Species
+

Adenia hondala (Gaertn.) W.J.de Wilde

hondala, potahonda

Climate known 43 photographs Bulb, tuber or caudex
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Adenia hondala, commonly known as hondala is a large, tuberous, woody climber which scrambles over other plants. It is found in the Indian subcontinent, including Sri Lanka, and in southeastern Asia. The tuber and the fruit are used as herbal remedies and the plant is used as a cure for snake bites. The caterpillars of several species of butterfly feed on this plant; these include the tawny coster, the clipper, the common cruiser and the Tamil lacewing.

Text from Wikipedia, “Adenia hondala”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Adenia

Adenia is a genus of flowering plants in the passionflower family Passifloraceae. It contains about 100 species distributed in the Old World tropics and subtropics. The centers of diversity are in Madagascar, eastern and western tropical Africa, and Southeast Asia. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Adenia”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Passifloraceae
Described by
(Gaertn.) W.J.de Wilde
Native to
India, Sri Lanka
Wild records
21 in range· 12 open

At a glance

Warmest month
32°C
Mar, mean day; nights 20 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
3435mm/yr
8 wet months · peak Jul 1144 mm (CHELSA)
Light
23–43DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a bulb, tuber or caudex by the genus Adenia, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a sharp rainy season, June to August at the habitat (not shifted); the temperature curve is flat (3.7 °C of range), so no growing season is inferred. Habitat rain 3435 mm a year, wettest July at 1144 mm, driest February at 1 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 23 to 43 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 12.6 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Adenia hondala (Gaertn.) W.J.deWilde; Adenia palmata (Lam.) Engl.; Granadilla hondala Gaertn.; Modecca integrifolia Lam.; Modecca palmata Lam. and 4 more.

Cultivation

Grouped as a bulb, tuber or caudex by the genus Adenia, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). The table holds no figure for this group, which spans too much for one minimum; the cold floor is the habitat's alone, and no prose comes from the table.

Its year Rain rule: a sharp rainy season, June to August at the habitat (not shifted); the temperature curve is flat (3.7 °C of range), so no growing season is inferred.

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a sharp season: 70% of the year's rain (2616 mm of 3435 mm) falls in June to August. The temperature curve is flat, 3.7 °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; with a flat temperature curve there is no season to reverse, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: 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 gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 3435 mm a year, wettest July at 1144 mm, driest February at 1 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

3435 mm a year at the habitat, 2616 mm of it June to August. Wettest month July at 1144 mm, driest February at 1 mm; 2 months under 5 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 2199 mm to 5449 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

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

Light Open sky over the habitat: 23 to 43 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 23 to 43 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 17, the highest 90th-percentile month 46).

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.

Warmth and air Cold floor 12.6 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 12.6 °C, the absolute minimum 9.4 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 36.4 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 17.1 °C in January (across the envelope cells 14.9 °C to 20.8 °C), warmest day 32.0 °C in March (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 12.6 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 53 to 79% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 25 °C in Jul to 32 °C in Mar; mean night from 17 °C in Jan to 23 °C in May. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 3435 mm of rain a year, most in Jul. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 17 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 9.4 °C and the 99th-percentile day 36.4 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°15°20°25°30°35°40°36.4° 99th-percentile day (undated)9.4° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0500100015002000mm rainDLI 23–43RH 53–79 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 17 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C29 / 27–3130 / 27–3232 / 29–3332 / 30–3331 / 28–3126 / 24–2925 / 24–2725 / 24–2726 / 25–2828 / 26–3029 / 26–3028 / 26–30
Night °C17 / 15–2118 / 16–2120 / 18–2322 / 20–2423 / 20–2622 / 20–2621 / 19–2521 / 19–2421 / 19–2521 / 18–2419 / 17–2318 / 16–22
Rain mm2 / 1–121 / 0–1411 / 1–5627 / 1–147127 / 32–224691 / 446–12531144 / 589–1761781 / 395–1318369 / 223–530220 / 109–34853 / 19–1579 / 4–37
DLI36 / 34–3840 / 39–4143 / 42–4342 / 38–4638 / 34–4324 / 20–3023 / 17–2423 / 19–2529 / 26–3131 / 30–3433 / 30–3433 / 32–35
RH %53 / 51–5655 / 52–5758 / 57–6064 / 62–6667 / 64–7077 / 70–8179 / 73–8377 / 73–8174 / 70–7667 / 62–6957 / 55–6453 / 51–59

Each figure is the median across the 17 grid cells holding the 21 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1499:5089 (15.025, 74.475). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 9.4 °C, 1st-percentile night 12.6 °C, 99th-percentile day 36.4 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 17 distinct grid cells holding the 21 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1499:5089 (its coldest month's mean night 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 +239 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 541 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 every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeIndia, Sri Lanka
Kew's description“climber” · “seasonally dry tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker15.024, 74.481 · in the densest population, 11 records (52% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 21 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 12 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker in the same place. 1 record outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 21 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Adenia hondalaAdenia hondalaAdenia hondalaAdenia hondalaAdenia hondalaAdenia hondalaAdenia hondalaAdenia hondala

Photographs: (c) Dinesh Valke, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (7); (c) Malaika Mathew Chawla, some rights reserved (CC BY).

Photographs: iNaturalist and Wikimedia Commons did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Adenia hondala, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Silver Nanoparticles: Synthesis, Structure, Properties and Applications
Rimsha Abbas, Jingjing Luo, Qi Xue, Adeela Naz (2024) · Nanomaterials
Dietary Phytochemicals in Health and Disease: Mechanisms, Clinical Evidence, and Applications—A Comprehensive Review
Md. Sakhawot Hossain, Md Abdul Wazed, Sharmin Asha, Md. Ruhul Amin (2025) · Food Science & Nutrition
Larval host plants of the butterflies of the Western Ghats, India
Nitin Ravikanthachari, V. C. Balakrishnan, Paresh V. Churi, S. Kalesh (2018) · Journal of Threatened Taxa
Novel Tamoxifen Nanoformulations for Improving Breast Cancer Treatment: Old Wine in New Bottles
Candace M. Day, Shane M. Hickey, Yunmei Song, Sally E. Plush (2020) · Molecules
Indigenous knowledge of medicinal plants used by ethnic communities of South India
JU Santosh Kumar, M Krishna Chaitanya, Andrew Semotiuk, V. Krishna (2019) · Ethnobotany Research and Applications
Geographic Distribution Pattern of Threatened Plants of India and Steps Taken for their Conservation
Saroj Kanta Barik, Onkar Nath Tiwari, Dibyendu Adhikari, Prem Prakash Singh (2018) · Current Science
In vitro clonal propagation of Achyranthes aspera L. and Achyranthes bidentata Blume using nodal explants
Wesely Edward Gnanaraj, Johnson Marimuthu Antonisamy, RB Mohanamathi, Kavitha Marappampalyam Subramanian (2011) · Asian Pacific Journal of Tropical Biomedicine
Asterinales of India
V.B. Hosagoudar (2012) · Mycosphere
Development of Randomly Amplified Polymorphic DNA Based SCAR Marker for Identification of Ipomoea mauritiana Jacq (Convolvulaceae)
Kambiranda Devaiah, Subramani Paranthaman Balasubramani, Padma Venkatasubramanian (2010) · Evidence-based Complementary and Alternative Medicine

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Adenia 96 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 6 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.