Tropical Plant Database - Plant Details

Chenille plant is an erect, sparsely branched shrub that can get 6-12 ft (1.8-3.7 m) high with a spread of 3-6 ft (0.9-1.8 m). The evergreen leaves are oval, 4-9 in (10-23 cm) long, 3-4 in (7.6-10 cm) wide, and pointed on the tips. Chenille Plant is dioecious, meaning that the staminate (male) and pistillate (female) flowers are on separate plants. The pistillate flowers are purple, bright red or crimson, and clustered in velvety catkins, 8-20 in (20-51 cm) long and an inch in diameter. They are dense and fluffy, like a cat's tail, and they appear intermittently throughout the whole year as long as conditions are favorable. The brightly colored pendulous tassels of Chenille Plant are extremely showy, and a specimen in full bloom is a spectacular sight.
(Watson, L., and Dallwitz, M. J. 1992. The Families of Flowering Plants: Descriptions, Illustrations, Identification, and Information Retrieval.)

Chenille Plant can be grown on a porch, and brought indoors during cold weather. It is a very showy specimen in a hanging basket with its fluffy red tassels hanging over the sides.

(Information for this species compiled and recorded by Camelia Cirnaru, NTBG Consultant.)

Chenille Plant is native to New Guinea, the Malay Archipelago and other islands in the East Indies.
(Watson, L., and Dallwitz, M. J. 1992. The Families of Flowering Plants: Descriptions, Illustrations, Identification, and Information Retrieval.)

We currently have 6 herbarium specimens for Acalypha hispida in our collection. Click on any specimen below to view the herbarium sheet data.

• 024366 - collected by Paul T. Berry in 1968
• 004988 - collected by W. M. Bush in 1974
• 075835 - collected by M.-H. Sachet in 1974
• 004987 - collected by Joel Lau in 1985
• 039875 - collected by Liloa Dunn in 2003
• 041002 - collected by Liloa Dunn in 2003