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Costus elegans; photograph Juan Martínez Reina, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF CC BYJuan Martínez Reina, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF

Costus elegans Veitch ex J.Dix

Costaceae · Costa Rica, Honduras +1 · listed by its genus as a tropical foliage plant

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Costus elegans, photograph Trevor Van Loon, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFCostus elegans, photograph Trevor Van Loon, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFCostus elegans, photograph Trevor Van Loon, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFCostus elegans, photograph Trevor Van Loon, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFCostus elegans, photograph Trevor Van Loon, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFCostus elegans, photograph Stephanie Taylor, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIF 21 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
17.7°C
Record low 15.3 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
28°C
Apr at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
3,941mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
22–37DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in the habitat's months, not shifted
  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 sharp rainy season, June to December (the habitat's months, not shifted), in a year of even temperature. rain rule, CHELSA
Not shifted: the shift rule does not apply to this habitat. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Costus elegans, known as stepladder plant, spiral ginger, or spiral flag, is a species of perennial herbaceous flowering plant in the family Costaceae. It is native to Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Honduras. Costus elegans is often cultivated as an ornamental plant.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Costus elegans", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Costus

Costus is a genus of herbaceous perennial plants in the family Costaceae, described by Linnaeus in 1753. It is widespread through tropical and subtropical regions of Asia, Africa, and the Americas.

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

Cultivation

Grouped as a tropical foliage plant, listed under the genus Costus in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “rhizomatous geophyte”, “wet tropical”.

Seasons

The rain rule reads a sharp season: 70% of the median year's rain (2,971 mm of 3,933 mm) falls in June to December. The temperature curve is flat, 2.2 °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, northern hemisphere. The temperature curve moves under 4 °C between the warmest and coldest month, where the shift rule does not apply, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

Rain

3,933 mm in the median year at the habitat, 2,971 mm of it June to December. Wettest month October at 474 mm, driest month April at 100 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 3,653 mm to 4,243 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 3,941 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 3,933 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: 22 to 37 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 20, the highest 90th-percentile month 38).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 17.7 °C, the absolute minimum 15.3 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 34.3 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 18.5 °C in January and February (across the grid cells of the range 16.9 °C to 19.8 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 27.6 °C in April (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 17.7 °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: 67 to 77% 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 -29 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.

Group. Listed under the genus Costus in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “rhizomatous geophyte”, “wet tropical”. A group is taken only where Kew's description of the species agrees with the table's listing. The table gives no figure and no prose; the cold floor is the habitat's alone.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Costus elegans through the yearWarmest month April, mean daily high 28 °C; coldest months January and February, mean nightly low 18.5 °C; 3,933 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°15°20°25°30°35°40°34.3° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER15.3° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 22–37RH 67–77%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 15 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 °C25 / 24–2625 / 25–2727 / 26–2828 / 27–2927 / 26–2926 / 25–2826 / 24–2726 / 24–2826 / 25–2826 / 24–2725 / 23–2725 / 23–26
Night °C19 / 17–2019 / 17–2019 / 17–2020 / 18–2121 / 19–2221 / 19–2220 / 19–2220 / 19–2220 / 19–2220 / 19–2220 / 18–2119 / 18–21
Rain mm259 / 186–331145 / 103–210113 / 88–180100 / 89–180345 / 306–384428 / 398–442432 / 411–468451 / 396–484443 / 352–467474 / 399–498381 / 320–466362 / 269–428
DLI28 / 26–2932 / 31–3336 / 35–3837 / 35–3729 / 28–3025 / 23–2824 / 22–2726 / 24–2927 / 25–2924 / 22–2622 / 20–2425 / 22–25
RH %73 / 69–7670 / 67–7468 / 66–7167 / 66–7073 / 71–7576 / 74–7877 / 73–8076 / 72–7975 / 72–7776 / 73–7877 / 73–7975 / 71–79
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 15 grid cells holding the 33 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 1592:1912 (10.375, -84.375). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 15.3 °C, 1st-percentile night 17.7 °C, 99th-percentile day 34.3 °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 15 distinct grid cells holding 33 of the 33 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1592:1912 (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 10.50_-84.375, lapse-corrected -29 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 477 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.
NativeCosta Rica, Honduras, Nicaragua · introduced: Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico · 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 marker10.4, -84.13 · in the densest population, 101 records (100% of those in range)
Kew's description“rhizomatous geophyte” · “wet tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 101 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 33 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 72 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 7 km away. 20 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 68 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 101 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Costus elegans, photograph 1did not loadCostus elegans, photograph 2did not loadCostus elegans, photograph 3did not loadCostus elegans, photograph 4did not loadCostus elegans, photograph 5did not loadCostus elegans, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: Trevor Van Loon, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF (5); Stephanie Taylor, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIF.

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

Werauhia kupperiana Werauhia kupperiana Giant mottled-leaf werauhia Photo: CC BY, River AhlquistColumnea linearis Columnea linearis Gesneriaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Lena StruweTrichodrymonia lineata Trichodrymonia lineata Gesneriaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, SINAC Pérez GreivinPhilodendron davidsonii Philodendron davidsonii Araceae Photo: CC BY, Dr. Alexey YakovlevHeliconia longa Heliconia longa Heliconiaceae Photo: CC0, Vince HaleSobralia chrysostoma Sobralia chrysostoma Golden-Lipped Sobralia Photo: CC BY, Sean Krieg

Other Costus 40 in the reference

Costus acreanus Costaceae Costus afer Costus afer Spiral-ginger Photo: CC BY, Philippe HornusCostus allenii Costus allenii Costaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, David J. StangCostus amazonicus Costus amazonicus Costaceae Photo: CC BY, Dick Culbert from Gibsons, B.C., CanadaCostus arabicus Costus arabicus Costaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Divya MudappaCostus atlanticus Costus atlanticus Costaceae Photo: CC BY, Diogo LuizCostus barbatus Costus barbatus Costaceae Photo: CC BY, Eduardo Chacón MadrigalCostus claviger Costus claviger Costaceae Photo: CC BY, thomas_oswaldCostus comosus Costus comosus Red tower ginger Photo: CC BY, Thomas MesaglioCostus curvibracteatus Costus curvibracteatus Costaceae Photo: CC BY, Ong Jyh SengCostus dirzoi Costus dirzoi Costaceae Photo: CC BY, Alexis López HernándezCostus dubius Costus dubius Costus Photo: CC BY, Kevin Faccenda all 41 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Costus malortieanus; Pyxa malortieana. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipedia

The record

Family
Costaceae
Described by
Veitch ex J.Dix
Native to
Costa Rica, Honduras, Nicaragua
Wild records
101 in range · 72 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; 5 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (5 at a botanic garden or arboretum; 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 10.50_-84.375, lapse-corrected -29 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-21found by its label; its IPNI identifier 796295-1 is Kew's for Costus elegans Veitch ex J.Dix
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-21
iNaturalist taxon inat.taxon not asked
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild not asked
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 20 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

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