Species
+

Breynia disticha J.R.Forst. & G.Forst.

Ice Cream Bush, Ice plant, Leaf-flower, Snow bush

Climate known 16 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

Breynia disticha, commonly known as the snowbush, is a plant in the family Phyllanthaceae, first described in 1776. It is native to New Caledonia and Vanuatu in the western Pacific, but naturalized on a wide assortment of other islands around the world, as well as in the U.S. state of Florida.

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

About the genus · Breynia

Breynia is a genus in the flowering plant family Phyllanthaceae, first described in 1776. It is native to Southeast Asia, China, Réunion, the Indian Subcontinent, Papuasia and Australia.

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

Family
Phyllanthaceae
Described by
J.R.Forst. & G.Forst.
Native to
New Caledonia, Vanuatu
Wild records
106 in range· 68 open

At a glance

Warmest month
27°C
Feb, mean day; nights 24 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1693mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Mar 263 mm (CHELSA)
Light
21–43DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: a summer growing season, June to December in the northern hemisphere (December to June at the habitat, southern). Habitat rain 1693 mm a year, wettest March at 263 mm, driest September at 72 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 21 to 43 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 18.6 °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 Agave roseopictus VanGeert; Breynia axillaris Spreng.; Breynia disticha f. nivosa (W.Bull) Croizat; Breynia disticha f. nivosa (W.Bull) Croizat ex Radcl.-Sm.; Breynia disticha f. nivosa (W.Bull) J.W.Parham and 15 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, June to December in the northern hemisphere (December to June 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 (1274 mm of 1693 mm) falls in December to June, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 24.5 °C against a yearly mean of 23.3 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: June to December.

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 1693 mm a year, wettest March at 263 mm, driest September at 72 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1693 mm a year at the habitat, 1274 mm of it December to June. Wettest month March at 263 mm, driest September at 72 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1131 mm to 2531 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: 21 to 43 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 21 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 20, the highest 90th-percentile month 45).

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 18.6 °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 18.6 °C, the absolute minimum 17.0 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 30.6 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 19.1 °C in August (across the envelope cells 16.7 °C to 21.4 °C), warmest day 27.3 °C in February (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 18.6 °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: 59 to 65% 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 22 °C in Aug to 27 °C in Feb; mean night from 19 °C in Aug to 24 °C in Feb. The cold quarter, Jul to Sep, is the three months around the coldest night. 1693 mm of rain a year, most in Mar. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 74 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 17.0 °C and the 99th-percentile day 30.6 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.15°20°25°30°35°30.6° 99th-percentile day (undated)17.0° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 21–43RH 59–65 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 74 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 °C27 / 26–2927 / 26–2927 / 26–2826 / 25–2725 / 23–2623 / 22–2422 / 21–2322 / 21–2323 / 22–2524 / 23–2625 / 24–2726 / 25–28
Night °C24 / 22–2524 / 23–2624 / 22–2523 / 21–2522 / 20–2420 / 18–2319 / 17–2219 / 17–2120 / 18–2221 / 19–2322 / 20–2423 / 22–25
Rain mm196 / 145–316228 / 158–354263 / 185–358162 / 94–296143 / 94–219121 / 83–17189 / 56–12184 / 53–12372 / 32–10677 / 39–13397 / 64–178161 / 105–250
DLI41 / 40–4339 / 37–4034 / 32–3630 / 28–3225 / 23–2721 / 20–2423 / 21–2528 / 26–3035 / 34–3740 / 39–4242 / 41–4443 / 41–45
RH %64 / 62–7065 / 63–7165 / 63–7163 / 61–7061 / 59–6861 / 59–6759 / 56–6559 / 57–6560 / 58–6560 / 59–6661 / 60–6863 / 61–69

Each figure is the median across the 74 grid cells holding the 105 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 2210:6884 (-20.525, 164.225). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 17.0 °C, 1st-percentile night 18.6 °C, 99th-percentile day 30.6 °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 74 distinct grid cells holding the 105 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2210:6884 (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 -20.50_164.375, lapse-corrected -23 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 44 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.
NativeNew Caledonia, Vanuatu· introduced: Gambia, The, Guinea, Gulf of Guinea Is., Chagos Archipelago, Seychelles, Ogasawara-shoto, Norfolk Is., Fiji, Niue, Samoa, Cook Is., Line Is., Society Is., Tuamotu, Caroline Is., Marianas, Marshall Is., Hawaii, Florida, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Puerto Rico, Trinidad-Tobago, Windward Is., Bolivia
Kew's description“shrub or tree” · “wet tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-22.308, 166.454 · in the densest population, 60 records (57% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 106 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 68 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 11 km away. 565 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 1 in-range record is placed to worse than 10 km and stays 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 106 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Breynia distichaBreynia distichaBreynia distichaBreynia distichaBreynia distichaBreynia distichaBreynia distichaBreynia disticha

Photographs: Damien Wallace, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIF (2); Neal Kelso, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF; clarissa bellon, CC BY-SA, via GBIF (2); Tara Severns, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF (2); Pierre Sudre, CC BY-SA, via GBIF.

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

Antimicrobial and Antioxidant Activity of Breynia Disticha and Vernonia Elaeagnifolia
Sulayman Abid, Saad Touqeer (2015) · Journal of Applied Pharmacy
Sulfur-containing spiroketals from Breynia disticha and evaluations of their anti-inflammatory effect
Ken‐ichi Nakashima, Naohito Abe, Masayoshi Oyama, Hiroko Murata (2023) · Beilstein Journal of Organic Chemistry
ANTIMICROBIAL AND ANTIOXIDANT ACTIVITY OF BREYNIA DISTICHA AND VERNONIA ELAEAGNIFOLIA
Saad Touqeer, Sulayman Abid (2015) · Journal of Applied Pharmacy
Evaluation of Hepatoprotective, Antioxidant and Cytotoxic Properties of Isolated Flavonoids from Breynia disticha J.R.Forst. and G.Forst
Nagwa M. Ammar, Seham S. El Din El-, Amira A. El‐Anssary, Rehab M. Seif El-Di (2018) · Journal of Biological Sciences
Breynia disticha, a new invasive alien for tropical Africa.
M.D. Cheek, Gill Challen, Felix F. Merklinger, Denise Molmou (2013) · Ghent University Academic Bibliography (Ghent University)
Breynia disticha Snowbush
Edward Gilman (2007) · EDIS
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility

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 Breynia 1 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 search API
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried 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); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: not asked: 6 wild photographs already from the GBIF download
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried 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 nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried 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 answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
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 91 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.