (CC BY)Elephantopus mollis, photograph (c) Guillaume Delaitre, some rights reserved (CC BY)Elephantopus mollis, photograph (c) Guillaume Delaitre, some rights reserved (CC BY) 77 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Coldest month, mean nightly low
17.2°C
Jan at the habitat, not a floor; extremes not used (the weather cell's ground is too far off) CHELSA
Warmest month, mean daily high
27°C
Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug and Sep at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
2,234mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
29–40DLI
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
A sharp rainy season, May to October (the habitat's months, not shifted), in a year of even temperature. rain rule, CHELSA
Not shifted: the shift rule does not apply to this habitat. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Elephantopus mollis, common names tobacco weed, and soft elephantsfoot, is a tropical species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Elephantopus mollis", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a sharp season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,531 mm of 2,114 mm) falls in May to October. The temperature curve is flat, 2.8 °C between the warmest and coldest month, so the growing-season rule does not infer a growing season from it. Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere. The temperature curve moves under 4 °C between the warmest and coldest month, where the shift rule does not apply, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

Rain

2,114 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,531 mm of it May to October. Wettest month September at 296 mm, driest month February at 65 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,321 mm to 4,020 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 2,234 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 2,114 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: 29 to 40 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 22, the highest 90th-percentile month 46).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 17.2 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 10.2 °C to 23.4 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 27.4 °C in April and May (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: none read. The nearest figure is 17.2 °C, the coldest month's mean nightly low, January, 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 68% 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 Elephantopus mollis through the yearWarmest months March, April, May, June, July, August and September, mean daily high 27 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 17.2 °C; 2,114 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 quarter0100200300400500600mm rainDLI 29–40RH 62–68%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 215 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 °C25 / 20–3026 / 21–3027 / 22–3127 / 23–3127 / 23–3127 / 22–3027 / 22–2927 / 22–3027 / 22–3026 / 21–3026 / 21–3025 / 20–29
Night °C17 / 10–2317 / 11–2418 / 12–2419 / 14–2420 / 15–2421 / 15–2420 / 15–2420 / 15–2420 / 15–2420 / 14–2419 / 12–2418 / 11–23
Rain mm71 / 13–32265 / 14–24873 / 9–293113 / 15–417189 / 53–512277 / 131–491267 / 127–460274 / 124–477296 / 138–500228 / 88–466160 / 29–317101 / 13–297
DLI31 / 23–3534 / 27–3837 / 32–4340 / 30–4639 / 27–4335 / 25–4135 / 27–4236 / 28–4132 / 27–3931 / 26–3530 / 24–3429 / 22–34
RH %65 / 55–7064 / 54–6962 / 54–6964 / 55–7066 / 59–7268 / 63–7267 / 63–7267 / 63–7368 / 63–7368 / 63–7467 / 61–7366 / 58–71

Records on both sides of the equator: the 79 cells at least 10° south of it have seasons six months apart and are left out, not combined into a year no place has. These figures are across the 215 cells that remain: the 142 at least 10° north and the 73 within 10° of the equator, which stay in either way.

The daily extremes were not used: the correction for elevation, -1030 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 2.8 °C, 1st-percentile night 12.6 °C.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 215 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (259 records in those cells; 1 more cell holds records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cell is left out), 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 1429:1664 (18.525, -96.775). 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 215 distinct grid cells holding 259 of the 340 in-range records (1 further cell with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out) on the northern side of the equator (142 cells poleward of 10° north, 79 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 1429:1664 (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_-96.875, lapse-corrected -1030 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 111 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 Northwest, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Puerto Rico, Trinidad-Tobago, Windward Is., French Guiana, Guyana, Surinam, Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil West-Central, Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast, Brazil North, Brazil South, Argentina Northeast, Argentina Northwest, Paraguay, Uruguay · introduced: Benin, Burkina, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, Togo, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Congo, Gabon, Gulf of Guinea Is., Zaïre, Ethiopia, Sudan, Angola, Zambia, Comoros, Nansei-shoto, Ogasawara-shoto, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaya, Philippines, New South Wales, Queensland, Fiji, Tonga, Vanuatu, Marquesas, Society Is., Tuamotu, Tubuai Is., Caroline Is., Marianas, Hawaii · 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-29.451, -51.306 · in the densest population, 201 records (21% of those in range)
Kew's description“perennial” · “subtropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 977 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 259 of them in the land cells it reads, of 340 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 790 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 26 km away. 672 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 637 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 977 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Elephantopus mollis, photograph 1did not loadElephantopus mollis, photograph 2did not loadElephantopus mollis, photograph 3did not loadElephantopus mollis, photograph 4did not loadElephantopus mollis, photograph 5did not loadElephantopus mollis, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Guillaume Delaitre, some rights reserved (CC BY) (5); (c) Ong Jyh Seng, some rights reserved (CC BY).

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

Peperomia glabella Peperomia glabella Cypress peperomia Photo: CC BY, Guillaume DelaitreSerpocaulon triseriale Serpocaulon triseriale Angle-vein Fern Photo: CC BY, Nicolás Baresch UribeEpidendrum ciliare Epidendrum ciliare Christmas Orchid Photo: CC BY, Matteo BellucciEpidendrum ramosum Epidendrum ramosum Mountain star orchid Photo: CC BY, José Javier Barrios FloresRhipsalis baccifera Rhipsalis baccifera Mistletoe cactus Photo: CC BY, Claudio Cantú MuñizPiper aduncum Piper aduncum Spiked pepper Photo: CC BY, Alexis López Hernández

Other Elephantopus 5 in the reference

Elephantopus carolinianus Elephantopus carolinianus Carolina elephantsfoot Photo: CC0, author not statedElephantopus elatus Elephantopus elatus Tall Elephant's-foot Photo: CC BY, xanderferretElephantopus nudatus Elephantopus nudatus Smooth Elephant's Foot Photo: CC0, author not statedElephantopus scaber Elephantopus scaber Elephant's foot Photo: CC BY, R KElephantopus tomentosus Elephantopus tomentosus Devil's grandmother Photo: CC BY, Jacqueline Raiford

Names & registers

Also known as Elephantopus carolinensis; Elephantopus carolinianus subsp. mollis; Elephantopus carolinianus subsp. simplex; Elephantopus carolinianus var. mollis; Elephantopus cernuus and 19 more. (GBIF Backbone)

Under another author Elephantopus carolinianus Willd. is an older name of this species, not Elephantopus carolinianus, a species of the reference. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Asteraceae
Described by
Kunth
Native to
Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf +35
Wild records
977 in range · 790 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 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
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; 37 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (25 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 3 at a herbarium, 9 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 18.50_-96.875, lapse-corrected -1030 m at 6.5 °C/km; read, and set aside: the correction for elevation, -1030 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 shown
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
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 2026-10-22
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 231 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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