''Acalypha cupricola'' is a species of spurge native to the copper-rich soils of

Katanga Province Katanga was one of the four large provinces created in the Belgian Congo in 1914. It was one of the eleven provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo between 1966 and 2015, when it was split into the Tanganyika Province, Tanganyika, Hau ...

in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is an absolute metallophyte, restricted to steppic savanna in copper outcrops. Surface mining is destroying some of its habitat, but it is not considered to be fragmented, and so is listed as Near Threatened by the

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

. It can also be found growing in other metalliferous habitats, such as mine debris and lands disturbed by mining. This species is a candidate for use in phytoremediation of metal-contaminated sites.

References

cupricola Near threatened plants Endemic flora of the Democratic Republic of the Congo {{Euphorbiaceae-stub