Species
+

Pilea peperomioides Diels

Chinese money plant

No habitat climate 2 photographs Tropical foliage plant

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

Pilea peperomioides, the Chinese money plant, UFO plant, pancake plant, lefse plant or missionary plant, is a species of flowering plant in the nettle family Urticaceae, native to Yunnan and Sichuan provinces in southern China.

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

About the genus · Pilea

Pilea, with 600–715 species, is the largest genus of flowering plants in the nettle family Urticaceae.

Text from Wikipedia, “Pilea”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Urticaceae
Described by
Diels
Native to
China South-Central
Wild records
1 in range· 0 open

At a glance

In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a tropical foliage plant by the genus Pilea, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table); no habitat climate could be derived for this species. Cold floor 12 °C (conventional for a tropical foliage plant, archetype table).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. The cards · the figures.

Cultivation

Grouped as a tropical foliage plant by the genus Pilea, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). The table supplies one figure for this group, a conventional minimum for the cold floor, and no prose.

Warmth and air Cold floor 12 °C (conventional for a tropical foliage plant, archetype table).

The archetype table’s figure; no habitat figure for this species.

Cold floor: 12 °C, the archetype table's conventional minimum for a tropical foliage plant (grouped by the genus Pilea, which is reliably one kind of plant); no habitat figure is on file for this species.

The archetype table's conventional minimum for the group; no habitat figure is on file for this species.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

No habitat climate can be derived: Only 1 distinct land cell of the climate grid holds an in-range record; three are needed for an envelope.

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP.
No openly licensed record to show inside the range.
NativeChina South-Central· introduced: Belgium
Kew's description“perennial or subshrub” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 1 georeferenced record inside the native range; none carries a licence permitting republication, so the map shows no points. 8 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. Under a dozen records: treat the map as indicative. No climate envelope is derived for this species.

Photographs

Pilea peperomioides

Photographs: Cristina, CC BY-SA, via GBIF.

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 Pilea peperomioides, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Low-level CAM photosynthesis in a succulent-leaved member of the Urticaceae, Pilea peperomioides
Klaus Winter, Milton García, Aurelio Virgo, J. Andrew C. Smith (2020) · Functional Plant Biology
Acclimation to wind loads and/or contact stimuli? A biomechanical study of peltate leaves of Pilea peperomioides
Max Langer, Elena Hegge, Thomas Speck, Olga Speck (2021) · Journal of Experimental Botany
PILEA PEPEROMIOIDES Urticaceae
A. Radcliffe‐Smith (1984) · Curtis s Botanical Magazine
Leaf unfolding and lamina biomechanics in Syngonium podophyllum and Pilea peperomioides
Michelle Modert, Thomas Speck, Tom Masselter (2024) · Bioinspiration & Biomimetics
Reticulate leaf venation in Pilea peperomioides is a Voronoi diagram
Cui Zheng, Shirsa Palit, Matthew Venezia, Elijah Blum (2026) · Nature Communications
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility

Other Pilea 3 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate nothing to report
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; 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 8 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.