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Acalypha californica
Also called Pringle Threeseeded Mercury
The flowering shrub Acalypha californica is known as the California copperleaf, and sometimes by the older name Pringle three-seeded mercury. It is the only Acalypha species native to California, where it is most abundant in the hills of San Diego County. It is a member of the chaparral plant community.
The plant bears hairy, juicy, toothed leaves which despite the plant's common name are light green, never copper in color. Each flower is made up of a staminate part, which appears as a long spike of tiny red and pink bracts, and a pistillate part at the base of the spike, which is a cup made up of green bracts bearing the ovary.
California copperleaf is native to the southwestern United States and northern Mexico. In California it grows in just two southern counties, Orange and San Diego counties, while in Arizona it is found in just Pima County. It is native to all four states of northwestern Mexico, Baja California, Baja California Sur, Sonora, and Sinaloa.
Asian copperleaf · Acalypha bipartita · Bastard Copperleaf · Acalypha ciliata · Acalypha cupricola · Acalypha dictyoneura · Acalypha dikuluwensis · Acalypha ecuadorica · Acalypha eggersii · Native Acalypha · Golden falsenettle · Slender threeseed mercury
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Acalypha californica by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts are shared under the same licence.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
