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Gomphrena globosa; photograph (c) Gabriel Jovêncio Ribeiro, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Gabriel Jovêncio Ribeiro, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2025-10-05

Gomphrena globosa L.

Common globe amaranth; Globe amaranth; Bachelor's-button; Bachelor button

Amaranthaceae · Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf +14

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Gomphrena globosa, photograph (c) er-birds, some rights reserved (CC BY)Gomphrena globosa, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedGomphrena globosa, photograph (c) Diogo Luiz, some rights reserved (CC BY)Gomphrena globosa, photograph (c) Diogo Luiz, some rights reserved (CC BY)Gomphrena globosa, photograph (c) Abraham Sánchez Romero, some rights reserved (CC BY)Gomphrena globosa, photograph (c) Abraham Sánchez Romero, some rights reserved (CC BY) 61 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Coldest month, mean nightly low
16.9°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
29°C
Apr, May, Jun, Jul and Aug at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,408mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
27–38DLI
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.

Summary

Gomphrena globosa, commonly known as globe amaranth, is an edible plant from the family Amaranthaceae. The round-shaped flower inflorescences are a visually dominant feature and cultivars have been propagated to exhibit shades of magenta, purple, red, orange, white, pink, and lilac. Within the flowerheads, the true flowers are small and inconspicuous.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Gomphrena globosa", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (980 mm of 1,281 mm) falls in May to October, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 25.0 °C against a yearly mean of 23.6 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to April.

Rain

1,281 mm in the median year at the habitat, 980 mm of it May to October. Wettest month September at 204 mm, driest month January at 44 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 791 mm to 3,044 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,408 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,281 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: 27 to 38 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 19, the highest 90th-percentile month 46).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 16.9 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 9.0 °C to 23.1 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 28.9 °C in May (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: none read. The nearest figure is 16.9 °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: 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. 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, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Gomphrena globosa through the yearWarmest months April, May, June, July and August, mean daily high 29 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 16.9 °C; 1,281 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.5°10°15°20°25°30°35°°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 27–38RH 60–66%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 247 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 °C26 / 19–3027 / 20–3128 / 23–3229 / 24–3329 / 24–3429 / 23–3329 / 23–3429 / 23–3428 / 23–3227 / 22–3126 / 21–3025 / 20–30
Night °C17 / 9–2317 / 10–2318 / 11–2320 / 14–2421 / 15–2422 / 15–2522 / 14–2522 / 14–2522 / 15–2420 / 14–2418 / 12–2417 / 10–23
Rain mm44 / 9–18845 / 8–21245 / 8–26861 / 18–304110 / 57–359181 / 66–358175 / 54–354175 / 47–359204 / 72–435135 / 53–33958 / 17–27248 / 8–213
DLI29 / 20–3531 / 24–3835 / 29–4338 / 28–4638 / 26–4435 / 26–4136 / 27–4337 / 30–4033 / 29–3630 / 26–3628 / 22–3427 / 19–33
RH %62 / 55–6961 / 54–6860 / 53–6960 / 53–7063 / 55–7065 / 59–7065 / 58–7064 / 57–7066 / 60–7165 / 59–7163 / 58–7062 / 57–70

Records on both sides of the equator: the 75 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 247 cells that remain: the 164 at least 10° north and the 83 within 10° of the equator, which stay in either way.

The daily extremes were not used: the correction for elevation, -1078 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 13.9 °C, 1st-percentile night 16.4 °C.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 247 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (273 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 1728:2074 (3.575, -76.275). 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 247 distinct grid cells holding 273 of the 353 in-range records (1 further cell with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out) on the northern side of the equator (164 cells poleward of 10° north, 75 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 1728:2074 (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 3.50_-76.250, lapse-corrected -1078 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1034 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 Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Guyana, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Brazil West-Central, Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast, Brazil North · introduced: Bulgaria, Romania, Cape Verde, Benin, Burkina, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Congo, Gulf of Guinea Is., Zaïre, Chad, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Angola, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Northern Provinces, Mauritius, Turkmenistan, Tadzhikistan, Uzbekistan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, China South-Central, China North-Central, China Southeast, Xinjiang, Japan, Korea, Assam, Bangladesh, East Himalaya, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Andaman Is., Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Nicobar Is., Thailand, Vietnam, Borneo, Jawa, Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Maluku, Philippines, Sulawesi, Sumatera, New Guinea, Solomon Is., New South Wales, Northern Territory, Queensland, Western Australia, Fiji, Gilbert Is., Niue, New Caledonia, Samoa, Tonga, Vanuatu, Cook Is., Marquesas, Pitcairn Is., Society Is., Tuamotu, Tubuai Is., Caroline Is., Marianas, Marshall Is., Hawaii, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Maryland, South Carolina, Virginia, Costa Rica, Bahamas, Cayman Is., Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Puerto Rico, Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuelan Antilles, Windward Is., Venezuela, Peru, Brazil South, Paraguay · 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 marker19.542, -96.925 · in the densest population, 162 records (33% of those in range)
Kew's description“annual” · “seasonally dry tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 485 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 273 of them in the land cells it reads, of 353 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 344 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 6 km away. 891 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 132 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 485 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Gomphrena globosa, photograph 1did not loadGomphrena globosa, photograph 2did not loadGomphrena globosa, photograph 3did not loadGomphrena globosa, photograph 4did not loadGomphrena globosa, photograph 5did not loadGomphrena globosa, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) er-birds, some rights reserved (CC BY); author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0; (c) Diogo Luiz, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Abraham Sánchez Romero, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2).

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

Mesosphaerum pectinatum Mesosphaerum pectinatum Comb bushmint Photo: CC BY, Matteo BellucciCrotalaria incana Crotalaria incana Shakeshake Photo: CC0, author not statedFicus pertusa Ficus pertusa Moraceae Photo: CC BY, Alexis López HernándezBletia purpurea Bletia purpurea Pinepink Photo: CC BY, Tom FieldSapindus saponaria Sapindus saponaria Wingleaf soapberry Photo: CC BY, Raúl A. Ruiz M.Notylia orbicularis Notylia orbicularis Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Matteo Cassella

Other Gomphrena 11 in the reference

Gomphrena canescens Gomphrena canescens Bachelors buttons Photo: CC BY, yatesyGomphrena celosioides Gomphrena celosioides Gomphrena-weed Photo: CC BY-SA, Rebecca Ryen-StolsGomphrena elegans Gomphrena elegans Amaranthaceae Photo: CC BY, Nico YakGomphrena haageana Gomphrena haageana Rio Grande globe amaranth Photo: CC0, author not statedGomphrena nealleyi Gomphrena nealleyi Nealley's globe amaranth Photo: CC BY, Eric KnightGomphrena nitida Gomphrena nitida Pearly globe amaranth Photo: CC BY, Silvia TenGomphrena portulacoides Gomphrena portulacoides Amaranthaceae Photo: CC BY, Diogo LuizGomphrena pulchella Gomphrena pulchella Amaranthaceae Photo: CC BY, María ZetaGomphrena serrata Gomphrena serrata Arrasa con todo Photo: CC BY, Linda Jo ConnGomphrena sonorae Gomphrena sonorae Sonoran globe amaranth Photo: CC BY, CK2AZGomphrena vermicularis Gomphrena vermicularis Silverhead Photo: CC BY, Ian Talty

Names & registers

Also known as Amaranthoides globosa; Amaranthoides globosus var. albiflorus; Gomphrena eriopoda; Gomphrena globosa var. aureiflora; Gomphrena globosa var. carnea and 4 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Amaranthaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Southwest +13
Wild records
485 in range · 344 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; 163 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (128 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 11 at a herbarium, 24 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 3.50_-76.250, lapse-corrected -1078 m at 6.5 °C/km; read, and set aside: the correction for elevation, -1078 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 205 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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