Species
+

Araujia sericifera Brot.

Bladderflower, Cape-dandelion, Glehold Plant, Milkweed

Climate known 84 photographs
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

Araujia sericifera is a perennial vining plant in the genus Araujia, of the family Apocynaceae, that is native to South America. The species was described in 1817 by the Portuguese botanist Félix de Avelar Brotero. The synonym Araujia hortorum is in more frequent use in New Zealand. Its common names include bladderflower, white bladderflower, bladder vine, cruel vine, cruel plant, moth plant, moth vine, common moth vine, and false choko.

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

About the genus · Araujia

Araujia is a small genus of perennial vines in the dogbane family first described as a genus in 1817. The group is native to South America.

Text from Wikipedia, “Araujia”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Apocynaceae
Described by
Brot.
Native to
Brazil Southeast, Brazil South, Argentina Northeast +2
Wild records
85 in range· 53 open

At a glance

Warmest month
28°C
Jan, mean day; nights 20 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1166mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Mar 128 mm (CHELSA)
Light
14–47DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: a summer growing season, April to October in the northern hemisphere (October to April at the habitat, southern). Habitat rain 1166 mm a year, wettest March at 128 mm, driest July at 58 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 14 to 47 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 0.1 °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 Apocynum volubile Vell.; Apocynum volubine Vell.; Araujia albens (Mart.) G.Don; Araujia calycina Decne.; Araujia hortorum E.Fourn. and 7 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, April to October in the northern hemisphere (October to April at the habitat, southern).

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

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (829 mm of 1166 mm) falls in October to April, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 20.3 °C against a yearly mean of 16.9 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: April to October.

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 1166 mm a year, wettest March at 128 mm, driest July at 58 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1166 mm a year at the habitat, 829 mm of it October to April. Wettest month March at 128 mm, driest July at 58 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 969 mm to 1899 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, southern 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: 14 to 47 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 14 to 47 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 13, the highest 90th-percentile month 48).

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 0.1 °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 0.1 °C, the absolute minimum -3.3 °C, about 3 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 36.0 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 8.0 °C in July (across the envelope cells 5.6 °C to 11.1 °C), warmest day 27.6 °C in January (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 0.1 °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: 58 to 63% 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 14 °C in Jul to 28 °C in Jan; mean night from 8 °C in Jul to 20 °C in Jan. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest night. 1166 mm of rain a year, most in Mar. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 75 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -3.3 °C and the 99th-percentile day 36.0 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-10°10°20°30°40°frost36.0° 99th-percentile day (undated)-3.3° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250mm rainDLI 14–47RH 58–63 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 75 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 °C28 / 25–3026 / 24–2925 / 23–2921 / 20–2618 / 17–2215 / 14–2014 / 13–2017 / 15–2218 / 16–2321 / 19–2624 / 22–2826 / 24–30
Night °C20 / 17–2119 / 17–2118 / 16–2014 / 13–1711 / 9–149 / 7–128 / 6–119 / 7–1210 / 8–1413 / 11–1615 / 14–1818 / 16–20
Rain mm124 / 89–233122 / 92–199128 / 102–158104 / 85–20891 / 56–15559 / 30–14258 / 30–12660 / 33–10969 / 58–165122 / 92–209116 / 94–188113 / 78–196
DLI46 / 37–4739 / 36–4132 / 31–3424 / 23–2617 / 17–2114 / 13–1916 / 15–2122 / 20–2629 / 27–3036 / 34–3743 / 38–4447 / 38–48
RH %58 / 55–6660 / 57–6661 / 59–6561 / 59–6562 / 60–6463 / 61–6462 / 59–6360 / 56–6260 / 56–6360 / 56–6359 / 55–6358 / 55–64

Each figure is the median across the 75 grid cells holding the 83 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 2498:2443 (-34.925, -57.825). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -3.3 °C, 1st-percentile night 0.1 °C, 99th-percentile day 36.0 °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 75 distinct grid cells holding the 83 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2498:2443 (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 -35.00_-58.125, lapse-corrected -12 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 3 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.
NativeBrazil Southeast, Brazil South, Argentina Northeast, Paraguay, Uruguay· introduced: Corse, France, Portugal, Spain, Greece, Italy, Azores, Madeira, Cape Provinces, Lesotho, KwaZulu-Natal, Free State, Northern Provinces, Transcaucasus, Palestine, Turkey, New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, New Zealand North, New Zealand South, Arizona, California, Georgia, Chile Central
Kew's description“climber” · “subtropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-34.62, -58.407 · in the densest population, 34 records (40% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 85 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 53 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 6 km away. 1436 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 2 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 85 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Araujia sericiferaAraujia sericiferaAraujia sericiferaAraujia sericiferaAraujia sericiferaAraujia sericiferaAraujia sericiferaAraujia sericifera

Photographs: (c) zebedeugalinha, some rights reserved (CC BY) (7); no rights reserved · CC0.

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 Araujia sericifera, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

A revised classification of the Apocynaceae s.l.
Mary E. Endress, Peter V. Bruyns (2000) · The Botanical Review
Regulation of in vitro somatic embryogenesis with emphasis on to the role of endogenous hormones
Víctor M. Jiménez (2001) · Brazilian Journal of Plant Physiology
Horizontal Transfer of DNA from the Mitochondrial to the Plastid Genome and Its Subsequent Evolution in Milkweeds (Apocynaceae)
Shannon C. K. Straub, Richard Cronn, Christopher Edwards, Mark Fishbein (2013) · Genome Biology and Evolution
The long and the short of it: a global analysis of hawkmoth pollination niches and interaction networks
Steven D. Johnson, Marcela Moré, Felipe Wanderley Amorim, William A. Haber (2016) · Functional Ecology
Flora of Macaronesia. Checklist of vascular plants. 4. revised edition
Aslak Kappel Hansen, P. Sunding (1993) · Sommerfeltia
Vineyard Management and Its Impacts on Soil Biodiversity, Functions, and Ecosystem Services
Brice Giffard, Silvia Winter, Silvia Guidoni, Annegret Nicolaï (2022) · Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution
Vascular plants of Greece: An annotated checklist
Panayotis Dimopoulos, Thomas Raus, Erwin Bergmeier, Theophanis Constantinidis (2013)
Evolution on the backbone: Apocynaceae phylogenomics and new perspectives on growth forms, flowers, and fruits
Mark Fishbein, Tatyana Livshultz, Shannon C. K. Straub, André Olmos Simões (2018) · American Journal of Botany
A second update to the checklist of the vascular flora alien to Italy
Gabriele Galasso, Fabio Conti, Lorenzo Peruzzi, Alessandro Alessandrini (2024) · Plant Biosystems - An International Journal Dealing with all Aspects of Plant Biology
An inventory and analysis of the food plants of southern Africa
A.K. Welcome, B.-E. Van Wyk (2018) · South African Journal of Botany
The diversity and evolution of pollination systems in large plant clades: Apocynaceae as a case study
Jeff Ollerton, Sigrid Liede‐Schumann, Mary E. Endress, Ulrich Meve (2018) · Annals of Botany

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.

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 72 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.