Species
+

Euphorbia heterophylla L.

Acerca amor (ES); Joseph's Coat (Trinidad & Tobago), Japanese poinsettia, Joseph’s Coat, Knick-Wolfsmilch (DE); Mexican Fireplant (EN); Lechecillo

Climate known 58 photographs Cactus or succulent
Add one to my plants Sow seed

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

Euphorbia heterophylla, also known under the common names of Mexican fireplant, painted euphorbia, Japanese poinsettia, paintedleaf, painted spurge and milkweed, is a plant belonging to the Euphorbiaceae or spurge family.

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

About the genus · Euphorbia

Euphorbia is a large and diverse genus of flowering plants, commonly called spurge, in the family Euphorbiaceae.

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

Family
Euphorbiaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf +37
Wild records
187 in range· 41 open

At a glance

Warmest month
31°C
Aug, mean day; nights 24 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1038mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Oct 125 mm (CHELSA)
Light
26–42DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a cactus or succulent by the genus Euphorbia, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (March to July and September to November in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 1038 mm a year, wettest October at 125 mm, driest January at 61 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 26 to 42 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 15.2 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Cyathophora heterophyla (L.) Raf.; Euphorbia frangulaefolia Kunth; Euphorbia heterophylla subsp. brasiliensis Müll.Arg.; Euphorbia heterophylla subsp. elliptica (Lam.) Kuntze; Euphorbia heterophylla subsp. eriocarpa Millsp. and 13 more.

Cultivation

Grouped as a cactus or succulent by the genus Euphorbia, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). The table holds no figure for this group, which spans too much for one minimum; the cold floor is the habitat's alone, and no prose comes from the table.

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (March to July and September to November in the northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (781 mm of 1038 mm) takes 8 months, March to July and September to November. Mean temperature moves 6.1 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: September to January and March to May.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: 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 gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 1038 mm a year, wettest October at 125 mm, driest January at 61 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1038 mm a year at the habitat, 781 mm of it March to July and September to November. Wettest month October at 125 mm, driest January at 61 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 818 mm to 2135 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 26 to 42 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 26 to 42 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 17, the highest 90th-percentile month 43).

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.

Warmth and air Cold floor 15.2 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 15.2 °C, the absolute minimum 12.2 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 36.5 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 17.5 °C in March (across the envelope cells 10.9 °C to 23.6 °C), warmest day 30.5 °C in August (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 15.2 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 59 to 63% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

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

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 25 °C in Dec to 31 °C in Aug; mean night from 18 °C in Mar to 24 °C in Aug. The cold quarter, Feb to Apr, is the three months around the coldest night. 1038 mm of rain a year, most in Oct. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 131 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 12.2 °C and the 99th-percentile day 36.5 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°20°30°40°36.5° 99th-percentile day (undated)12.2° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250300mm rainDLI 26–42RH 59–63 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 131 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C25 / 16–2925 / 18–2926 / 22–3027 / 24–3129 / 24–3330 / 23–3330 / 23–3431 / 23–3530 / 24–3227 / 24–3026 / 21–2925 / 17–29
Night °C18 / 6–2418 / 8–2318 / 11–2419 / 15–2420 / 17–2522 / 17–2523 / 17–2624 / 17–2621 / 17–2621 / 16–2519 / 11–2518 / 7–24
Rain mm61 / 30–17161 / 28–14872 / 24–15870 / 28–177104 / 44–212116 / 49–21478 / 48–23366 / 45–265113 / 75–270125 / 71–263103 / 31–23769 / 28–210
DLI28 / 19–3531 / 23–3934 / 29–4236 / 29–4338 / 26–4341 / 25–4342 / 27–4340 / 29–4134 / 30–3831 / 26–3527 / 20–3526 / 17–36
RH %61 / 57–6960 / 57–6859 / 57–6860 / 56–6861 / 58–6862 / 58–6762 / 57–6862 / 55–6963 / 56–7063 / 57–7062 / 57–6961 / 57–70

Each figure is the median across the 131 grid cells holding the 173 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1412:2166 (19.375, -71.675). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 12.2 °C, 1st-percentile night 15.2 °C, 99th-percentile day 36.5 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 131 distinct grid cells holding the 173 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1412:2166 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 19.50_-71.875, lapse-corrected +152 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 456 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 every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeMexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Bahamas, Bermuda, Cayman Is., Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Puerto Rico, Turks-Caicos Is., Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuelan Antilles, Windward Is., Guyana, Surinam, Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Galápagos, Peru, Brazil West-Central, Brazil Southeast, Argentina Northeast, Argentina Northwest, Paraguay, Uruguay· introduced: Germany, Greece, Canary Is., Cape Verde, Benin, Burkina, Ghana, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo, Burundi, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Congo, Gabon, Gulf of Guinea Is., Rwanda, Zaïre, Chad, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Sudan, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Free State, Chagos Archipelago, Cyprus, East Aegean Is., Lebanon-Syria, Gulf States, Oman, Saudi Arabia, China South-Central, Hainan, China North-Central, China Southeast, Kazan-retto, Ogasawara-shoto, Taiwan, Assam, Bangladesh, East Himalaya, India, Maldives, Pakistan, West Himalaya, Andaman Is., Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand, Lesser Sunda Is., Sulawesi, Christmas I., Gilbert Is., Nauru, Samoa, Vanuatu, Marianas, Hawaii, Arizona, California, New Mexico, Texas, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Mexican Pacific Is., French Guiana
Kew's description“annual” · “seasonally dry tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker29.687, -98.352 · in the densest population, 65 records (35% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 187 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 41 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 53 km away. 595 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 14 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 187 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Euphorbia heterophyllaEuphorbia heterophyllaEuphorbia heterophyllaEuphorbia heterophyllaEuphorbia heterophyllaEuphorbia heterophyllaEuphorbia heterophyllaEuphorbia heterophylla

Photographs: (c) Eric Knight, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); no rights reserved · CC0 (5).

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

Phytochemical constituents of some Nigerian medicinal plants
H. O. Edeoga, D. E. Okwu, B. O. Mbaebie (2005) · AFRICAN JOURNAL OF BIOTECHNOLOGY
Evolved glyphosate‐resistant weeds around the world: lessons to be learnt
Stephen B. Powles (2008) · Pest Management Science
Thermodynamics and adsorption study of the corrosion inhibition of mild steel by Euphorbia heterophylla L. extract in 1.5 M HCl
Olatunde Alaba Akinbulumo, Oludare Johnson Odejobi, Ebenezer Leke Odekanle (2020) · Results in Materials
Biosynthesis of Nickel oxide Nanoparticles from Euphorbia heterophylla (L.) and their biological application
K. Lingaraju, H. Raja Naika, H. Nagabhushana, K. Jayanna (2019) · Arabian Journal of Chemistry
Green synthesis of the Ag/HZSM-5 nanocomposite by using Euphorbia heterophylla leaf extract: A recoverable catalyst for reduction of organic dyes
Mahmood Tajbakhsh, Heshmatollah Alinezhad, Mahmoud Nasrollahzadeh, Taghi A. Kamali (2016) · Journal of Alloys and Compounds
A centenary for bacterial spot of tomato and pepper
Ebrahim Osdaghi, Jeffrey B. Jones, Anuj Sharma, Erica M. Goss (2021) · Molecular Plant Pathology
Glyphosate‐resistant weeds of South American cropping systems: an overview
Martín M. Vila‐Aiub, Ribas Antônio Vidal, María C Balbi, Pedro E. Gundel (2007) · Pest Management Science
A Study of Weeds as Potential Inoculum Sources for a Tomato-Infecting Begomovirus in Central Brazil
S. S. Barreto, Mariana Hallwass, Ordoñez Aquino, Alice K. Inoue‐Nagata (2013) · Phytopathology
Emergência em campo de dicotiledôneas infestantes em solo coberto com palha de cana-de-açúcar
D. Martins, Edivaldo Domingues Velini, Cibele Chalita Martins, Luciano Soares de Souza (1999) · Planta Daninha
Agricultural Impacts of Glyphosate-Resistant Soybean Cultivation in South America
A. L. Cerdeira, Dionsio L. P. Gazziero, Stephen O. Duke, Marcus Barifouse Matallo (2010) · Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Euphorbia 29 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence search API
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; 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 6 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.