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Cynoglossum lanceolatum; photograph Jayesh Patil from Mumbai, India, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons CC BYJayesh Patil from Mumbai, India, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Cynoglossum lanceolatum Forssk.

Boraginaceae · Benin, Ghana +57

English names not checked: Wikidata's common names were not read for this page.

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Cynoglossum lanceolatum, photograph Paul venter, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsCynoglossum lanceolatum, photograph Paul venter, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsCynoglossum lanceolatum, photograph Paul venter, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsCynoglossum lanceolatum, photograph Paul venter, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsCynoglossum lanceolatum, photograph Peter Forsskål (1732-1763), Public domain, via Wikimedia CommonsCynoglossum lanceolatum, photograph Vinayaraj, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons 12 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
-0.9°C
Record low -5.7 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
23°C
May, Jun, Jul, Aug and Sep at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,356mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
21–45DLI
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, January to February and July to November (January to May and July to August at the habitat), 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

Cynoglossum lanceolatum Forssk. is closely related to and grades into Cynoglossum coeruleum Hochst. ex A.DC. It is a much-branched biennial plant, occurring widely with an anthropogenic distribution, harvested from the wild and used as both food and medicine. This species was first described by the Swede Peter Forsskål in 1775 in Flora Aegyptiaco-Arabica 41.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Cynoglossum lanceolatum", CC BY-SA 4.0.

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.

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

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a rainy season with no name: 70% of the median year's rain (946 mm of 1,266 mm) falls in January to May and July to August, whose mean temperature, 13.8 °C, is within half a degree of the year's, 14.0 °C, so it is neither the cooler nor the warmer part of the year. Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: January to February and July to November.

Rain

1,266 mm in the median year at the habitat, 946 mm of it January to May and July to August. Wettest month July at 179 mm, driest month November at 45 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 763 mm to 2,077 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,356 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,266 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, southern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 21 to 45 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 16, the highest 90th-percentile month 49).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is -0.9 °C, the absolute minimum -5.7 °C, 322 frost nights in 44 years, 7.3 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 40.1 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low -1.8 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range -14.7 °C to 15.1 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 23.3 °C in June and September (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -0.9 °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: 52 to 63% 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 -502 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, southern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Cynoglossum lanceolatum through the yearWarmest months May, June, July, August and September, mean daily high 23 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low -1.8 °C; 1,266 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, southern hemisphere.-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°50°frost40.1° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-5.7° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 21–45RH 52–63%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 102 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 °C11 / -8–2512 / -6–2617 / -2–2621 / 4–2823 / 9–3123 / 15–3423 / 16–3023 / 17–3023 / 14–2922 / 7–2819 / -1–2614 / -6–25
Night °C-2 / -15–150 / -13–164 / -9–178 / -5–1711 / -1–1913 / 3–2113 / 6–2213 / 7–2213 / 4–2010 / -5–165 / -11–151 / -13–15
Rain mm98 / 17–225134 / 29–212175 / 61–239136 / 56–22183 / 25–16277 / 18–189179 / 16–388141 / 18–34275 / 21–23453 / 31–11245 / 15–11070 / 14–202
DLI22 / 18–3928 / 23–4033 / 30–4039 / 32–4645 / 30–4945 / 27–4937 / 25–4434 / 26–4035 / 28–3930 / 27–4125 / 21–4121 / 16–37
RH %55 / 46–6654 / 49–6555 / 50–6654 / 48–6655 / 46–6654 / 48–6761 / 53–6863 / 52–6957 / 52–6653 / 47–6452 / 45–6354 / 45–65
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 102 grid cells holding the 118 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 1111:5067 (34.425, 73.375). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -5.7 °C, 1st-percentile night -0.9 °C, 99th-percentile day 40.1 °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 102 distinct grid cells holding 118 of the 118 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1111:5067 (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 34.50_73.125, lapse-corrected -502 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1012 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.

This species has no GBIF key of its own. Its records are GBIF's under the key of the name Kew's World Checklist holds as this plant: 4064484 (Paracynoglossum lanceolatum (Forssk.) R.R.Mill, 1199 records). No name was matched to GBIF; the keys are read from Kew's synonymy. How.

NativeBenin, Ghana, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Nigeria, Burundi, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Congo, Gulf of Guinea Is., Rwanda, Zaïre, Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Angola, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Cape Provinces, Lesotho, KwaZulu-Natal, Free State, Swaziland, Northern Provinces, Comoros, Mauritius, Madagascar, Réunion, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, China South-Central, Hainan, China North-Central, China Southeast, Assam, Bangladesh, East Himalaya, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, West Himalaya, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Borneo, Jawa, Malaya, Philippines, Sulawesi, Sumatera · introduced: Ascension · 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 marker-25.625, 30.125 · in the densest population, 140 records (20% of those in range)
Kew's description“biennial or perennial” · “seasonally dry tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 700 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 118 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 613 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker in the same place. 3 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 582 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 4064484 (Paracynoglossum lanceolatum (Forssk.) R.R.Mill): Kew's file holds it as Paracynoglossum lanceolatum (Forssk.) R.R.Mill (synonym under Cynoglossum lanceolatum Forssk.); 1,199 records, from GBIF's download.
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 700 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Cynoglossum lanceolatum, photograph 1did not loadCynoglossum lanceolatum, photograph 2did not loadCynoglossum lanceolatum, photograph 3did not loadCynoglossum lanceolatum, photograph 4did not loadCynoglossum lanceolatum, photograph 5did not loadCynoglossum lanceolatum, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: Paul venter, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (4); Peter Forsskål (1732-1763), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons; Vinayaraj, 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.

Micromeria biflora Micromeria biflora Lemon Savory Photo: CC BY, Edmundas GreimasCedrus deodara Cedrus deodara Deodar Photo: CC BY, XthnobSunhangia elegans Sunhangia elegans Elegant Desmodium Photo: CC BY, Jagdish Singh Negi Gentiana kurroo Himalayan gentian Quercus leucotrichophora Quercus leucotrichophora Banj oak Photo: CC0, author not statedDaphne papyracea Daphne papyracea Thymelaeaceae Photo: CC BY, Ramnarayan K

Other Cynoglossum 12 in the reference

Cynoglossum amabile Cynoglossum amabile Chinese hound's tongue Photo: CC BY, Álvaro Rivas GodinCynoglossum australe Cynoglossum australe Australian Hound's-tongue Photo: CC0, author not stated Cynoglossum brandii Boraginaceae Cynoglossum cheirifolium Boraginaceae Cynoglossum clandestinum Cynoglossum clandestinum Boraginaceae Photo: CC BY, Katrin SimonCynoglossum columnae Cynoglossum columnae Boraginaceae Photo: CC BY, fmunozCynoglossum creticum Cynoglossum creticum Blue Hound's tongue Photo: CC BY-SA, Grzegorz GrzejszczakCynoglossum germanicum Cynoglossum germanicum Green hound's-tongue Photo: CC BY, Vladimír FukaCynoglossum microglochin Cynoglossum microglochin Smallbristle hound's tongue Photo: CC BY-SA, Dinesh Valke from Thane, IndiaCynoglossum montanum Cynoglossum montanum Boraginaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Emanuele SantarelliCynoglossum officinale Cynoglossum officinale Hound's-tongue Photo: CC BY, Daughter DadCynoglossum zeylanicum Cynoglossum zeylanicum Ceylon hound's tongue Photo: CC BY, 如此甚好

Names & registers

Also known as Rochelia asperata; Rochelia borboniae; Paracynoglossum lanceolatum; Cynoglossum vesiculosum; Cynoglossum hispidum and 15 more. (WCVP, RBG Kew)

IPNIPOWOWikidataWFOWikipedia

The record

Family
Boraginaceae
Described by
Forssk.
Native to
Benin, Ghana, Guinea +56
Wild records
700 in range · 613 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
Kew's names (WCVP) kew.names answeredas of 2026-06-04Kew's entry Cynoglossum lanceolatum Forssk. (plant_name_id 2752016), read from Kew's names file
GBIF species record gbif.species not askedGBIF's backbone holds no one accepted species of this name, and a name it holds only as another species' synonym is not taken for this one, so GBIF's records were not asked
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms not askedGBIF's backbone holds no one accepted species of this name, and a name it holds only as another species' synonym is not taken for this one, so GBIF's records were not asked
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular not askedGBIF's backbone holds no one accepted species of this name, and a name it holds only as another species' synonym is not taken for this one, so GBIF's records were not asked
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21this species has no GBIF key of its own; its records are read under GBIF's keys for the names Kew's file holds as this plant, never by a name matched; GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 1199 records of GBIF's key 4064484, Paracynoglossum lanceolatum (Forssk.) R.R.Mill (Kew's file holds it as Paracynoglossum lanceolatum (Forssk.) R.R.Mill (synonym under Cynoglossum lanceolatum Forssk.)): the GBIF download; 7 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (6 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 1 at a zoo; 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 34.50_73.125, lapse-corrected -502 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22found by Kew's IPNI identifier 115164-1, POWO 115164-1
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild not asked
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media not askedGBIF's backbone holds no one accepted species of this name, and a name it holds only as another species' synonym is not taken for this one, so GBIF's records were not asked
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 52 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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