28 photographs › At a glance
- Jan, shaded
- Feb, shaded
- Mar, shaded
- Apr, shaded
- May
- Jun
- Jul
- Aug
- Sep
- Oct
- Nov, shaded
- Dec, shaded
Summary
Pilea serpyllacea is an herbaceous plant native to Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. It has been introduced into a number of areas outside its native range, such as Hawaii and the Galapagos.
Quoted from Wikipedia, "Pilea serpyllacea", CC BY-SA 4.0.
About the genus · Pilea
Pilea, with 600–715 species, is the largest genus of flowering plants in the nettle family Urticaceae.
Quoted from Wikipedia, "Pilea", CC BY-SA 4.0.
Cultivation
Grouped as a tropical foliage plant, listed under the genus Pilea in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “succulent subshrub”, “wet tropical”.
Seasons
The rain rule reads a sharp season: 70% of the median year's rain (889 mm of 1,231 mm) falls in November to April. The temperature curve is flat, 1.5 °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, northern hemisphere. The habitat lies within 10° of the equator, where the shift rule does not apply, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.
Rain
1,231 mm in the median year at the habitat, 889 mm of it November to April. Wettest month March at 181 mm, driest month July at 27 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 947 mm to 2,087 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,242 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,231 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: 29 to 36 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 25, the highest 90th-percentile month 43).
Warmth and air
Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 2.4 °C, the absolute minimum 0.2 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 18.7 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 6.7 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range 0.4 °C to 11.0 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 16.5 °C in September (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 2.4 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).
Relative humidity at the habitat: 61 to 69% 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 +170 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.
Group. Listed under the genus Pilea in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “succulent subshrub”, “wet tropical”. A group is taken only where Kew's description of the species agrees with the table's listing. The table gives no figure and no prose; the cold floor is the habitat's alone.
Climate across the habitat
Habitat months, northern hemisphere
Mean daily high from 15 °C in Jun and Jul to 17 °C in Sep; mean nightly low from 7 °C in Jul and Aug to 9 °C in Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr and Dec. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low, centred on the 2 months in a row that tie for it. 1,231 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added), the wettest month Mar. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 62 habitat cells. Over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER) the absolute minimum was 0.2 °C and the 99th-percentile day 18.7 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.
Figures by month
| Figure | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day °C | 16 / 12–19 | 16 / 12–19 | 16 / 12–19 | 16 / 12–19 | 16 / 12–19 | 15 / 11–20 | 15 / 11–20 | 16 / 11–21 | 17 / 12–20 | 16 / 12–20 | 16 / 12–20 | 16 / 12–19 |
| Night °C | 9 / 5–12 | 9 / 5–12 | 9 / 5–12 | 9 / 4–12 | 8 / 2–12 | 8 / 1–12 | 7 / 0–11 | 7 / 1–11 | 8 / 2–11 | 8 / 3–12 | 8 / 4–12 | 9 / 4–12 |
| Rain mm | 158 / 81–277 | 167 / 102–245 | 181 / 140–268 | 117 / 70–285 | 72 / 22–204 | 42 / 13–108 | 27 / 14–59 | 33 / 18–56 | 61 / 36–136 | 107 / 67–170 | 118 / 81–181 | 148 / 94–218 |
| DLI | 31 / 27–39 | 31 / 27–39 | 31 / 26–37 | 31 / 25–36 | 30 / 26–34 | 29 / 26–33 | 31 / 27–34 | 34 / 30–37 | 36 / 30–39 | 35 / 29–41 | 34 / 28–43 | 32 / 27–41 |
| RH % | 68 / 64–73 | 69 / 64–73 | 68 / 64–72 | 68 / 63–72 | 65 / 61–70 | 63 / 59–67 | 61 / 58–65 | 61 / 57–65 | 63 / 58–67 | 65 / 61–70 | 66 / 63–72 | 67 / 63–73 |
How this section is made
Natural habitat
How this section is made
Photographs
Photographs: (c) Michal Honskus, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Maria Luisa Bravo Alarcon, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Leonel Roget, some rights reserved (CC BY).
Related
Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.
Oreocallis grandiflora Andean Firebush Photo: CC BY, Jared Shorma
Salvia sagittata Arrowleaf Sage Photo: CC BY, Efrain Freire
Trichoceros antennifer Andean Fly Orchid Photo: CC0, author not stated
Fuchsia boliviana Bolivian fuchsia Photo: CC BY, Juan Carlos Caicedo Hernández
Altensteinia fimbriata Fringed Ground Orchid Photo: CC BY, Jhon A. Yuca-Palomino
Oxalis peduncularis Oxalidaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, yakovlev.alexey from Moscow, RussiaOther Pilea 27 in the reference
Pilea angulata Urticaceae Photo: CC BY, 黃美滿
Pilea aquarum Urticaceae Photo: CC BY, 如此甚好
Pilea cadierei Aluminium Plant Photo: CC BY, Greg III Espera
Pilea crassifolia Urticaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Michael Wolf (Webseite)
Pilea depressa Depressed clearweed Photo: CC BY, Eileen Yayreth Pitti Samms
Pilea fontana Lesser clearweed Photo: CC BY, Sam Turner
Pilea grandifolia Urticaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Salicyna Pilea hitchcockii Urticaceae 
Pilea inaequalis West Indian clearweed Photo: CC BY, Matteo Bellucci
Pilea involucrata Urticaceae Photo: CC BY, Alexander Klink
Pilea libanensis Urticaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Krzysztof Ziarnek, Kenraiz
Pilea margarettae Margarett's clearweed Photo: CC BY, Brian Oakes Haiti Hunter all 28 ›Names & registers
Also known as Adicea thymifolia; Pilea globosa; Pilea thymifolia; Urtica dasyphylla; Urtica globifolia and 3 more. (GBIF Backbone)
The record
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 answeredasked 2026-10-22gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 9 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (9 at a botanic garden or arboretum; Wikidata's list)climate answeredasked 2026-10-22climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -1.00_-78.750, lapse-corrected +170 m at 6.5 °C/kmwikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22inat.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 2026-10-22inat.photos.cultivated not askedgbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22none of the photographs on this page is credited to GBIF: those shown are other sources', and GBIF's were the same photographs or were set aside by the photograph rulesopenalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshotEvery 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 16 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.