This interesting plant gets its common name from the exotic flowers that look like strands of chenille yarn. Other descriptive common names include Foxtails, Monkey Tail and Red-hot Cat’s Tail. Native to the South Pacific (New Guinea and the Malay Archipelago), Acalypha hispida is a tropical shrub in the spurge family (Euphorbiaceae). Because it is only hardy to zone 10, it is usually grown as a houseplant or seasonal annual for its unusual tassel-like flowers. This evergreen plant can grow to 15 feet tall and 8 feet wide in suitable climates but in containers will remain much smaller. It thrives in hot, humid summer climates.
 
Large, bright green heart-shaped leaves with toothed margins are produced on sparsely branched upright to arching stems. In tropical locations it will become a large shrub but can be maintained as a small plant by continual pruning. It is vigorous and easy to grow as a container plant or seasonally in the landscape.
This plant is dioecious, producing male and female flowers on different plants. The soft and fuzzy pendulous female inflorescences are typically crimson red but there is a white cultivar (‘Alba’) and another with cream colored flowers (‘White Margined’ which also has creamy white teeth on the leaf margins). The flowers themselves are very small, mostly just feathery pistils but are tightly packed along the raceme to form the furry catkin. These catkins that arise from the leaf axils are very long-lasting, gradually fading and browning as they age, but regular dead-heading the spent flowers will encourage more blooms. Flowers are produced any time of the year when temperatures are warm enough (year round in tropical climates). The male flowers are not showy, so the plants offered as ornamentals are all females.