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Corchorus olitorius; photograph (c) pavlaki1968, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) pavlaki1968, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-03-19

Corchorus olitorius L.

Tossa jute; Nalta jute; Indian Jute; Jew's-mallow

Malvaceae · Cape Verde, The Gambia +62

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Corchorus olitorius, photograph (c) Greg Tasney, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Corchorus olitorius, photograph (c) Greg Tasney, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Corchorus olitorius, photograph (c) Greg Tasney, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Corchorus olitorius, photograph (c) Greg Tasney, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Corchorus olitorius, photograph (c) vrxz, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Corchorus olitorius, photograph (c) vrxz, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) 75 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
12.7°C
Record low 9.5 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
35°C
Mar and Apr at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
943mm
7 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
31–42DLI
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
A rainy season, June to September, neither the cool nor the warm half of the year. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Jute mallow or Jew's mallow or Mallow leaves or Nalita jute (Corchorus olitorius, also known as "Jute leaves", "Tossa jute", "Mloukheyeh" "muteezi", "lunkomba", "ewedu", "saluyot", and "West African sorrel") is a species of shrub in the family Malvaceae. Together with C. capsularis it is the primary source of jute fiber. The leaves and young fruits are used as a vegetable, the dried leaves are used for tea and as a soup thickener, and the seeds are edible.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Corchorus olitorius", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a rainy season with no name: 70% of the median year's rain (719 mm of 880 mm) falls in June to September, whose mean temperature, 27.0 °C, is within half a degree of the year's, 26.9 °C, so it is neither the cooler nor the warmer part of the year. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December to March.

Rain

880 mm in the median year at the habitat, 719 mm of it June to September. Wettest month August at 235 mm, driest months (2 at 2 mm); 3 months under 5 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 396 mm to 2,192 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 943 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 880 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: 31 to 42 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 21, the highest 90th-percentile month 47).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 12.7 °C, the absolute minimum 9.5 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 43.0 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 17.8 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 11.0 °C to 21.5 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 35.4 °C in April (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 12.7 °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 65% 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 -2 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 Corchorus olitorius through the yearWarmest months March and April, mean daily high 35 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 17.8 °C; 880 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.0°10°20°30°40°50°43.0° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER9.5° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 31–42RH 45–65%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 309 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 °C30 / 20–3432 / 21–3635 / 23–3935 / 25–4034 / 27–4032 / 27–3830 / 27–3529 / 27–3330 / 28–3531 / 27–3632 / 24–3631 / 21–34
Night °C18 / 11–2219 / 13–2222 / 16–2424 / 18–2725 / 18–2725 / 19–2723 / 21–2623 / 20–2523 / 20–2522 / 19–2420 / 16–2319 / 13–22
Rain mm2 / 0–1503 / 0–12510 / 0–9727 / 1–12564 / 6–203129 / 3–362190 / 7–436235 / 7–434165 / 10–31145 / 16–1558 / 0–932 / 0–126
DLI36 / 23–3939 / 26–4242 / 33–4542 / 34–4741 / 33–4737 / 30–4633 / 25–4331 / 24–4134 / 29–4136 / 29–4037 / 24–4035 / 21–38
RH %47 / 33–6345 / 30–6346 / 31–6352 / 37–6455 / 42–6558 / 49–6763 / 54–6965 / 56–7064 / 54–6957 / 47–6649 / 36–6447 / 34–63
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 309 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (352 records in those cells; 2 more cells hold records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cells are left out), 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 1550:3530 (12.475, -3.475). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 9.5 °C, 1st-percentile night 12.7 °C, 99th-percentile day 43.0 °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 309 distinct grid cells holding 352 of the 357 in-range records (2 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1550:3530 (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 12.50_-3.750, lapse-corrected -2 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 293 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.
NativeCape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Nigeria, Niger, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo, Burundi, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Congo, Gulf of Guinea Is., Zaïre, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Angola, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia, KwaZulu-Natal, Northern Provinces, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Lebanon-Syria, Palestine, Sinai, Gulf States, Oman, China South-Central, Hainan, China Southeast, Assam, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, West Himalaya, Andaman Is., Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, South China Sea, Thailand, Vietnam, Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Philippines · introduced: Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia, Benin, Burkina, Mauritania, Chad, Mauritius, Réunion, Cyprus, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Nansei-shoto, Sri Lanka, Fiji, Mexico Northwest, Belize, Bahamas, Cuba, Haiti, Jamaica, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Trinidad-Tobago, Windward Is., Peru, Brazil Southeast · 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 marker10.347, 1.48 · in the densest population, 87 records (12% of those in range)
Kew's description“annual” · “seasonally dry tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 742 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 352 of them in the land cells it reads, of 357 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 584 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker in the same place. 507 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 385 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 742 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Corchorus olitorius, photograph 1did not loadCorchorus olitorius, photograph 2did not loadCorchorus olitorius, photograph 3did not loadCorchorus olitorius, photograph 4did not loadCorchorus olitorius, photograph 5did not loadCorchorus olitorius, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Greg Tasney, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (4); (c) vrxz, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (2).

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

Crateva adansonii Crateva adansonii Sacred Garlic Pear Photo: CC BY-SA, Dinesh ValkeNymphaea lotus Nymphaea lotus White Egyptian lotus Photo: CC BY, Lucy Keith-DiagneBlepharis maderaspatensis Blepharis maderaspatensis Surprise Packet Photo: CC BY, Paulmathi VinodHygrophila auriculata Hygrophila auriculata Gokulakanta Photo: CC0, author not statedIndigofera tinctoria Indigofera tinctoria True indigo Photo: CC BY, Murphy TladiGymnosporia senegalensis Gymnosporia senegalensis Confettitree Photo: CC BY-SA, Rebecca Ryen-Stols

Other Corchorus 8 in the reference

Corchorus aestuans Corchorus aestuans Jute Photo: CC BY, angryphycoCorchorus asplenifolius Corchorus asplenifolius Malvaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Rebecca Ryen-StolsCorchorus capsularis Corchorus capsularis Jute Photo: CC BY, Ramesh ShenaiCorchorus cunninghamii Corchorus cunninghamii Native jute Photo: CC BY-SA, O.NeateCorchorus hirsutus Corchorus hirsutus Jackswitch Photo: CC BY, Alex DoyleCorchorus hirtus Corchorus hirtus Orinoco jute Photo: CC BY, Dan JohnsonCorchorus siliquosus Corchorus siliquosus Slippery burr Photo: CC BY, Tom FieldCorchorus tridens Corchorus tridens Wild jute Photo: CC BY, Nishant Kaushik

Names & registers

Also known as Corchorus catharticus; Corchorus decemangularis; Corchorus lanceolatus; Corchorus longicarpus; Corchorus malchairi and 7 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Malvaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana +61
Wild records
742 in range · 584 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; 26 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (22 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 4 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 12.50_-3.750, lapse-corrected -2 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 145 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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