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Collinsia concolor; photograph author not stated, no rights reserved CC0author not stated, no rights reserved · observed growing wild · 2026-05-26

Collinsia concolor Greene

Chinese houses; White collinsia; Concolorous Chinese Houses

Plantaginaceae · California, Mexico Northwest

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Collinsia concolor, photograph (c) Tom and T Herman, some rights reserved (CC BY)Collinsia concolor, photograph (c) Tom and T Herman, some rights reserved (CC BY)Collinsia concolor, photograph (c) Kylie Etter, some rights reserved (CC BY)Collinsia concolor, photograph (c) Kylie Etter, some rights reserved (CC BY)Collinsia concolor, photograph (c) Kylie Etter, some rights reserved (CC BY)Collinsia concolor, photograph (c) Kylie Etter, some rights reserved (CC BY) 70 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
-3.3°C
Record low -7.6 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
31°C
Jul and Aug at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
444mm
6 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
20–54DLI
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 winters: the rain comes November to March, read as a winter growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Collinsia concolor is a species of flowering plant in the plantain family known by the common name Chinese houses.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Collinsia concolor", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Collinsia

Collinsia is a genus of about 20 species of annual flowering plants, consisting of the blue eyed Marys and the Chinese houses. It was traditionally placed in the snapdragon family Scrophulariaceae, but following recent research in molecular genetics, it has now been placed in a much enlarged family Plantaginaceae.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Collinsia", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a winter growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (346 mm of 445 mm) falls in November to March, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 9.6 °C against a yearly mean of 15.2 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: May to September.

Rain

445 mm in the median year at the habitat, 346 mm of it November to March. Wettest month February at 91 mm, driest month June at 3 mm; 1 month under 5 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 302 mm to 574 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 444 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 445 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: 20 to 54 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 18, the highest 90th-percentile month 55).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is -3.3 °C, the absolute minimum -7.6 °C, 1,111 frost nights in 44 years, 25.3 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 38.3 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 3.0 °C in December (across the grid cells of the range 0.1 °C to 5.7 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 31.1 °C in July (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -3.3 °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: 45 to 53% 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 +194 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 Collinsia concolor through the yearWarmest months July and August, mean daily high 31 °C; coldest month December, mean nightly low 3.0 °C; 445 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.-10°0°10°20°30°40°frost38.3° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-7.6° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125mm rainDLI 20–54RH 45–53%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 179 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 °C15 / 12–1715 / 12–1817 / 15–2020 / 18–2224 / 22–2628 / 26–3131 / 29–3431 / 29–3429 / 27–3124 / 21–2618 / 16–2114 / 11–17
Night °C3 / 0–64 / 1–75 / 2–87 / 4–910 / 7–1213 / 11–1517 / 15–1918 / 15–1915 / 13–1711 / 8–136 / 3–93 / 0–6
Rain mm78 / 53–9991 / 62–11770 / 48–9531 / 19–449 / 5–123 / 2–49 / 3–1314 / 4–1711 / 6–1522 / 14–2838 / 26–5269 / 43–90
DLI22 / 20–2327 / 25–2936 / 34–3845 / 43–4751 / 49–5254 / 52–5551 / 50–5247 / 46–4841 / 40–4232 / 31–3424 / 23–2620 / 18–22
RH %50 / 47–5352 / 49–5553 / 48–5751 / 46–5650 / 43–5746 / 38–5545 / 39–5346 / 41–5246 / 41–5247 / 43–5248 / 44–5149 / 46–52
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 179 grid cells holding the 552 in-range records, 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 1134:1267 (33.275, -116.625). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -7.6 °C, 1st-percentile night -3.3 °C, 99th-percentile day 38.3 °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 179 distinct grid cells holding 552 of the 552 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1134:1267 (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 33.50_-116.875, lapse-corrected +194 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1049 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.
NativeCalifornia, Mexico Northwest · 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 marker33.308, -116.63 · in the densest population, 725 records (98% of those in range)
Kew's description“annual” · “temperate” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 740 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 552 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 123 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 5 km away. 188 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 of the 740 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Collinsia concolor, photograph 1did not loadCollinsia concolor, photograph 2did not loadCollinsia concolor, photograph 3did not loadCollinsia concolor, photograph 4did not loadCollinsia concolor, photograph 5did not loadCollinsia concolor, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Tom and T Herman, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Kylie Etter, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4).

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

Trichostema parishii Trichostema parishii Parish's bluecurls Photo: CC BY, SergeyEriodictyon trichocalyx Eriodictyon trichocalyx Hairy yerba-santa Photo: CC BY, SergeyAdenostoma sparsifolium Adenostoma sparsifolium Red shank Photo: CC0, author not statedCeanothus perplexans Ceanothus perplexans Cupped Leaf Ceanothus Photo: CC0, author not statedPenstemon × parishii Penstemon × parishii Plantaginaceae Photo: CC BY, Jordan ZylstraMalacothamnus enigmaticus Malacothamnus enigmaticus Enigmatic bush-mallow Photo: CC0, author not stated

Other Collinsia 6 in the reference

Collinsia grandiflora Collinsia grandiflora Giant blue eyed Mary Photo: CC BY, elik03Collinsia heterophylla Collinsia heterophylla Chinese-houses Photo: CC BY, Steve MatsonCollinsia multicolor Collinsia multicolor San Francisco blue eyed Mary Photo: CC BY, Alexander WentworthCollinsia parviflora Collinsia parviflora Maiden blue eyed Mary Photo: CC BY, Daughter DadCollinsia sparsiflora Collinsia sparsiflora Fewflower blue-eyed Mary Photo: CC0, author not statedCollinsia verna Collinsia verna Spring blue eyed Mary Photo: CC BY, Michael, Antoni and Nihat Hinczewski

Names & registers

Also known as Collinsia bicolor var. concolor. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Plantaginaceae
Described by
Greene
Native to
California, Mexico Northwest
Wild records
740 in range · 123 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; 1 record within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (1 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 33.50_-116.875, lapse-corrected +194 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 35 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…