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Spermacoce latifolia; photograph (c) chiuluan, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) chiuluan, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-09-09

Spermacoce latifolia Aubl.

Oval-leaf false buttonweed

Rubiaceae · Mexico Gulf, Mexico Southwest +26

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Spermacoce latifolia, photograph (c) chiuluan, some rights reserved (CC BY)Spermacoce latifolia, photograph (c) chiuluan, some rights reserved (CC BY)Spermacoce latifolia, photograph (c) thomas_oswald, some rights reserved (CC BY)Spermacoce latifolia, photograph (c) thomas_oswald, some rights reserved (CC BY)Spermacoce latifolia, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedSpermacoce latifolia, photograph author not stated, no rights reserved 67 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
16.9°C
Record low 13.5 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
30°C
Sep at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
3,033mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
28–37DLI
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, December to June (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.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a sharp season: 70% of the median year's rain (2,198 mm of 3,140 mm) falls in December to June. The temperature curve is flat, 1.2 °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

3,140 mm in the median year at the habitat, 2,198 mm of it December to June. Wettest month May at 415 mm, driest month November at 142 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,795 mm to 5,501 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 3,033 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 3,140 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: 28 to 37 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 42).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 16.9 °C, the absolute minimum 13.5 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 38.0 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 22.0 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 16.7 °C to 23.5 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 29.6 °C in September (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 16.9 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 65 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 -22 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.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, southern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Spermacoce latifolia through the yearWarmest month September, mean daily high 30 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 22.0 °C; 3,140 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, southern hemisphere.10°15°20°25°30°35°40°38.0° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER13.5° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0200400600800mm rainDLI 28–37RH 65–69%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 100 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C28 / 23–3028 / 24–3129 / 24–3029 / 25–3128 / 25–3028 / 25–3028 / 25–3029 / 25–3130 / 25–3229 / 24–3229 / 24–3128 / 23–30
Night °C22 / 17–2422 / 17–2422 / 17–2423 / 18–2423 / 18–2522 / 18–2422 / 18–2422 / 17–2423 / 18–2423 / 17–2523 / 17–2422 / 17–24
Rain mm275 / 29–492248 / 49–453278 / 36–510365 / 53–662415 / 106–746379 / 203–606235 / 157–544189 / 110–453207 / 52–528169 / 61–556142 / 68–463238 / 51–468
DLI28 / 23–3430 / 25–3633 / 26–3830 / 25–4228 / 24–4128 / 23–3732 / 24–3836 / 24–3837 / 24–4035 / 24–3932 / 23–3429 / 22–33
RH %68 / 56–7266 / 56–7166 / 58–7167 / 59–7269 / 61–7369 / 63–7467 / 62–7366 / 61–7265 / 60–7265 / 61–7366 / 61–7268 / 60–72

Records on both sides of the equator: the 16 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 100 cells that remain: the 20 at least 10° north and the 80 within 10° of the equator, which stay in either way.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 100 grid cells holding the 125 in-range records, 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 1414:1784 (19.275, -90.775). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 13.5 °C, 1st-percentile night 16.9 °C, 99th-percentile day 38.0 °C. 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 100 distinct grid cells holding 125 of the 141 in-range records on the northern side of the equator (20 cells poleward of 10° north, 16 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 1414:1784 (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 19.50_-90.625, lapse-corrected -22 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 4 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 Gulf, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Belize, Costa Rica, C. American Pacific Is., El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Trinidad-Tobago, French Guiana, Guyana, Surinam, Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil West-Central, Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast, Brazil North, Brazil South, Argentina Northeast, Paraguay · introduced: Ghana, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Cameroon, Gabon, Zaïre, Uganda, China South-Central, Hainan, China Southeast, Taiwan, Assam, Bangladesh, East Himalaya, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Andaman Is., Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, South China Sea, Thailand, Borneo, Jawa, Malaya, Sumatera, Northern Territory, Queensland, Fiji, Samoa, Caroline Is., Florida · 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-15.557, -48.106 · in the densest population, 187 records (22% of those in range)
Kew's description“subshrub or shrub” · “seasonally dry tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 837 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 125 of them in the land cells it reads, of 141 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 728 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker in the same place. 607 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 696 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 837 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Spermacoce latifolia, photograph 1did not loadSpermacoce latifolia, photograph 2did not loadSpermacoce latifolia, photograph 3did not loadSpermacoce latifolia, photograph 4did not loadSpermacoce latifolia, photograph 5did not loadSpermacoce latifolia, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) chiuluan, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) thomas_oswald, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0 (2).

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

Philodendron fragrantissimum Philodendron fragrantissimum Shortstem philodendron Photo: CC0, author not statedCodonanthopsis crassifolia Codonanthopsis crassifolia Gesneriaceae Photo: CC BY, Anthony BatistaMicrogramma reptans Microgramma reptans Polypodiaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, KATELL UGUENMinquartia guianensis Minquartia guianensis Black Manwood Photo: CC BY, Eduardo Chacón MadrigalOmphalea diandra Omphalea diandra Euphorbiaceae Photo: CC BY, Guillaume DelaitreBatemannia colleyi Batemannia colleyi Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Orchi

Other Spermacoce 6 in the reference

Spermacoce dasycephala Spermacoce dasycephala False buttonweed Photo: CC BY, Jhonatan MatheusSpermacoce exilis Spermacoce exilis Pacific false buttonweed Photo: CC0, author not statedSpermacoce neoterminalis Spermacoce neoterminalis Rubiaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedSpermacoce remota Spermacoce remota Woodland false buttonweed Photo: CC BY, Laura DavisSpermacoce tenuior Spermacoce tenuior River False Buttonweed Photo: CC BY, Liliana Ramírez-FreireSpermacoce verticillata Spermacoce verticillata Shrubby false buttonweed Photo: CC BY, xanderferret

Names & registers

Also known as Borreria bartlingiana; Borreria eradii; Borreria fockeana; Borreria latifolia; Borreria latifolia f. fockeana and 31 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataiNaturalist

The record

Family
Rubiaceae
Described by
Aubl.
Native to
Mexico Gulf, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast +25
Wild records
837 in range · 728 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; 21 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (15 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 6 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 19.50_-90.625, lapse-corrected -22 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia nothing to reportasked 2026-10-22Wikipedia redirects Spermacoce latifolia to Spermacoce alata
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 178 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…