Bat-faced cuphea (Cuphea × purpurea)
Discover Bat-faced cuphea (Cuphea × purpurea), a low-maintenance, bushy evergreen known for its whimsical, bat-like flowers.
Complete Plant Information
Overview
The Bat-faced cuphea, scientifically known as Cuphea × purpurea, is a whimsical and highly desirable addition to gardens, particularly loved for its uniquely shaped blooms. This tender sub-shrub produces flowers resembling the face of a tiny bat, featuring a rose-red to pink-violet calyx topped with red, ear-like petals. Cuphea × purpurea offers excellent garden performance, blooming freely from early summer until frost, making it a long-lasting source of color.
As a hybrid cuphea, it provides sturdy, rounded, bushy structure combined with the benefit of attracting vital wildlife like hummingbirds and butterflies. Though hardy as a broadleaf evergreen in warmer climates, many gardeners rely on the reliable, low-maintenance beauty of Cuphea × purpurea as a seasonal annual.
With its manageable size, low care requirements, and extended flowering period, achieving a vibrant display with Bat-faced cuphea is straightforward for most gardeners. Ensure it receives plenty of sun to maximize its prolific blooming habit throughout the season.
Fast Facts
- Plant Family: Lythraceae
- Plant Type: Broadleaf evergreen
- Native Range: Mexico
- Hardiness Zones: USDA Zones 9-12
- Size at Maturity:
- Height: 1-2 ft
- Spread: 1-2 ft
- Bloom Time: Flowers freely
- Bloom Description: Rose-red to pink-violet
- Sun Exposure: Full sun
- Water Needs: Medium
- Maintenance Level: Low
How to Grow
For gardeners in USDA Zones 9 through 12, Cuphea × purpurea can be successfully established as a permanent, low-maintenance, semi-woody perennial. Plant these hybrids in spring, ensuring the location offers full sun exposure for best flowering, though they will tolerate some light afternoon shade. The soil must be moderately fertile, offer medium moisture retention, and, critically, be well-drained.
Ongoing care for Bat-faced cuphea is simple. Maintain regular moisture, as plants perform best with consistent watering, although they tolerate brief dry spells. Fertilization is usually minimal if planted in moderately fertile soil. As the growing season advances, plants might become slightly leggy. To encourage a denser, bushier form, lightly pinch back the stem tips as needed throughout the summer.
In cooler northern climates (outside Zone 9), treat this charming plant as an annual bedding accent, or manage it as a container specimen. Container plants can be successfully overwintered indoors. Bring Cuphea × purpurea inside before the first hard frost, housing them in bright, sunny spots with cooler winter temperatures in the 60s°F, substantially reducing water during this resting period. While cuttings from overwintered plants can establish new seasons stock, starting fresh annually is often easiest.
Landscape Uses
The versatility of Bat-faced cuphea makes it an excellent choice for filling various roles in the landscape design scheme. It excels as an annual for adding reliable color in borders, defining beds, or edging along garden pathways where its low, mounding habit can maintain clean lines. Its attractive foliage and continuous flowers also make it a star feature in container gardening.
Place Cuphea × purpurea on decks, patios, or porches where its unique blooms can be admired up close. They perform wonderfully in hanging baskets, spilling slightly over the edges with dark green foliage dotted with the unique flowers. Because they tolerate high heat well, they pair nicely with other sun-loving, medium-water annuals and perennials.
Consider planting Cuphea × purpurea alongside silver-leaved or chartreuse-foliaged plants to make the dark green leaves and bright blooms of the Bat-faced cuphea really pop. Its low profile ensures it rarely obstructs views of taller background plantings.
Standout Features
Flower Qualities
- Showy
Noteworthy Characteristics
Cuphea × purpurea is celebrated for its distinctive, tubular flowers, measuring up to one inch long, which feature a rose-red to pink-violet calyx and memorable red, ear-like petals, perfectly earning it the common name bat-faced cuphea. These striking blooms appear continuously from late spring until frost settles in, drawing in hummingbirds and butterflies across the garden. The genus name, Cuphea, references the Greek root for “curved,” referring to its seed capsule shape, while purpurea nods to the purple coloration within its complex flower structure.
Tolerances
- Tolerates high heat
- Tolerates some part shade
- Tolerates some dry conditions
Potential Problems
Cuphea × purpurea is generally regarded as a disease-resistant and pest-free plant in most garden situations. Gardeners should maintain vigilance for potential outbreaks of sap-sucking insects, particularly whiteflies, especially if the plant is grown near infested neighboring plants or kept indoors over winter. Regular inspection of the undersides of leaves, particularly when the plant is stressed by heat or drought, will allow for early intervention using insecticidal soap or horticultural oils if necessary. Good air circulation, especially when managing potted specimens, helps prevent many common horticultural issues.
Frequently Asked Questions
What hardiness zones is Bat-faced cuphea suitable for?
Cuphea × purpurea thrives year-round in USDA Hardiness Zones 9 through 12, functioning as a perennial evergreen shrub in these areas.
How large does Bat-faced cuphea grow?
This plant typically reaches a mature size of 1 to 2 feet tall and spreads to a similar width of 1 to 2 feet, forming a neat, rounded mound.
What sun exposure does Cuphea × purpurea need?
For the absolute best and most prolific flowering, Cuphea × purpurea requires full sun exposure, though it handles partial shade gracefully.
When does Cuphea × purpurea bloom?
This variety blooms very freely, starting late in the spring or early in the summer and continuing its display of rose-red to pink-violet flowers right up until frost arrives.
Conclusion
The Bat-faced cuphea offers exceptional value to gardeners through its long bloom season, high heat tolerance, and unique floral aesthetics that attract hummingbirds. If your climate falls within USDA Zones 9-12, plan to incorporate Cuphea × purpurea as a permanent, low-maintenance anchor in your flowerbeds. For all other regions, utilize this species as a dazzling, long-flowering annual to maximize summer interest.
Wildlife Benefits
The flowers of Cuphea × purpurea are a significant magnet for beneficial pollinators, most notably hummingbirds who are strongly attracted to the shape and color of the tubular blossoms. Planting Bat-faced cuphea along feeding paths or near windows ensures regular sightings of these fast-moving visitors throughout the growing season.
Furthermore, the dense foliage structure, which remains evergreen in warmer zones, provides excellent shelter for small beneficial insects. The continuous bloom period, stretching from early summer to deep into autumn, ensures a consistent nectar source when many other spring-blooming perennials may have finished their cycle.
Companion Planting
When planning garden layouts, pair Cuphea × purpurea with plants that share its preference for full sun and moderate moisture to ensure easy maintenance for all components. Excellent partners include silvery foliage plants like Artemisia or Dichondra ‘Silver Falls,’ which contrast beautifully with the dark green leaves of the Cuphea × purpurea.
Consider pairing this cuphea near medium-height summer bloomers such as Salvia cultivars or shorter Lantana varieties. In container settings, use its low, bushy habit as a ‘thriller’ or ‘filler’ element when combined with trailing petunias or upright lantanas for a multi-textured, long-lasting display.
