Flora of North America species comparison

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Pilea microphylla

artillery plant, artillery weed, pistol plant, rockweed
Habit Herbs, annual or short-lived perennial, 0.3-2 dm.
Stems

10-40-branched, erect.
Leaf

blades spatulate to obovate, paired blades unequal, the larger 3-10 × 1.5-5.5 mm, the smaller 1.5-4 × 0.7-2 mm, margins entire.
Inflorescences

crowded.
Flowers

ca. 0.5 mm across.
Achenes

uniformly light brown, slightly compressed, ovoid-cylindric, ca. 0.5(-1.1) × 0.3 mm, smooth.

Pilea microphylla
Phenology Flowering all year.
Habitat Waste places, hammocks, rocky woods, cultivated plots, on masonry
Elevation 0-100 m (0-300 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
FL; GA; LA; SC; HI; Mexico; Central America; West Indies; tropical South America; Asia
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Pilea microphylla has been collected once in Tennessee and once in Michigan, but it is unlikely that the species persists so far north. It is widely grown as a houseplant in the north and a border plant in the south. It is a greenhouse weed in various parts of the flora.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 3.
Parent taxa Urticaceae > Pilea
Sibling taxa
P. fontana, P. herniarioides, P. pumila, P. trianthemoides
Synonyms Parietaria microphylla
Name authority (Linnaeus) Liebmann: Naturvidensk. Math. Afd., ser. 5, 2: 296. (1851)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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(If the plant you're looking for doesn't show up in the auto-complete list, that means it either isn't described in Flora of North America yet, or it's listed under a synonym. And please note that Flora of North America is still missing several plant families, including Apiaceae, Boraginaceae, and Polemoniaceae.)

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