Species
+

Codiaeum variegatum (L.) Rumph. ex A.Juss.

Garden Croton, Garden Croton

Climate known 62 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

Codiaeum variegatum, commonly known as croton or variegated croton amongst many other names, is a species of plant in the Euphorbiaceae family. Initially described by Carl Linnaeus in 1753, its native range is from Java east to Fiji, and from the Philippines south to Queensland, Australia. It is widely cultivated and has been introduced to many other countries.

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

About the genus · Codiaeum

Codiaeum is a genus of plants under the family Euphorbiaceae first described as a genus in 1824. It is native to insular Southeast Asia, northern Australia and Papuasia.

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

Family
Euphorbiaceae
Described by
(L.) Rumph. ex A.Juss.
Native to
Borneo, Jawa, Lesser Sunda Is. +10
Wild records
558 in range· 441 open

At a glance

Warmest month
28°C
Mar, mean day; nights 24 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
2286mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jan 298 mm (CHELSA)
Light
30–38DLI
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 the genus Codiaeum, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a sharp rainy season, November to May at the habitat (not shifted); the temperature curve is flat (1.7 °C of range), so no growing season is inferred. Habitat rain 2286 mm a year, wettest January at 298 mm, driest August at 107 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 30 to 38 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 21.6 °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 Codiaeum angustifolium G.Nicholson; Codiaeum chrysosticton Rumph.; Codiaeum chrysosticton Rumph. ex Spreng.; Codiaeum interruptum Baum; Codiaeum variegatum (L.) Blume and 45 more.

Cultivation

Grouped as a tropical foliage plant by the genus Codiaeum, which is reliably 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: a sharp rainy season, November to May at the habitat (not shifted); the temperature curve is flat (1.7 °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 (1633 mm of 2286 mm) falls in November to May. The temperature curve is flat, 1.7 °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, southern 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 2286 mm a year, wettest January at 298 mm, driest August at 107 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

2286 mm a year at the habitat, 1633 mm of it November to May. Wettest month January at 298 mm, driest August at 107 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1505 mm to 3555 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: 30 to 38 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 30 to 38 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 22, the highest 90th-percentile month 43).

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 21.6 °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 21.6 °C, the absolute minimum 18.7 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 33.5 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 22.7 °C in July (across the envelope cells 13.7 °C to 25.3 °C), warmest day 27.9 °C in March (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 21.6 °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: 65 to 67% 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 27 °C in Jul to 28 °C in Mar; mean night from 23 °C in Jul to 24 °C in Apr. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest night. 2286 mm of rain a year, most in Jan. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 435 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 18.7 °C and the 99th-percentile day 33.5 °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°33.5° 99th-percentile day (undated)18.7° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 30–38RH 65–67 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 435 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 / 26–2928 / 26–2928 / 26–3028 / 24–3028 / 23–3027 / 21–3027 / 20–3027 / 21–3027 / 23–3028 / 25–3028 / 26–3028 / 26–29
Night °C24 / 20–2624 / 20–2624 / 20–2624 / 19–2624 / 17–2623 / 15–2623 / 14–2523 / 14–2523 / 16–2523 / 18–2524 / 20–2624 / 20–26
Rain mm298 / 98–471282 / 75–447264 / 70–407205 / 80–334162 / 91–307151 / 53–298120 / 38–361107 / 23–317114 / 27–317161 / 47–316190 / 94–347232 / 122–406
DLI33 / 28–4034 / 30–3735 / 32–3833 / 29–4131 / 25–3830 / 22–3431 / 23–3433 / 27–3736 / 31–4138 / 31–4337 / 28–4334 / 27–42
RH %67 / 62–7267 / 62–7267 / 61–7166 / 61–7166 / 61–7066 / 60–7065 / 59–7065 / 58–6965 / 58–6965 / 60–7066 / 62–7167 / 61–72

Each figure is the median across the 435 grid cells holding the 541 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 1689:5962 (5.525, 118.125). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 18.7 °C, 1st-percentile night 21.6 °C, 99th-percentile day 33.5 °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 435 distinct grid cells holding the 541 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1689:5962 (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 5.50_118.125, lapse-corrected -16 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 13 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.
NativeBorneo, Jawa, Lesser Sunda Is., Maluku, Philippines, Sulawesi, Bismarck Archipelago, New Guinea, Solomon Is., Queensland, Fiji, Santa Cruz Is., Vanuatu· introduced: Gambia, The, Gulf of Guinea Is., Mozambique, Comoros, China South-Central, Hainan, China Southeast, Bangladesh, Andaman Is., Myanmar, Thailand, Gilbert Is., Niue, New Caledonia, Samoa, Tonga, Wallis-Futuna Is., Cook Is., Line Is., Society Is., Tuamotu, Caroline Is., Marianas, Marshall Is., Wake I., Cayman Is., Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Puerto Rico, Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuelan Antilles, Windward Is.
Kew's description“shrub or tree” · “wet tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-17.1, 145.667 · in the densest population, 135 records (24% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 558 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 441 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 82 km away. 1189 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 17 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 558 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Codiaeum variegatumCodiaeum variegatumCodiaeum variegatumCodiaeum variegatumCodiaeum variegatumCodiaeum variegatumCodiaeum variegatumCodiaeum variegatum

Photographs: (c) Lucas Christofides, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4); (c) Matt B, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4).

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

Antiviral and cytotoxic activities of some plants used in Malaysian indigenous medicine
Abdul Manaf Ali, Muhammad Mukram Mohamed Mackeen, Saleh El-Sharkawy, Junainah Abdul Hamid (1996) · Universiti Putra Malaysia Institutional Repository (Universiti Putra Malaysia)
Urban road greenbelt configuration: The perspective of PM2.5 removal and air quality regulation
Jiansheng Wu, Keyu Luo, Wang Yi, Zhenyu Wang (2021) · Environment International
Independence of stem and leaf hydraulic traits in six Euphorbiaceae tree species with contrasting leaf phenology
Jun‐Wen Chen, Qiang Zhang, Xiaoshuang Li, Kun‐Fang Cao (2009) · Planta
Taxonomy and Medicinal Uses of Euphorbiaceae (Spurge) Family of Rajshahi, Bangladesh
A.H.M. Mahbubur Rahman, Momota Akter (2013) · Research in Plant Sciences
In vitro Amoebicidal Activity of some Medicinal Plants of the Bamun Region ( Cameroon)
Paul Fewou Moundipa, Kamini G. Melanie Flore, Charles Félix Bilong Bilong, Iris Bruchhaus (2005) · African Journal of Traditional Complementary and Alternative Medicines
Stimulatory effect of kinetin, ascorbic acid and glutamic acid on growth and chemical constituents of Codiaeum variegatum L. plants.
Azza Mazher, Sahar M. Zaghloul, S. A. Mahmoud, Hanan S. Siam (2011) · American-Asian-Journal of agricultural & environmental sciences/American-Eurasian journal of agricultural & environmental sciences
Cultivars of Codiaeum variegatum (L.) Blume (Euphorbiaceae) show variability in phytochemical and cytological characteristics
K. O. Ogunwenmo, A Idowu Oluwatoni, Innocent Chukwudi, Bernard Edward (2007) · AFRICAN JOURNAL OF BIOTECHNOLOGY
Olive-mill Waste Compost as a Growth Medium Component for Foliage Potted Plants
Μ. Papafotiou, George Kargas, Ioanna Lytra (2005) · HortScience
Impacts of Temperature on the Stability of Tropical Plant Pigments as Sensitizers for Dye Sensitized Solar Cells
Aiman Yusoff, N. T. R. N. Kumara, Andery Lim, Piyasiri Ekanayake (2014) · Journal of Biophysics
Performance of dye-sensitized solar cells by utilizing Codiaeum Variegatum Leaf and Delonix Regia Flower as natural sensitizers
Abhishek Srivastava, Bhaskar Singh Chauhan, Subhash Chand Yadav, Manish Kumar Tiwari (2022) · Chemical Physics Letters

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