Cigar plant
Cuphea ignea A.DC.
- light
- Sun–part
- water
- Medium
- tall
- 61 cm
- wide
- 61 cm
Lythraceae
Also called Cigar, Cigar Flower, Cigarette Bush, Firecracker plant, Mexican cigar plant
Formerly Cuphea liebmannii, Cuphea watsonii, Parsonsia ignea, Parsonsia liebmannii, and 1 more
When it flowers
Flowers June to February in the tropics.
Read from iNaturalist photographs of it in flower. A month counts at 50% of the best month's flowering share (smoothed over three months) and 10% of its flowering count, from at least 100 flowering observations in the band.
If a child, a pet or anyone may have eaten a plant, contact a doctor or vet straight away, or call the National Poisons Information Centre (AIIMS, New Delhi) on 1800 116 117, free and open 24 hours.
Something wrong with it?About it
- Grows as
- Subshrub or shrubKew's checklist, not yet checked
- Climate
- Wet tropicalKew's checklist, not yet checked
- Wild in
- Mexico (Oaxaca, Chiapas)Kew's checklist, not yet checked
- Light
- Full sun to part shade (3 h or more)Read from NC State Extension, one source
- Height
- 30 cm to 91 cmRead from NC State Extension, one source
- Spread
- 30 cm to 91 cmRead from NC State Extension, one source
- Water
- Average: moist, well drainedRead from NC State Extension, one source
- Flowers
- White, orange, redRead from NC State Extension, one source
- Coldest it survives
- -1.1 °C (USDA zone 10a)Read from NC State Extension, one source
Not known yet: heat, hottest it survives.
Grow it with
Suggested by a rule, not by a gardener: same climate (kew), flowering when this plant does not (inaturalist), and a different shape.
Australian Umbrella TreeFlowers March to May, when this does not
Banana passionfruitFlowers March to May, when this does not
Bengal clock vineFlowers March to May, when this does not
Bitter MelonFlowers March to May, when this does not
Bleeding heart vineFlowers March to May, when this does not
Blue Trumpet VineFlowers March to May, when this does not
In other languages (12)
- French
- Herbe cigarette, Herbe piment
- Spanish
- Hierba del cigarro, Cigarillitos
- Japanese
- タバコソウ
- Dutch
- Lucifersplant
- Chinese
- 火红萼距花, 雪茄花
- Chinese (China)
- 火红萼距花, 雪茄花
- Swedish
- cigarettglöd
- Russian
- Куфея огненно-красная
- Czech
- Hlazenec ohnivý
- Finnish
- punatulitorvi
- Slovak
- kufea cigaretová
- Chinese (Taiwan)
- 雪茄花
Where this comes from
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC0-1.0 (observation counts)
- Wikidata, read 2026-10-25, CC0-1.0
- Kew's checklist, read 2026-10-24, CC-BY-4.0
- NC State Extension, read 2026-10-25, fact, cited
- Wikimedia Commons, read 2026-10-25, CC BY-SA 3.0
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC0
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC BY-SA
- iNaturalist, read 2026-10-25, CC BY-SA
- 3D model: Cuphea ignea (built for Vanagrha) by Vanagrha, own
A fact “checked by a majority of its sources” was settled by a vote of the pages it was read from, not by a person reading it; one marked “one source” rests on that page alone. Anything else not marked checked has not been checked yet. Where nothing is known, the page says so rather than guess.