Spermacoce latifolia Aubl.

Native to:

Argentina Northeast, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil North, Brazil Northeast, Brazil South, Brazil Southeast, Brazil West-Central, Central American Pacific Is., Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Leeward Is., Mexico Gulf, Mexico Southeast, Mexico Southwest, Nicaragua, Panamá, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuela

Introduced into:

Andaman Is., Assam, Bangladesh, Borneo, Cambodia, Cameroon, Caroline Is., China South-Central, China Southeast, DR Congo, East Himalaya, Fiji, Florida, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Hainan, India, Ivory Coast, Jawa, Laos, Liberia, Malaya, Myanmar, Nepal, Northern Territory, Queensland, Samoa, Sierra Leone, South China Sea, Sri Lanka, Sumatera, Taiwan, Thailand, Uganda

POWO follows these authorities in accepting this name:

• Beaman, J.H. & Anderson, C. (2004). The Plants of Mount Kinabalu 5: 1-609. Natural history publications (Borneo), Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia.
• Das, S.C., Rashid, M.H., Rahman, M.A. & Wilcock, C.C. (2004). Notes on the Rubiaceae 2: five new records for Bangladesh. Bangladesh Journal of Plant Taxonomy 11: 9-17.
• Deb, D.B. & Gangopadhyay, M. (2025). Flora of India 14: 1-607. Botanical Survey of India.
• Delprete, P.G. & Cortés-B., R. (2006 publ. 2007). A synopsis of the Rubiaceae of the states of Mato Grosso and Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil, with a key to genera, and a preliminary species list. Revista de Biologia Neotropical 3: 13-96.
• Delprete, P.G. (2010). Rubiaceae. Flora dos estados de Goiás e Tocantins 40: 1-1610. Universidade Federal de Goiás.
• Delprete, P.G., Smith, L.B., Klein, R.M. (2005). Flora Ilustrada Catarinense 2: 349-842. Herbário "Barbosa Rodrigues", Atají, Brasil.
• Fosberg, F.R., Sachet, M.-H., Oliver, R. (1979). A geographical checklist of the Micronesian Dicotyledonae. Micronesica; Journal of the College of Guam 15: 41-295.
• Gosline, G., Bidault, E., van der Burgt, X., Cahen, D., Challen, G., Condé, N., Couch, C., Couvreur, T.L.P., Dagallier, L.M.J., Darbyshire, I., Dawson, S., Doré, T.S., Goyder, D., Grall, A., Haba, P., Haba, P., Harris, D., Hind, D.J.N., Jongkind, & al. (2023). A Taxonomically-verified and Vouchered Checklist of the Vascular Plants of the Republic of Guinea. Nature, scientific data 10, Article number: 327: [1]-[12].
• Govaerts, R. (2003). World Checklist of Selected Plant Families Database in ACCESS: 1-216203. The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
• Harwood, R. & Dessein, S. (2005). Australian Spermacoce (Rubiaceae: Spermacoceae). I. Northern Territory. Australian Systematic Botany 18: 297-365.
• Idárraga-Piedrahita, A., Ortiz, R.D.C., Callejas Posada, R. & Merello, M. (eds.) (2011). Flora de Antioquia: Catálogo de las Plantas Vasculares 2: 1-939. Universidad de Antioquia, Medellín.
• Karthigeyan, K., Pandey, R.P. & Mao, A.A. (eds.) (2023). Flora of Andaman and Nicobar Islands 2: 1-689. Botanical Survey of India. Ministry of environment, forest and climate change.
• Lejoy, J., Ndjele, M.-B. & Geerinck, D. (2010). Catalogue-flore des plantes vasculaires des districts de Kisangani et de la Tshopo (RD Congo). Taxonomania. Revue de Taxonomie et de Nomenclature Botaniques 30: 1-307.
• Mao, A.A. & Dash, S.S. (2020). Flowering Plants of India an Annotated Checklist (Dicotyledons) 1: 1-970. Botanical Survey of India.
• Mendoza, H., Ramirez P., B.R. & Jimenez, L.C. (2004). Rubiaceae de Colombia: guia ilustrada de generos: 1-351. Instituto de Investigacion de Recursos Biologicos Alexander von Humboldt, Bogota, Colombia.
• Middleton, J.D. (ed.) (2019). Flora of Singapore 13: 1-654. Singapore Botanic Gardens.
• Puff, C., Chayamarit, K., Chamchumroon, V. & Esser, H.-J. (2021). Flora of Thailand 15(1): 1-235. The Forest Herbarium, National Park, Wildlife and Plant Conservation Department, Bangkok.
• Rahman, M.O. (2004). Second list of angiospermic taxa of Bangladesh not included in Hooker's 'Flora of British India' and Prain's 'Bengal Plants': series - II. Bangladesh Journal of Plant Taxonomy 11: 49-56.
• Smith, A.C. (1988). Flora Vitiensis Nova. A new flora for Fiji (Spermatophytes only) 4: 1-377. Pacific Tropical Botanical Garden, Lawai.
• Sosef, M.S.M. & al. (2006). Check-list des plantes vasculaires du Gabon. Scripta Botanica Belgica 35: 1-438.
• Turner, I.M. (1995 publ. 1997). A catalogue of the Vascular Plants of Malaya. Gardens' Bulletin Singapore 47(2): 347-655.
• Wiersema, J.H. & al. (2017). A new weed in Florida, Spermacoce latifolia and the distinction between S. alata and S. latifolia (Spermacoceae, Rubiaceae). Castanea 82: 114-131.

An alternative taxonomy had been proposed by the following authorities:

• Davidse, G. & al. (eds.) (2012). Flora Mesoamericana 4(2): 1-533. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, México, D.F. [Cited as Spermacoce alata.]
• Hammel, B.E., Grayum, M.H., Herrera, C. & Zamora, N. (eds.) (2014). Manual de Plantas de Costa Rica 7: 1-840. Missouri Botanical Garden Press, St. Louis. [Cited as Spermacoce alata.]
• Wu, Z., Raven, P.H. & Hong, D. (eds.) (2011). Flora of China 19: 1-884. Missouri Botanical Garden Press, St. Louis. [Cited as Spermacoce alata.]

Catálogo de Plantas y Líquenes de Colombia

• Bernal, R., Gradstein, S.R. & Celis, M. (eds.). 2015. Catálogo de plantas y líquenes de Colombia. Instituto de Ciencias Naturales, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá. http://catalogoplantasdecolombia.unal.edu.co

Kew Backbone Distributions

• Beaman, J.H. & Anderson, C. (2004). The Plants of Mount Kinabalu 5: 1-609. Natural history publications (Borneo), Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia.
• Borhidi, A. (2006). Rubiáceas de México: 1-512. Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest.
• Deb, D.B. & Gangopadhyay, M. (2025). Flora of India 14: 1-607. Botanical Survey of India.
• Fosberg, F.R., Sachet, M.-H., Oliver, R. (1979). A geographical checklist of the Micronesian Dicotyledonae. Micronesica; Journal of the College of Guam 15: 41-295.
• GBIF (2008- continuously updated). Global Biodiversity Information Facility http://www.gbif.org/.
• Hammel, B.E., Grayum, M.H., Herrera, C. & Zamora, N. (eds.) (2014). Manual de Plantas de Costa Rica 7: 1-840. Missouri Botanical Garden Press, St. Louis.
• Karthigeyan, K., Pandey, R.P. & Mao, A.A. (eds.) (2023). Flora of Andaman and Nicobar Islands 2: 1-689. Botanical Survey of India. Ministry of environment, forest and climate change.
• Lejoy, J., Ndjele, M.-B. & Geerinck, D. (2010). Catalogue-flore des plantes vasculaires des districts de Kisangani et de la Tshopo (RD Congo). Taxonomania. Revue de Taxonomie et de Nomenclature Botaniques 30: 1-307.
• Lisowski, S. (2009). Flore (Angiospermes) de la République de Guinée. Scripta Botanica Belgica 41: 1-517.
• Mao, A.A. & Dash, S.S. (2020). Flowering Plants of India an Annotated Checklist (Dicotyledons) 1: 1-970. Botanical Survey of India.
• Marhold, K. (ed.) (2012). IAPT/IOPB chromosome data 14. Taxon 61: 1336-1345.
• Rahman, M.O. (2004). Second list of angiospermic taxa of Bangladesh not included in Hooker's 'Flora of British India' and Prain's 'Bengal Plants': series - II. Bangladesh Journal of Plant Taxonomy 11: 49-56.
• Ruhsam, M. (2005). Survey of all the Rubiaceae specimens at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
• Tanaka, N., Koyama, T. & Murata, J. (2005). The flowering plants of Mt. Popa, central Myanmar - Results of Myanmar-Japanese joint expeditions, 2000-2004. Makinoa 5: 1-102.
• Wiersema, J.H. & al. (2017). A new weed in Florida, Spermacoce latifolia and the distinction between S. alata and S. latifolia (Spermacoceae, Rubiaceae). Castanea 82: 114-131.

Flora of Tropical East Africa

• Aubl., Hist. Pl. Guiane Fr. 1: 55, t. 19/1 (1775).

Useful Plants and Fungi of Colombia

• Bernal, R., Gradstein, S.R., & Celis, M. (eds.). (2020). Catálogo de Plantas y Líquenes de Colombia. v1.1. Universidad Nacional de Colombia. Dataset/Checklist. https://doi.org/10.15472/7avdhn
• Diazgranados et al. (2021). Catalogue of plants of Colombia. Useful Plants and Fungi of Colombia project. In prep.
• Medicinal Plant Names Services (MPNS) v.10 (2021); http://mpns.kew.org/