Native to Panama, Brazil, and Guatemala, it has spread to Asia as a plant used in traditional medicine and as an ornamental plant due to its unique, long-lasting flower shape and color. Its flowers can be used as a natural purple-red food coloring. This plant can also be used for phytoremediation in arsenic-contaminated soil.

Button flowers can be found in tropical and subtropical regions at elevations of 1-1,300 meters above sea level. They are commonly planted in yards and grow wild in areas with sufficient sunlight.

• The taproot is yellowish-brown.

• The stem is reddish-green, hairy, and enlarged at the branching nodes.

• The flowers are button-shaped in shades of purple, pink, red, orange, magenta, blue, lavender, and white.

• The leaves are ovate with pointed tips. The upper surface has rough, white hairs, while the lower surface has smooth hairs.

• The fruit is triangular, covered in a thin white coating, and contains a capsule.

• Propagation is done by seeds and stem cuttings.

• Fights cancer cells, detoxifies, lowers high blood pressure, treats prostate problems, prevents premature aging, is an antioxidant, anti-asthmatic, anti-inflammatory, anti-diarrheal, shortness of breath, treats wounds, blurred vision, bronchitis, and headaches.

• Saponins, polyphenols, betacyanins (amaranthin), essential oils, flavonoids, phenolics, gomphresin I, II, III, V and VI, gallic tannins, steroids/triterpenoids, coumarins.