jayhorn's Identifications

This is our easiest species of Acalypha to recognize due to the broad leaves, but as Murphy's Law of Plants predicts, our more generic-looking species tend to be a bit more common. There was a lush growth of these plants in a weedy patch of soil along the edge of the vegetable gardens behind the Campbell County Cooperative Extension Office.
One interestig feature of Acalypha is that the plants are monoecious. While one plant makes both male and female reproductive parts, they are in separate flowers. In Acalypha, the different types of flowers are also in separate clusters. Here, you can see the male (or staminate) flowers in the little white spike and the larger, female (or pistillate) flowers in the big, green, upright spike.