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Ammannia baccifera; photograph author not stated, no rights reserved CC0author not stated, no rights reserved · observed growing wild · 2026-03-03

Ammannia baccifera L.

Monarch redstem; Blistering Ammania

Lythraceae · South European Russia, Egypt +83

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Ammannia baccifera, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedAmmannia baccifera, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedAmmannia baccifera, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedAmmannia baccifera, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedAmmannia baccifera, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedAmmannia baccifera, photograph author not stated, no rights reserved 77 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
10.1°C
Record low 6.0 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
36°C
Oct at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,062mm
7 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
31–45DLI
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 December to March, 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

Ammannia baccifera, also known as the monarch redstem or blistering ammannia, is a species in the family Lythraceae. It is widespread in the tropical regions of Asia, America and Africa. It has been naturalized in Spain. It is annual and herbaceous, and can be found in marshes, swamps, rice fields and water courses at low elevations. More on Wikipedia ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Ammannia baccifera", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (762 mm of 950 mm) falls in December to March, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 28.1 °C against a yearly mean of 26.8 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: June to September.

Rain

950 mm in the median year at the habitat, 762 mm of it December to March. Wettest month January at 240 mm, driest month August at 2 mm; 2 months under 5 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 397 mm to 1,672 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,062 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 950 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: 31 to 45 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 26, the highest 90th-percentile month 51).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 10.1 °C, the absolute minimum 6.0 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 41.7 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 17.1 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range 11.9 °C to 21.8 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 35.6 °C in October (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 10.1 °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: 48 to 63% 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 -40 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 Ammannia baccifera through the yearWarmest month October, mean daily high 36 °C; coldest month July, mean nightly low 17.1 °C; 950 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.0°10°20°30°40°50°41.7° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER6.0° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 31–45RH 48–63%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 239 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 °C33 / 29–3932 / 29–3732 / 29–3633 / 28–3531 / 26–3329 / 23–3129 / 23–3130 / 24–3334 / 26–3536 / 28–3835 / 29–3834 / 29–38
Night °C25 / 21–2725 / 22–2624 / 22–2623 / 20–2521 / 16–2418 / 13–2317 / 12–2218 / 13–2222 / 16–2324 / 19–2525 / 21–2625 / 21–26
Rain mm240 / 43–378229 / 77–365143 / 57–29356 / 19–11914 / 7–1166 / 1–813 / 1–772 / 0–518 / 2–7030 / 3–7669 / 7–152150 / 16–282
DLI39 / 34–4637 / 33–4237 / 35–4037 / 33–3834 / 29–3631 / 26–3433 / 27–3537 / 30–3942 / 36–4345 / 38–4944 / 38–5141 / 36–49
RH %62 / 47–6663 / 50–6760 / 48–6455 / 44–6151 / 43–6249 / 43–6348 / 41–6349 / 40–6351 / 39–6553 / 40–6456 / 42–6159 / 44–63

Records on both sides of the equator: the 203 cells at least 10° north of it have seasons six months apart and are left out, not combined into a year no place has. These figures are across the 239 cells that remain: the 211 at least 10° south and the 28 within 10° of the equator, which stay in either way.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 239 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (293 records in those cells; 8 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 2085:6220 (-14.275, 131.025). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 6.0 °C, 1st-percentile night 10.1 °C, 99th-percentile day 41.7 °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 239 distinct grid cells holding 293 of the 633 in-range records (8 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out) on the southern side of the equator (203 cells poleward of 10° north, 211 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 2085:6220 (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 -14.50_131.250, lapse-corrected -40 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 139 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.
NativeSouth European Russia, Egypt, Benin, Burkina, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Mali, Mauritania, Nigeria, Senegal, Togo, Burundi, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Rwanda, Zaïre, Chad, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Socotra, Somalia, Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Angola, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Cape Provinces, Namibia, Free State, Swaziland, Northern Provinces, Mauritius, Madagascar, Réunion, Rodrigues, Turkmenistan, Tadzhikistan, Uzbekistan, North Caucasus, Transcaucasus, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon-Syria, Palestine, Turkey, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, China South-Central, China North-Central, China Southeast, Taiwan, Assam, Bangladesh, East Himalaya, India, Laccadive Is., Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, West Himalaya, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Jawa, Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Maluku, Philippines, Sulawesi, Sumatera, New Guinea, Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia · introduced: Greece, Japan, Andaman Is., Nicobar Is., Jamaica, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Puerto Rico, Trinidad-Tobago, Windward Is. · 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 marker23.269, 120.363 · in the densest population, 211 records (18% of those in range)
Kew's description“annual or helophyte” · “seasonally dry tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 1173 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 293 of them in the land cells it reads, of 633 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 790 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 4283 km away. 80 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 540 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 1173 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Ammannia baccifera, photograph 1did not loadAmmannia baccifera, photograph 2did not loadAmmannia baccifera, photograph 3did not loadAmmannia baccifera, photograph 4did not loadAmmannia baccifera, photograph 5did not loadAmmannia baccifera, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0 (6).

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

Nelsonia canescens Nelsonia canescens Blue pussyleaf Photo: CC BY, nevwrightCausonis trifolia Causonis trifolia Vitaceae Photo: CC BY, Utain PummarinIpomoea eriocarpa Ipomoea eriocarpa Morningglory Photo: CC BY, JoshVigna radiata Vigna radiata Mung bean Photo: CC BY, Bharat GodambeAlstonia spectabilis Alstonia spectabilis Hard alstonia Photo: CC BY-SA, Steve FitzgeraldMelaleuca nervosa Melaleuca nervosa Yellow-barked Paperbark Photo: CC BY-SA, Kate Brown

Other Ammannia 4 in the reference

Ammannia coccinea Ammannia coccinea Purple ammannia Photo: CC BY, saltyhikerAmmannia gracilis Ammannia gracilis Delicate ammania Photo: CC BY-SA, Krzysztof Ziarnek, Kenraiz Ammannia pedicellata Lythraceae Ammannia senegalensis Ammannia senegalensis Red Ammannia Photo: CC BY-SA, H. Zell

Names & registers

Also known as Ammania baciffera; Ammannia apiculata; Ammannia attenuata; Ammannia attenuata f. perattenuata; Ammannia attenuata f. vigens and 37 more. (GBIF Backbone)

Kew accepts as species of their own Ammannia aegyptiaca; Ammannia verticillata; Ammannia wormskioldii: older names in GBIF's record of this species that Kew's World Checklist accepts as other species. (WCVP, RBG Kew, file of 2026-06-04)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Lythraceae
Described by
L.
Native to
South European Russia, Egypt, Benin +82
Wild records
1173 in range · 790 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; 12 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (8 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 4 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 -14.50_131.250, lapse-corrected -40 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 119 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

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