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Abelmoschus moschatus; photograph author not stated, no rights reserved CC0author not stated, no rights reserved · observed growing wild · 2026-05-13

Abelmoschus moschatus Medik.

Musk okra; Musk mallow; Native Rosella; Ornamental Okra

Malvaceae · China South-Central, Hainan +20

Cited as Kew's World Checklist cites it, Abelmoschus moschatus Medik.: GBIF's backbone key for this page carries the name with another author, (L.) Medik.

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Abelmoschus moschatus, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedAbelmoschus moschatus, photograph (c) Cheongweei Gan, some rights reserved (CC BY)Abelmoschus moschatus, photograph (c) Cheongweei Gan, some rights reserved (CC BY)Abelmoschus moschatus, photograph (c) Cheongweei Gan, some rights reserved (CC BY)Abelmoschus moschatus, photograph (c) Cheongweei Gan, some rights reserved (CC BY)Abelmoschus moschatus, photograph (c) Lachlan Copeland, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) 70 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
13.8°C
Record low 10.0 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
29°C
Jun, Jul and Aug at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
2,370mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
23–35DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Wet summers: the rain comes May to September, read as a summer growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Abelmoschus moschatus is an aromatic and species of medicinal plant in the family Malvaceae native to Asia and Australia. It has many common names, including Abelmosk, ambrette, annual hibiscus, Bamia Moschata, Galu Gasturi, muskdana, musk mallow, musk okra, ornamental okra, rose mallow, tropical jewel hibiscus, and Yorka okra.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Abelmoschus moschatus", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Abelmoschus

Abelmoschus is a genus of about fifteen species of flowering plants in the family Malvaceae, native to tropical Africa, Asia and northern Australia. It was formerly included within Hibiscus, but is now classified as a distinct genus. The genus name derives from Arabic meaning 'father of musk' or 'source of musk' referring to the scented seeds.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Abelmoschus", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,579 mm of 2,170 mm) falls in May to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 26.5 °C against a yearly mean of 23.5 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to March.

Rain

2,170 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,579 mm of it May to September. Wettest month August at 362 mm, driest month December at 41 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,430 mm to 3,534 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 2,370 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 2,170 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 23 to 35 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 15, the highest 90th-percentile month 41).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 13.8 °C, the absolute minimum 10.0 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 33.0 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 14.6 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 10.1 °C to 23.9 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 29.1 °C in July (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 13.8 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 63 to 67% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected -312 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Abelmoschus moschatus through the yearWarmest months June, July and August, mean daily high 29 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 14.6 °C; 2,170 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.5°10°15°20°25°30°35°33.0° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER10.0° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0200400600800mm rainDLI 23–35RH 63–67%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 282 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C22 / 17–3023 / 18–3025 / 20–3327 / 23–3328 / 25–3229 / 26–3129 / 26–3129 / 26–3128 / 26–3027 / 24–3025 / 22–3023 / 18–30
Night °C15 / 10–2416 / 12–2418 / 14–2521 / 17–2523 / 19–2624 / 20–2624 / 20–2624 / 20–2623 / 20–2522 / 18–2419 / 15–2416 / 11–24
Rain mm43 / 10–29869 / 12–28890 / 29–271151 / 57–261244 / 63–366339 / 108–535343 / 101–583362 / 91–616291 / 101–482130 / 50–35367 / 27–29641 / 11–284
DLI24 / 15–3526 / 16–3832 / 21–4134 / 26–4133 / 28–3732 / 27–3435 / 26–3832 / 26–3630 / 28–3629 / 24–3625 / 19–3523 / 16–34
RH %63 / 56–7064 / 54–7065 / 55–7065 / 59–7166 / 60–7166 / 63–7166 / 63–7167 / 62–7066 / 63–7065 / 60–7064 / 58–6963 / 55–70
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 282 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (375 records in those cells; 1 more cell holds records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cell is left out), with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 1341:6022 (22.925, 121.125). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 10.0 °C, 1st-percentile night 13.8 °C, 99th-percentile day 33.0 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 282 distinct grid cells holding 375 of the 376 in-range records (1 further cell with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1341:6022 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 23.00_121.250, lapse-corrected -312 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 283 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeChina South-Central, Hainan, China Southeast, Taiwan, Assam, Bangladesh, India, West Himalaya, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Borneo, Jawa, Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Maluku, Philippines, Sulawesi, Sumatera, New Guinea · introduced: Benin, Burkina, Ghana, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mauritania, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Cabinda, Cameroon, Gulf of Guinea Is., Zaïre, Tanzania, Angola, Aldabra, Seychelles, Kazan-retto, Nansei-shoto, Ogasawara-shoto, Maldives, Sri Lanka, Andaman Is., Solomon Is., Fiji, Niue, New Caledonia, Samoa, Santa Cruz Is., Tonga, Vanuatu, Wallis-Futuna Is., Cook Is., Society Is., Tuamotu, Tubuai Is., Caroline Is., Marianas, Hawaii, Mexico Central, Mexico Southwest, Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Puerto Rico, Trinidad-Tobago, Windward Is., Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker23.58, 120.739 · in the densest population, 238 records (33% of those in range)
Kew's description“annual or shrub” · “wet tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 728 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 375 of them in the land cells it reads, of 376 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 348 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 8 km away. 696 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 352 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 728 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Abelmoschus moschatus, photograph 1did not loadAbelmoschus moschatus, photograph 2did not loadAbelmoschus moschatus, photograph 3did not loadAbelmoschus moschatus, photograph 4did not loadAbelmoschus moschatus, photograph 5did not loadAbelmoschus moschatus, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0; (c) Cheongweei Gan, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4); (c) Lachlan Copeland, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Torenia crustacea Torenia crustacea Brittle False Pimpernel Photo: CC BY, Tony van KampenCyperus diffusus Cyperus diffusus Diffused flatsedge Photo: CC BY-SA, vrxzCommelina diffusa Commelina diffusa Climbing dayflower Photo: CC BY, Nathan AaronMelanolepis multiglandulosa Melanolepis multiglandulosa Alim Photo: CC BY-SA, vrxzCyperus distans Cyperus distans Piedmont flatsedge Photo: CC BY, Jerome KoClausena excavata Clausena excavata Coffee Bush Photo: CC BY, Jacy Chen

Other Abelmoschus 3 in the reference

Abelmoschus esculentus Abelmoschus esculentus Okra Photo: CC BY, Greg III EsperaAbelmoschus manihot Abelmoschus manihot Sunset muskmallow Photo: CC BY, Ashwin Srinivasan Abelmoschus rhodopetalus Malvaceae

Names & registers

Also known as Abelmoschus pseudoabelmoschus; Bamia betulifolia; Bamia multiformis; Hibiscus abelmoschus var. genuinus; Hibiscus spathaceus. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Malvaceae
Described by
Medik.
Native to
China South-Central, Hainan, China Southeast +19
Wild records
728 in range · 348 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-21
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-21GBIF's key 8312665 is Abelmoschus moschatus (L.) Medik.; the page links Kew's Abelmoschus moschatus Medik., and the name is cited as Kew cites it
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-21
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-21names fetched 2026-10-21
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 24 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (16 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 5 at a herbarium, 3 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-21
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-21NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 23.00_121.250, lapse-corrected -312 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-21found by its label; its IPNI identifier 558023-1 is Kew's for Abelmoschus moschatus Medik.
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-21
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-21
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 138 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

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