United States

Origin: Exotic

Regularity: Regularly occurring

Currently: Unknown/Undetermined

Confidence: Confident

Habitat and distribution: A decorative species, cultivated in Pakistan as elsewhere in the tropics; a native of tropical S. America.

Brazil, widely cultivated for ornament and a frequent casual in tropical regions.

Iresine herbstii Hook.:
Belize (Mesoamerica)
Bolivia (South America)
Ecuador (South America)
Guatemala (Mesoamerica)
Honduras (Mesoamerica)
Peru (South America)
United States (North America)
China (Asia)

Erect or ascending perennial herb, to c. 1.5 m; stem and branches striate, rather succulent, sulcate when dry, furnished rather sparsely (or more densely in the young parts and about the nodes) with fine, multicellular hairs. Leaves variegated, from purplish with pink veins to green with yellow veins, orbicular to ovate-orbicular, shortly cuneate to truncate at the base, mostly deeply retuse at the apex (sometimes merely rounded), succulent, 2-6 cm long, on the lower surface sparingly furnished with short, frequently golden-glistening hairs; petioles to c.2 cm. Flowers dioecious, sessile, in many-flowered, much-branched panicles up to c. 20 cm long, panicles leafless or the branches subtended by much reduced leaves. Bracts and bracteoles small, subhyaline, deltoid-ovate, ±acute, c. 1 mm, glabrous. Perianth segments oblong, obtuse or subacute, 1-1.25 mm, 3-nerved, glabrous (but lanate hairs often occurring at the axis between the tepals and the bracteoles). Ovary globose, shorter than the stigmas, style almost none. Capsule not seen.

1200-1500 m

Herbs perennial, 1-2 m tall. Stem often tinged red, stout, branched. Petiole 2-3 cm, annexed hairy or nearly glabrous; leaf blade purple with lighter bands along main veins, broadly ovate to suborbicular, 2-6 cm in diam., annexed hairy, base truncate, margin entire, apex retuse or 2-lobed. Complex thyrsoid structures terminal or axillary, composed of many spikes. Bracts and bracteoles persistent, greenish white or yellowish white, ovate, 1-1.5 mm, glabrous. Flowers small, unisexual on different plants. Tepals greenish white or yellowish white, oblong, ca. 1 mm. Ovary globose, compressed; style very short.

Widely cultivated. Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Jiangsu, Shanghai, Yunnan [native to South America (Brazil)].

Barcode of Life Data Systems (BOLDS) Stats
Public Records: 1
Species: 1
Species With Barcodes: 1

Rounded Global Status Rank: GNR - Not Yet Ranked

United States

Rounded National Status Rank: NNA - Not Applicable

Comments: Considered exotic in North America (23 Mar 94)