Species
+

Cynoglossum amabile Stapf & J.R.Drumm.

Chinese Hound's Tongue, Chinese Hound's-tongue, Chinese Hound's-toungue, Chinese forget-me-not

Climate known 58 photographs
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

Cynoglossum amabile, the Chinese hound's tongue or Chinese forget-me-not, is a species of flowering plant in the family Boraginaceae, native to Asia. A hardy annual growing to 50 cm (20 in), it has hairy leaves and cymes of sky-blue flowers in late summer. This plant, closely related to the common forget-me-not of temperate gardens, is also grown as an ornamental. In cultivation in the UK it has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit..

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

About the genus · Cynoglossum

Cynoglossum is a genus of small-flowered plants in the family Boraginaceae. It includes 81 species native to Eurasia, Africa, New Guinea, and Australia.

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

Family
Boraginaceae
Described by
Stapf & J.R.Drumm.
Native to
China South-Central, China North-Central, Tibet +3
Wild records
178 in range· 76 open

At a glance

Warmest month
21°C
Jul, mean day; nights 14 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
935mm/yr
8 wet months · peak Jul 193 mm (CHELSA)
Light
21–39DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: a summer growing season, May to September in the northern hemisphere (May to September at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 935 mm a year, wettest July at 193 mm, driest December at 7 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 21 to 39 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -6.0 °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 Cynoglossum amabile f. leucanthum X.D.Dong; Cynoglossum amabile f. rubrum X.D.Dong; Cynoglossum amabile var. parviflorum Turrill; Cynoglossum amabile var. pauciglochidiatum Y.L.Liu.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, May to September in the northern hemisphere (May to September at the habitat, northern).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (744 mm of 935 mm) falls in May to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 16.7 °C against a yearly mean of 10.9 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to March.

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 935 mm a year, wettest July at 193 mm, driest December at 7 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

935 mm a year at the habitat, 744 mm of it May to September. Wettest month July at 193 mm, driest December at 7 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 598 mm to 1564 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern 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: 21 to 39 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 21 to 39 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 15, the highest 90th-percentile month 46).

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 -6.0 °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 -6.0 °C, the absolute minimum -9.8 °C, about 62 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 27.8 °C. Monthly means: coldest night -3.8 °C in January (across the envelope cells -17.5 °C to 4.0 °C), warmest day 20.6 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -6.0 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

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. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 57 to 65% 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 6 °C in Jan to 21 °C in Jul; mean night from -4 °C in Jan to 14 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 935 mm of rain a year, most in Jul. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 150 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -9.8 °C and the 99th-percentile day 27.8 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-20°-10°10°20°30°frost27.8° 99th-percentile day (undated)-9.8° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 21–39RH 57–65 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 150 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 °C6 / -4–158 / -2–1811 / 1–2116 / 7–2419 / 11–2620 / 14–2621 / 15–2721 / 15–2619 / 13–2415 / 9–2111 / 3–178 / -3–15
Night °C-4 / -18–4-2 / -15–61 / -10–95 / -5–139 / 1–1612 / 5–1914 / 7–2013 / 6–1911 / 4–177 / -2–142 / -10–9-2 / -17–5
Rain mm10 / 3–2914 / 5–4229 / 12–8342 / 20–12390 / 52–170163 / 90–267193 / 121–314170 / 105–273128 / 81–19169 / 32–11220 / 7–487 / 2–19
DLI24 / 17–2930 / 20–3436 / 24–4139 / 29–4637 / 30–4533 / 27–4133 / 27–3931 / 28–3627 / 22–3224 / 17–3022 / 16–2721 / 15–26
RH %60 / 54–6659 / 51–6658 / 49–6657 / 50–6559 / 54–6564 / 58–6965 / 59–7165 / 60–7065 / 60–7063 / 57–6860 / 56–6659 / 55–65

Each figure is the median across the 150 grid cells holding the 176 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 1192:5656 (30.375, 102.825). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -9.8 °C, 1st-percentile night -6.0 °C, 99th-percentile day 27.8 °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 150 distinct grid cells holding the 176 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1192:5656 (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 30.50_103.125, lapse-corrected -174 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1593 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.
NativeChina South-Central, China North-Central, Tibet, East Himalaya, Nepal, Thailand· introduced: Great Britain, Ireland, Austria, Germany, Kenya, Tanzania, KwaZulu-Natal, Inner Mongolia, Japan, Jawa, Kermadec Is., New Zealand North, New Zealand South, Fiji, Hawaii, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Arkansas, Mexico Southwest, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil South, Argentina Northeast, Argentina Northwest, Tristan da Cunha
Kew's description“annual or biennial” · “subtropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker27.823, 99.706 · in the densest population, 98 records (55% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 178 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 76 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 68 km away. 1403 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 2 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 2° block of the 178 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Cynoglossum amabileCynoglossum amabileCynoglossum amabileCynoglossum amabileCynoglossum amabileCynoglossum amabileCynoglossum amabileCynoglossum amabile

Photographs: (c) Patrick Hacker, some rights reserved (CC BY) (8).

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

Pyrrolizidine alkaloids of Cynoglossum officinale and Cynoglossum amabile (family boraginaceae)
Assem M. El‐Shazly, Taha Sarg, Abdel-Monem Ateya, Elsayed A. Abdel Aziz (1996) · Biochemical Systematics and Ecology
Screening for pyrrolizidine alkaloids in plant materials by electron ionization RP‐HPLC‐MS with thermabeam interface
Tomasz Mroczek, Stefan Baj, Anna Chrobok, Kazimierz Głowniak (2004) · Biomedical Chromatography
Enantioselective Total Synthesis of (+)-Amabiline
Timothy J. Senter, Olugbeminiyi Fadeyi, Craig W. Lindsley (2012) · Organic Letters
Phenolic Compounds and Pyrrolizidine Alkaloids of Two North Bluebells: Mertensia stylosa and Mertensia serrulata
N. I. Kashchenko, Д. Н. Оленников, Н. К. Чирикова (2023) · Applied Sciences
Studies on cucumber mosaic virus
Yasuo Komuro, H. Asuyama (1955) · 日本植物病理學會報
A revision of the genus Cynoglossum L. (Boraginaceae Juss.) in Nepal and notes on the widespread Asian species
Julia König, Mohan Siwakoti, Hartmut H. Hilger, Maximilian Weigend (2015) · Phytotaxa
Triterpene Acids from Cynoglossum amabile
Xu, Qingjun, Zhang, Dezhi (2009) · Acta Scientiarum Naturalium Universitatis Sunyatseni
Studies on cucumber mosaic virus
Yasuo Komuro (1958) · 日本植物病理學會報

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 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)
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 131 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.