Smooth Chaff-flower
Alternanthera paronichyoides
—
Not scored
Native status: sources disagree, under review. How scores work Is it native here?
Profile 47%
- Height
- Up to about 32 inches
- Soil moisture
- Moist to wet
No photograph yet. Looking for an old drawing…
At a glance
- Life cycle
- Perennial
Not yet recorded · Spread · Light · Leaves · Bloom
This plant is missing most of its facts, so Quercus is looking them up in old botany books.
Recorded in 1 Mississippi county.
Ecological relationships
Who uses this plant?
7CaterpillarsGenus host records with ranges including MS
Genus host records with ranges including MS · Alternanthera
- Herpetogramma bipunctalisSouthern Beet Webworm, Two-Spotted Herpetogramma
- Hymenia perspectalisSpotted Beet Webworm
- Macrorrhinia endonepheleReddish Macrorrhinia/Alligatorweed Stem Borer Moth
- Spodoptera frugiperdaFall Armyworm Moth
- Spodoptera ornithogalliYellow-Striped Armyworm Moth, Cotton Cutworm
- Spoladea recurvalisHawaiian Beet Webworm
- Staphylus hayhurstiiHayhurst's Scallopwing, Scalloped Sooty Wing, Scalloped Sootywing
—BeesSoutheastern regional records
—Specialist beesPollen specialists
—BirdsRecorded genus food-resource interactions; not a state feeding claimGrowing and identification
Plant details
- Family
- Amaranthaceae
- Flower color
- White
What its natural habitat tells you
Safety has not been reviewed for this plant; check toxicity and thorns before planting.
Growing sources and scope
- Flower color · “White” · Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center
- Height · “Up to about 32 inches” · Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center
- Life cycle · “Perennial” · Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center
- primary_flower_color · “white” · Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center
Also known as
Alternanthera paronichyoides; Alternanthera polygonoides; Smooth Chaff flower
Conservation status
| Mississippi rank | SNA |
|---|---|
| Global rank | G5 |
| MS status | Not verified |
| Federal status | Not verified |
In your garden
Will it fit your yard?
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Sources
- NatureServe Explorer
- USDA PLANTS
- Weakley, Flora of the Southeastern United States (2025)
- Mississippi occurrence source
- Shropshire & Tallamy 2025, Lepidoptera of North America north of Mexico, ZooKeys 1261 (ODbL)
- Noori, Seltmann & Orr 2026, A curated and integrated dataset for exploring global bee-plant interactions (GloBI), Zenodo, CC BY 4.0
- Smith, Bachelder, Russell, Morales, Mosher & Seltmann 2024, Bee-Specialization-Modeling v0.6.1 (specialist host table compiled from J. Fowler's pollen specialist bee lists), Zenodo, CC BY 4.0
- Hurlbert, Olsen, Sawyer & Winner 2021, Avian Diet Database, Scientific Data 8: 260 (CC0)
- Narango, Tallamy & Shropshire 2020, Few keystone plant genera support the majority of Lepidoptera species, Nature Communications