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Acanthus ilicifolius; photograph (c) Richard Littauer, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Richard Littauer, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-08-29

Acanthus ilicifolius L.

Holly mangrove; Holy Mangrove; Holly-leaf mangrove; Mangrove-holly

Acanthaceae · Hainan, China Southeast +25

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Acanthus ilicifolius, photograph (c) 曾昱承 Yu-Cheng Zeng, some rights reserved (CC BY)Acanthus ilicifolius, photograph (c) 曾昱承 Yu-Cheng Zeng, some rights reserved (CC BY)Acanthus ilicifolius, photograph (c) 曾昱承 Yu-Cheng Zeng, some rights reserved (CC BY)Acanthus ilicifolius, photograph (c) 曾昱承 Yu-Cheng Zeng, some rights reserved (CC BY)Acanthus ilicifolius, photograph (c) 曾昱承 Yu-Cheng Zeng, some rights reserved (CC BY)Acanthus ilicifolius, photograph (c) 曾昱承 Yu-Cheng Zeng, some rights reserved (CC BY) 101 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
15.8°C
Record low 12.5 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
30°C
Mar, Apr and May at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
2,282mm
11 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
30–40DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in the habitat's months, not shifted
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
A sharp rainy season, May to September (the habitat's months, not shifted), in a year of even temperature. rain rule, CHELSA
Not shifted: the shift rule does not apply to this habitat. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Acanthus ilicifolius, commonly known as holly-leaved acanthus, sea holly, and holly mangrove, is a species of shrubs or herbs, of the plant family Acanthaceae, native to Australia, Australasia, mainland China, Hong Kong, and Southeast Asia. It is used as medicine in asthma and rheumatism.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Acanthus ilicifolius", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a sharp season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,473 mm of 2,017 mm) falls in May to September. The temperature curve is flat, 2.2 °C between the warmest and coldest month, so the growing-season rule does not infer a growing season from it. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere. The temperature curve moves under 4 °C between the warmest and coldest month, where the shift rule does not apply, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

Rain

2,017 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,473 mm of it May to September. Wettest month July at 348 mm, driest month January at 22 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,486 mm to 3,491 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 2,282 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 2,017 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: 30 to 40 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 22, the highest 90th-percentile month 46).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 15.8 °C, the absolute minimum 12.5 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 39.6 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 22.3 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 13.3 °C to 25.1 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 30.2 °C in April (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 15.8 °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: 60 to 68% 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 -251 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 Acanthus ilicifolius through the yearWarmest months March, April and May, mean daily high 30 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 22.3 °C; 2,017 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.10°15°20°25°30°35°40°45°39.6° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER12.5° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter020040060080010001200mm rainDLI 30–40RH 60–68%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 277 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 °C28 / 19–3029 / 20–3130 / 22–3230 / 25–3330 / 27–3329 / 27–3229 / 27–3129 / 27–3129 / 27–3129 / 27–3128 / 24–3128 / 20–30
Night °C22 / 13–2523 / 15–2524 / 18–2625 / 21–2726 / 24–2726 / 25–2725 / 24–2725 / 24–2625 / 24–2624 / 23–2524 / 19–2523 / 14–25
Rain mm22 / 1–28831 / 0–27657 / 1–281131 / 1–257194 / 31–302308 / 84–904348 / 75–1006336 / 64–688287 / 84–411187 / 66–34086 / 19–30330 / 4–281
DLI33 / 22–3737 / 22–4040 / 26–4438 / 30–4635 / 30–4331 / 26–3430 / 23–3631 / 24–3632 / 28–3731 / 29–3830 / 26–3631 / 23–34
RH %60 / 53–6761 / 56–6762 / 58–6864 / 60–6965 / 61–6967 / 62–7068 / 62–7168 / 62–7167 / 63–6964 / 60–6862 / 55–6760 / 53–67

Records on both sides of the equator: the 146 cells at least 10° south of it have seasons six months apart and are left out, not combined into a year no place has. These figures are across the 277 cells that remain: the 166 at least 10° north and the 111 within 10° of the equator, which stay in either way.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 277 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (552 records in those cells; 10 more cells hold records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cells are 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 1500:5081 (14.975, 74.075). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 12.5 °C, 1st-percentile night 15.8 °C, 99th-percentile day 39.6 °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 277 distinct grid cells holding 552 of the 854 in-range records (10 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out) on the northern side of the equator (166 cells poleward of 10° north, 146 poleward of 10° south: the two sides' seasons are not combined, and cells within 10° of the equator stay in); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1500:5081 (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 15.00_74.375, lapse-corrected -251 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 51 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.
NativeHainan, China Southeast, Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Andaman Is., Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Nicobar Is., Thailand, Vietnam, Borneo, Jawa, Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Maluku, Philippines, Sumatera, Bismarck Archipelago, New Guinea, Solomon Is., Northern Territory, Queensland, New Caledonia, Santa Cruz Is., Vanuatu · 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 marker22.47, 114.007 · in the densest population, 274 records (25% of those in range)
Kew's description“subshrub or shrub” · “seasonally dry tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 1103 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 552 of them in the land cells it reads, of 854 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 579 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 5680 km away. 3 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 249 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 inside the densest 4° block of the 1103 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Acanthus ilicifolius, photograph 1did not loadAcanthus ilicifolius, photograph 2did not loadAcanthus ilicifolius, photograph 3did not loadAcanthus ilicifolius, photograph 4did not loadAcanthus ilicifolius, photograph 5did not loadAcanthus ilicifolius, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) 曾昱承 Yu-Cheng Zeng, some rights reserved (CC BY) (6).

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

Avicennia officinalis Avicennia officinalis Baen Photo: CC BY, grass_0Syzygium samarangense Syzygium samarangense Java-apple Photo: CC0, author not statedSyzygium antisepticum Syzygium antisepticum Myrtaceae Photo: CC BY, luluchouette Dillenia ovata Ovate dillenia Morinda citrifolia Morinda citrifolia Indian mulberry Photo: CC BY, Elise SmithIxora finlaysoniana Ixora finlaysoniana White Jungle Flame Photo: CC BY, Brian Oakes Haiti Hunter

Other Acanthus 13 in the reference

Acanthus arboreus Acanthus arboreus Acanthaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Aboalfotooh Yemen WILD life Acanthus caroli-alexandri Acanthaceae Acanthus dioscoridis Acanthus dioscoridis Acanthaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Dûrzan CîranoAcanthus ebracteatus Acanthus ebracteatus Sea Holly Photo: CC BY, Ong Jyh SengAcanthus eminens Acanthus eminens Acanthaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedAcanthus hirsutus Acanthus hirsutus Syrian acanthus Photo: CC BY, Michael, Antoni and Nihat HinczewskiAcanthus hungaricus Acanthus hungaricus Hungarian Bear’s-Breeches Photo: CC BY, Cristian BadoiuAcanthus leucostachyus Acanthus leucostachyus Acanthaceae Photo: CC BY, Dmitry IvanovAcanthus mollis Acanthus mollis Bear's breech Photo: CC BY, Gianni Del Bufalo bygdbAcanthus montanus Acanthus montanus Mountain thistle Photo: CC BY, Philippe HornusAcanthus polystachyus Acanthus polystachyus Bear's Breeches Photo: CC BY-SA, Tony RebeloAcanthus sennii Acanthus sennii Ethiopian acanthus Photo: CC BY, avocat all 14 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Acanthus doloar; Acanthus doloarin; Acanthus doloarius; Acanthus ilicifolius subsp. orientalis; Acanthus ilicifolius var. subinteger and 4 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Acanthaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Hainan, China Southeast, Bangladesh +24
Wild records
1103 in range · 579 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 2026-10-21
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; 19 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (19 at a botanic garden or arboretum; 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 15.00_74.375, lapse-corrected -251 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-21
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 61 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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