Pilea serpyllifolia
A small, thyme-leaved Pilea in the nettle family from the Caribbean island of Hispaniola. Very little is published about it in the wild, so these conditions are based on the few field records and on how its small-leaved Caribbean relatives, such as the artillery plant, grow. Treat it as a warm, humid, lightly shaded ground-cover herb for a terrarium.
Where it grows wild
Specific habitat descriptions are scarce. Dominican Republic records come from the lowland limestone (karst) country of Los Haitises and nearby Monte Plata, where small Pilea species grow on damp shaded rock, trail edges and forest openings. It is a low, creeping or tufted herb.
The Hispaniolan records are from near sea level to about 225 m. Records from mainland Mexico, Colombia and Ecuador, including one at 3,200 m, are probably misidentified or naturalised plants.
🔒 Growing it like that
The wild conditions above, turned into targets for a shelf, a tent or a greenhouse. The full profile has:
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More Pilea
Profiles are drafts built from measured range and climate and from published sources; each section carries its own confidence in the app. Photo from Wikimedia Commons, used under its Public domain licence, unmodified.