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Cymbopogon flexuosus; photograph Dinesh Valke from Thane, India, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SADinesh Valke from Thane, India, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Cymbopogon flexuosus (Nees ex Steud.) Will.Watson

Cochin lemongrass; East Indian lemongrass; Malabar grass; Malabar lemongrass

Poaceae · Assam, Bangladesh +7

Cited as Kew's World Checklist cites it, Cymbopogon flexuosus (Nees ex Steud.) Will.Watson: GBIF's backbone key for this page carries the name with another author, (Nees ex Steud.) W.Watson.

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Cymbopogon flexuosus, photograph (c) Patricia Rose, some rights reserved (CC BY)Cymbopogon flexuosus, photograph (c) Manoj Karingamadathil, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Cymbopogon flexuosus, photograph (c) Manoj Karingamadathil, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Cymbopogon flexuosus, photograph Cbaile19, CC0, via Wikimedia CommonsCymbopogon flexuosus, photograph Cbaile19, CC0, via Wikimedia CommonsCymbopogon flexuosus, photograph Yercaud-elango, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons 15 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
8.1°C
Record low 5.5 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
34°C
May at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,279mm
9 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
26–43DLI
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 summers: the rain comes June to September, read as a summer growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Cymbopogon flexuosus, also called Cochin grass, East-Indian lemon grass or Malabar grass, is a perennial grass native to India, Sri Lanka, Burma, and Thailand. It is placed in the genus Cymbopogon (lemongrasses).

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Cymbopogon flexuosus", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (917 mm of 1,190 mm) falls in June to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 27.0 °C against a yearly mean of 24.0 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December to March.

Rain

1,190 mm in the median year at the habitat, 917 mm of it June to September. Wettest month July at 363 mm, driest month December at 18 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,043 mm to 2,688 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,279 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,190 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: 26 to 43 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 19, 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 8.1 °C, the absolute minimum 5.5 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 30.8 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 11.4 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 5.0 °C to 21.6 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 33.5 °C in May (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 8.1 °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: 55 to 67% 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 +830 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 Cymbopogon flexuosus through the yearWarmest month May, mean daily high 34 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 11.4 °C; 1,190 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°30.8° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER5.5° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500600mm rainDLI 26–43RH 55–67%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 13 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 °C22 / 15–2925 / 16–3131 / 20–3533 / 22–3734 / 23–3733 / 23–3630 / 23–3329 / 23–3229 / 22–3229 / 21–3328 / 20–3123 / 17–29
Night °C11 / 5–2212 / 6–2217 / 10–2422 / 12–2623 / 14–2823 / 16–2823 / 17–2723 / 16–2621 / 15–2620 / 13–2515 / 10–2312 / 7–22
Rain mm26 / 3–4421 / 1–6628 / 1–9034 / 3–14259 / 15–227166 / 69–372363 / 127–571242 / 138–363146 / 106–27266 / 27–31521 / 10–32318 / 2–139
DLI32 / 21–3737 / 25–4041 / 31–4343 / 35–4742 / 32–4736 / 26–4026 / 24–3328 / 24–3231 / 26–3531 / 26–3527 / 22–3227 / 19–32
RH %57 / 49–6255 / 48–6356 / 47–6260 / 45–6260 / 48–6559 / 55–7166 / 59–7167 / 60–7165 / 62–6862 / 52–6760 / 47–6457 / 47–62
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 13 grid cells holding the 17 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 1598:5141 (10.075, 77.075). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 5.5 °C, 1st-percentile night 8.1 °C, 99th-percentile day 30.8 °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 13 distinct grid cells holding 17 of the 17 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1598:5141 (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 10.00_76.875, lapse-corrected +830 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1541 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.
NativeAssam, Bangladesh, East Himalaya, India, Nepal, West Himalaya, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam · introduced: Egypt, Mauritius, Madagascar, Seychelles, China South-Central, Andaman Is., Jawa, Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Sumatera, New Guinea, Florida, Bahamas · 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 marker10.214, 77.094 · in the densest population, 10 records (29% of those in range)
Kew's description“perennial or rhizomatous geophyte” · “seasonally dry tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 35 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 17 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 31 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 22 km away. 21 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 18 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.
Other GBIF keysRecords also from GBIF's key 7432552 (Cymbopogon flexuosus (Nees) Stapf): Kew's file holds it as Cymbopogon flexuosus (Nees ex Steud.) Will.Watson (accepted); 0 records, from GBIF's search API on the day of the build.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 35 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Cymbopogon flexuosus, photograph 1did not loadCymbopogon flexuosus, photograph 2did not loadCymbopogon flexuosus, photograph 3did not loadCymbopogon flexuosus, photograph 4did not loadCymbopogon flexuosus, photograph 5did not loadCymbopogon flexuosus, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Patricia Rose, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Manoj Karingamadathil, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (2); Cbaile19, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons (2); Yercaud-elango, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

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

Justicia adhatoda Justicia adhatoda Malabar nut Photo: CC BY-SA, Manoj KaringamadathilShorea robusta Shorea robusta Sal tree Photo: CC BY-SA, Srichakra Pranav TamarapalliPterospermum acerifolium Pterospermum acerifolium Malvaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedDendrocalamus giganteus Dendrocalamus giganteus Giant bamboo Photo: CC BY, Maurice RaymondEranthemum pulchellum Eranthemum pulchellum Blue-sage Photo: CC BY, Smriti S.Phanera vahlii Phanera vahlii Fabaceae Photo: CC BY, T R Shankar Raman

Other Cymbopogon 7 in the reference

Cymbopogon ambiguus Cymbopogon ambiguus Lemon Grass Photo: CC BY, Kym NicolsonCymbopogon citratus Cymbopogon citratus Lemon grass Photo: CC BY, Guillaume DelaitreCymbopogon nardus Cymbopogon nardus Citronella grass Photo: CC BY-SA, Tony RebeloCymbopogon refractus Cymbopogon refractus Barbwire grass Photo: CC BY-SA, Greg TasneyCymbopogon schoenanthus Cymbopogon schoenanthus Camel grass Photo: CC BY, Karim HaddadCymbopogon tortilis Cymbopogon tortilis Poaceae Photo: CC BY, Francisca WuCymbopogon winterianus Cymbopogon winterianus Cymbopogon grass Photo: CC BY-SA, Leoadec

Names & registers

Also known as Andropogon ampliflorus; Andropogon flexuosus; Andropogon nardus subsp. flexuosus; Andropogon nardus var. flexuosus; Cymbopogon flexuosus var. arunachalis and 4 more. (GBIF Backbone)

Kew accepts as species of their own Cymbopogon travancorensis: older names in GBIF's record of this species that Kew's World Checklist accepts as other species. (WCVP, RBG Kew, file of 2026-06-04)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Poaceae
Described by
(Nees ex Steud.) Will.Watson
Native to
Assam, Bangladesh, East Himalaya +6
Wild records
35 in range · 31 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 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22GBIF's key 8571291 is Cymbopogon flexuosus (Nees ex Steud.) W.Watson; the page links Kew's Cymbopogon flexuosus (Nees ex Steud.) Will.Watson, and the name is cited as Kew cites it
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredasked 2026-10-22GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 0 records of GBIF's key 7432552, Cymbopogon flexuosus (Nees) Stapf (Kew's file holds it as Cymbopogon flexuosus (Nees ex Steud.) Will.Watson (accepted)): GBIF occurrence search API; 5 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (4 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 1 at a herbarium; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 10.00_76.875, lapse-corrected +830 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22found by its label; its POWO identifier 396927-1 is Kew's for Cymbopogon flexuosus (Nees ex Steud.) Will.Watson
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
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 2026-10-22none of the photographs on this page is credited to GBIF: those shown are other sources', and GBIF's were the same photographs or were set aside by the photograph rules
Wikimedia Commons commons answeredasked 2026-10-22
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 27 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

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