''Cuphea'' is a

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

containing about 260

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

annual Annual may refer to: *Annual publication, periodical publications appearing regularly once per year **Yearbook **Literary annual *Annual plant *Annual report *Annual giving *Annual, Morocco, a settlement in northeastern Morocco *Annuals (band), a ...

and

perennial In horticulture, the term perennial ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the year") is used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. It has thus been defined as a plant that lives more than 2 years. The term is also ...

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (). The term angiosperm is derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek words (; 'container, vessel') and (; 'seed'), meaning that the seeds are enclosed with ...

s native to warm

temperate In geography, the temperate climates of Earth occur in the middle latitudes (approximately 23.5° to 66.5° N/S of the Equator), which span between the tropics and the polar regions of Earth. These zones generally have wider temperature ran ...

tropical The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the equator, where the sun may shine directly overhead. This contrasts with the temperate or polar regions of Earth, where the Sun can never be directly overhead. This is because of Earth's ax ...

regions of the Americas. The species range from low-growing

herbaceous Herbaceous plants are vascular plants that have no persistent woody stems above ground. This broad category of plants includes many perennials, and nearly all annuals and biennials. Definitions of "herb" and "herbaceous" The fourth edition of ...

plants to semi-woody

shrub A shrub or bush is a small to medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees by their multiple ...

s up to tall. Commonly they are known as cupheas, or, in the case of some species, as cigar plants. The generic name is derived from the

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

word κυφος (''kyphos''), meaning "bent," "curved," or "humped."

Uses

Several ''Cuphea'' species are popular

ornamental plant Ornamental plants or ''garden plants'' are plants that are primarily grown for their beauty but also for qualities such as scent or how they shape physical space. Many flowering plants and garden varieties tend to be specially bred cultivars th ...

s or

honey plant Honeybees often collect nectar, pollen, or both from the following species of plants, which are called honey plants, for making honey. This is not an exhaustive list of the flowering plant species Honeybees will visit. Acanthace ...

s. '' C. ignea'' 'David Verity' and '' C. micropetalia'' are popular plants to attract

hummingbird Hummingbirds are birds native to the Americas and comprise the Family (biology), biological family Trochilidae. With approximately 366 species and 113 genus, genera, they occur from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, but most species are found in Cen ...

s. Some species of ''Cuphea'' are used to produce

cuphea oil Cuphea oil is oil pressed from the seeds of several species of the genus ''Cuphea''. Interest in cuphea oils is relatively recent, as a source of medium-chain triglycerides like those found in coconut oil and palm oil. Cuphea oil is of interest be ...

, of interest as sources of

medium-chain triglyceride A medium-chain triglyceride (MCT) is a triglyceride with two or three fatty acids having an aliphatic tail of 6–12 carbon atoms, i.e. a medium-chain fatty acid (MCFA). Rich food sources for commercial extraction of MCTs include palm kernel oil ...

s. For most purposes, cuphea oil is identical to

coconut oil Coconut oil (or coconut fat) is an edible oil derived from the kernels, meat, and milk of the coconut palm fruit. Coconut oil is a white solid fat below around , and a clear thin liquid oil at higher temperatures. Unrefined varieties have a disti ...

and

palm oil Palm oil is an edible vegetable oil derived from the mesocarp (reddish pulp) of the fruit of oil palms. The oil is used in food manufacturing, in beauty products, and as biofuel. Palm oil accounted for about 36% of global oils produced from o ...

; these are derived from strictly tropical plants however and – particularly in the latter case – the expanding production of which has caused a considerable amount of

habitat destruction Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss or habitat reduction) occurs when a natural habitat is no longer able to support its native species. The organisms once living there have either moved elsewhere, or are dead, leading to a decrease ...

. ''Cuphea'' may thus produce a valuable source of income for farmers in temperate regions, and by supplementing coconut and palm oil to satisfy the growing demand (e.g. for

biodiesel Biodiesel is a renewable biofuel, a form of diesel fuel, derived from biological sources like vegetable oils, animal fats, or recycled greases, and consisting of long-chain fatty acid esters. It is typically made from fats. The roots of bi ...

production) at the same time decreasing the need for wholesale

logging Logging is the process of cutting, processing, and moving trees to a location for transport. It may include skidder, skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or trunk (botany), logs onto logging truck, truckshybrid Hybrid may refer to: Science * Hybrid (biology), an offspring resulting from cross-breeding ** Hybrid grape, grape varieties produced by cross-breeding two ''Vitis'' species ** Hybridity, the property of a hybrid plant which is a union of two diff ...

population derived from '' C. lanceolata'' and Clammy Cuphea ('' C. viscosissima''). ''Cuphea'' has also been shown to improve agricultural crops in North America when used in

crop rotation Crop rotation is the practice of growing a series of different types of crops in the same area across a sequence of growing seasons. This practice reduces the reliance of crops on one set of nutrients, pest and weed pressure, along with the pro ...

. Crop rotation is commonly practiced among farmers to improve

soil quality Soil quality refers to the condition of soil based on its capacity to perform ecosystem services that meet the needs of human and non-human life.Tóth, G., Stolbovoy, V. and Montanarella, 2007. Soil Quality and Sustainability Evaluation - An integ ...

, control host-specific pests, and decrease the use of fertilizers and pesticides. When cuphea was introduced into the crop rotation of corn and wheat, scientists from the

Agricultural Research Service The Agricultural Research Service (ARS) is the principal in-house research agency of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). ARS is one of four agencies in USDA's Research, Education and Economics mission area. ARS is charged with ext ...

of the

USDA The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that aims to meet the needs of commerc ...

found that the addition of ''cuphea'' had positive effects on the following harvest, including a higher yield of crop and crops that are higher in protei

Such research reveals how ''cuphea'' can be used in agriculture to increase the profitability of crops like wheat and corn. The seed oils of some species are very rich in one particular

fatty acid In chemistry, in particular in biochemistry, a fatty acid is a carboxylic acid with an aliphatic chain, which is either saturated and unsaturated compounds#Organic chemistry, saturated or unsaturated. Most naturally occurring fatty acids have an ...

. '' C. painteri'' oil, for example, is about three-quarters

caprylic acid Caprylic acid (), also known under the systematic name octanoic acid or C8 Acid, is a saturated fatty acid, medium-chain fatty acid (MCFA). It has the structural formula , and is a colorless oily liquid that is minimally soluble in water with ...

; '' C. carthagenensis'' oil consists of about 80%

lauric acid Lauric acid, systematically dodecanoic acid, is a saturated fatty acid with a 12-carbon atom chain, thus having many properties of Medium-chain triglyceride, medium-chain fatty acids. It is a bright white, powdery solid with a faint odor of Piment ...

. '' C. koehneana'' oil may be the richest natural source of a single fatty acid, with 95% of its content consisting of

capric acid Capric acid, also known as decanoic acid or decylic acid, is a saturated fatty acid, medium-chain fatty acid (MCFA), and carboxylic acid. Its formula is . Salts and esters of decanoic acid are called caprates or decanoates. The term capric aci ...

. Currently the plant is not commonly used for medicinal effects; however, chemical analysis of its fatty oils suggest the plant could possibly serve as an algicidal, fungicidal or antibiotic agent. There is also reason to believe the plant could be effective as an appetite stimulant.

Selected species

* '' Cuphea aspera'' Chapman * '' Cuphea carthagenensis'' ( Jacq.) J.F.MacBr. * '' Cuphea cyanea''

DC. Augustin Pyramus (or Pyrame) de Candolle (, , ; 4 February 17789 September 1841) was a Swiss botanist. René Louiche Desfontaines launched de Candolle's botanical career by recommending him at a herbarium. Within a couple of years de Candolle ...

* '' Cuphea decandra'' W.T.Aiton * '' Cuphea elegans'' * '' Cuphea epilobiifolia'' * '' Cuphea hookeriana''

Walp. Wilhelm Gerhard Walpers (26 December 1816 in Mühlhausen – 18 June 1853 in Berlin) was a German botanist. This botanist is denoted by the author abbreviation when citing a botanical name. He received his education at the Universities of Greifs ...

* '' Cuphea hyssopifolia''

Kunth Carl Sigismund Kunth (18 June 1788 – 22 March 1850) was a German botanist. He was also known as Karl Sigismund Kunth or anglicized as Charles Sigismund Kunth. He was one of the early systematic botanists who focused on studying the plants of th ...

– false heather, Mexican heather * ''

Cuphea ignea ''Cuphea'' is a genus containing about 260 species of annual and perennial flowering plants native to warm temperate to tropical regions of the Americas. The species range from low-growing herbaceous plants to semi-woody shrubs up to tall. Co ...

'' A.DC. * '' Cuphea ingrata''

Cham. Adelbert von Chamisso (; 30 January 1781 – 21 August 1838) was a German poet, writer and botanist. He was commonly known in French as Adelbert de Chamisso (or Chamissot) de Boncourt, a name referring to the family estate at Boncourt. Life ...

Schltdl. Diederich Franz Leonhard von Schlechtendal (27 November 1794, Xanten – 12 October 1866, Halle an der Saale, Halle) was a German botanist. Life and work Von Schlechtendal was born in Xanten, Xanten am Rhein and when his father Diederich Fried ...

* '' Cuphea jorullensis'' Kunth * '' Cuphea koehneana'' Rose * '' Cuphea laminuligera''

Koehne Koehne is a surname. Koehne, or Köhne, is the North German variant of the name Kuehne, or Kühne. People with the surname include: * Bernhard Karl von Koehne (1817–1887), Russian heraldist and numismatist * Bernhard Adalbert Emil Koehne ...

* ''

Cuphea lanceolata ''Cuphea lanceolata'', also known as the cigar flower, is an annual herbaceous flowering plant in the genus ''Cuphea'' of the family Lythraceae. Description ''Cuphea lanceolata'' reaches on average a height of . It has a branched stem with oppos ...

'' W.T.Aiton * '' Cuphea linarioides''

* '' Cuphea llavea'' Lex. – bat-faced cuphea Rainy Side Gardeners: Cuphea llavea 'Tiny Mice'
/ref> * '' Cuphea lutea'' Rose * '' Cuphea lutescens'' Hoehne * '' Cuphea melvilla''

Lindl. John Lindley FRS (5 February 1799 – 1 November 1865) was an English botanist, gardener and orchidologist. Early years Born in Catton, near Norwich, England, John Lindley was one of four children of George and Mary Lindley. George Lindley ...

* '' Cuphea mesostemon'' Koehne * '' Cuphea micropetala'' Kunth * ''

Cuphea nudicostata ''Cuphea'' is a genus containing about 260 species of Annual plant, annual and perennial flowering plants native to warm temperate to tropical regions of the Americas. The species range from low-growing herbaceous plant, herbaceous plants to se ...

'' * '' Cuphea oreophila'' * '' Cuphea painteri'' Rose * '' Cuphea parsonsia'' (L.) R.Br. ex Steud. – island wax weed * '' Cuphea procumbens'' Ortega * '' Cuphea salvadorensis'' Standl. * '' Cuphea speciosa''

Mart. Carl Friedrich Philipp (Karl Friedrich Philipp) von Martius (17 April 1794 – 13 December 1868) was a German botany, botanist and explorer. Between 1817 and 1820, he travelled 10,000 km through Brazil while collecting botanical specimens. His m ...

* '' Cuphea strigulosa'' * ''

Cuphea viscosissima ''Cuphea viscosissima'', also known as blue waxweed, clammy cuphea or (ambiguously) as "tarweed", is an herbaceous plant in the loosestrife family. It native to the eastern United States, where it is most often found in open, rocky calcareous ...

'' Jacq. – clammy cuphea, blue waxweed, tarweed * '' Cuphea wrightii'' A.Gray

References

{{Authority control Lythraceae genera