Species
+

Callisia repens (Jacq.) L.

"Bolivian Jew", Chain Plant, Creeping Inch Plant, Creeping Inchplant

Climate known 53 photographs Tropical foliage plant
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

Callisia repens, also known as creeping inchplant or turtle vine, is a succulent creeping plant from the family Commelinaceae. This species comes from Central and South America.

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

About the genus · Callisia

Callisia is a genus of flowering plants in the spiderwort family, Commelinaceae. Members of the genus are commonly known as roselings. It is native to the Western Hemisphere from the southern United States to Argentina. More on Wikipedia ›

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

Family
Commelinaceae
Described by
(Jacq.) L.
Native to
Texas, Mississippi, Mexico Central +34
Wild records
737 in range· 579 open

At a glance

Warmest month
28°C
May, mean day; nights 20 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1156mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Sep 133 mm (CHELSA)
Light
31–37DLI
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 tropical foliage plant by Commelinaceae, which is usually but not always one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (April to November at the habitat (not shifted)). Habitat rain 1156 mm a year, wettest September at 133 mm, driest February at 66 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 31 to 37 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 13.8 °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 Callisia hexandra DC.; Callisia hexandra DC. ex Hassk.; Callisia hexandra var. caracasana Ernst; Callisia hexandra var. mandonii Hassk.; Callisia hexandra var. salzmannii Hassk. and 11 more.

Cultivation

Grouped as a tropical foliage plant by Commelinaceae, which is usually but not always one kind of plant (archetype table). The table supplies one figure for this group, a conventional minimum for the cold floor, and no prose.

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (April to November at the habitat (not shifted)).

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

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (870 mm of 1156 mm) takes 8 months, April to November. Mean temperature moves 1.4 °C between the warmest and coldest month. 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 1156 mm a year, wettest September at 133 mm, driest February at 66 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1156 mm a year at the habitat, 870 mm of it April to November. Wettest month September at 133 mm, driest February at 66 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 637 mm to 2145 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: 31 to 37 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 31 to 37 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 18, 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 13.8 °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 13.8 °C, the absolute minimum 12.1 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 30.2 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 18.6 °C in October (across the envelope cells 11.6 °C to 25.1 °C), warmest day 27.6 °C in May (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 13.8 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER); the archetype table's minimum for a tropical foliage plant, 12 °C, is lower and does not raise it.

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, and the archetype table's group minimum where that is higher. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 61 to 64% 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 26 °C in Jan to 28 °C in May; mean night from 19 °C in Oct to 20 °C in Jun. The cold quarter, Sep to Nov, is the three months around the coldest night. 1156 mm of rain a year, most in Sep. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 625 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 12.1 °C and the 99th-percentile day 30.2 °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°30.2° 99th-percentile day (undated)12.1° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 31–37RH 61–64 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 625 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 °C26 / 19–3127 / 20–3127 / 22–3127 / 21–3128 / 18–3227 / 17–3226 / 17–3227 / 18–3227 / 19–3127 / 20–3127 / 20–3126 / 19–31
Night °C19 / 8–2419 / 8–2419 / 10–2419 / 12–2420 / 11–2520 / 9–2519 / 8–2519 / 9–2619 / 10–2519 / 12–2519 / 10–2519 / 8–24
Rain mm69 / 14–17066 / 11–16280 / 10–18086 / 21–20697 / 28–240122 / 29–293117 / 24–277117 / 17–270133 / 18–309117 / 19–23981 / 11–20971 / 10–175
DLI33 / 25–4236 / 29–4037 / 31–4337 / 25–4537 / 20–4434 / 18–4235 / 20–4236 / 25–4134 / 29–3934 / 28–4132 / 26–4331 / 24–43
RH %61 / 54–6861 / 53–6761 / 53–6762 / 52–6763 / 55–6864 / 58–6963 / 58–6963 / 57–6863 / 57–6963 / 56–6961 / 55–6861 / 54–68

Each figure is the median across the 625 grid cells holding the 725 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 1600:1918 (9.975, -84.075). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 12.1 °C, 1st-percentile night 13.8 °C, 99th-percentile day 30.2 °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 625 distinct grid cells holding the 725 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1600:1918 (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 10.00_-84.375, lapse-corrected +520 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1177 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.
NativeTexas, Mississippi, Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Aruba, Cayman Is., Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Netherlands Antilles, Puerto Rico, Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuelan Antilles, Windward Is., French Guiana, Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil Northeast, Argentina Northeast, Argentina Northwest, Paraguay· introduced: China Southeast, Bangladesh, California, Florida, Louisiana
Kew's description“annual or subshrub” · “seasonally dry tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker19.375, -96.842 · in the densest population, 158 records (21% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 737 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 579 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 22 km away. 997 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 12 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 inside the densest 4° block of the 737 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Callisia repensCallisia repensCallisia repensCallisia repensCallisia repensCallisia repensCallisia repensCallisia repens

Photographs: (c) Victor Farjalla Pontes, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Alexis López Hernández, some rights reserved (CC BY) (7).

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

Green roofs: Effects of plant species used on runoff
Xiaoxiao Li, Junjun Cao, Peixian Xu, Fei Ling (2018) · Land Degradation and Development
Air-based Mechanical Stimulation Controls Plant Height of Ornamental Plants and Vegetable Crops under Greenhouse Conditions
Marc‐André Sparke, Achim Wegscheider, Patrick Winterhagen, Ute Ruttensperger (2021) · HortTechnology
ESTABLECIMIENTO DE CULTIVOS DE COBERTURA Y EXTRACCIÓN TOTAL DE NUTRIENTES EN UN SUELO DE TRÓPICO HÚMEDO EN LA AMAZONÍA PERUANA
Fernando Puertas, Enrique Arévalo‐Gardini, Luis Alejandro Apiolaza Zuñiga, Julio Alegre (2008) · Ecología Aplicada
55. W. Wächter: Chemonastische Bewegungen der Blätter von Callisia repens
(1905) · Berichte der Deutschen Botanischen Gesellschaft
Telhados verdes: uma análise da influência das espécies vegetais na retenção de água de chuva
Adriane Cordoni Savi, Sérgio Fernando Tavares (2018) · Revista de Arquitetura IMED
Phytochemical screening and evaluation of antioxidant activity of Callisia repens and Crassula ovata: An in-vitro study
Asif Sk, N Deepthi, Sai Deepika L, K. Bhavani (2024) · World Journal of Biology Pharmacy and Health Sciences
Cytogenetic Study of Five Varieties of Callisia repens (Jacq.) L. (Commelinaceae) from Laos
Anousone Sengthong, Surapon Saensouk, Piyaporn Saensouk, Phetlasy Souladeth (2023) · Horticulturae
Callisia repens (Jacq.) L. (Commelinaceae), a Newly Naturalized Plant in Taiwan
Yen‐Hsueh Tseng, Chien‐Ti Chao, Chih-Chiang Wang, Sy-Chian Liu (2010)
Diversity and Utilization of Commelinaceae in Central Laos
Anousone Sengthong, Surapon Saensouk, Piyaporn Saensouk, Phetlasy Souladeth (2024) · Horticulturae
Biological Resource of Family Commelinaceae in Maha Sarakham Province: Diversity, Traditional Uses and Conservation Status
Piyaporn Saensouk, Surapon Saensouk (2023) · Tropical Journal of Natural Product Research

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 Callisia 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 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 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)
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 116 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.