Species
+

Dianella ensifolia (L.) Redouté

Cerulean Flaxlily, New Zealand lilyplant, cerulean flax-lily, kikyō-ran

Climate known 51 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

Dianella ensifolia is a flowering plant, of the family Asphodelaceae. It is native to southern China, India, Japan, Madagascar, Malesia, the Pacific Islands, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, and tropical Asia. Its common names include umbrella dracaena, common dianella, siak-siak, and flax lily.

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

Family
Asphodelaceae
Described by
(L.) Redouté
Native to
Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Mauritius +30
Wild records
1650 in range· 586 open

At a glance

Warmest month
28°C
Jul, mean day; nights 24 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
2213mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jun 294 mm (CHELSA)
Light
22–35DLI
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, March to September in the northern hemisphere (March to September at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 2213 mm a year, wettest June at 294 mm, driest December at 72 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 22 to 35 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 8.7 °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 Anthericum japonicum Thunb.; Charlwoodia ensata (Thunb.) Göpp.; Conanthera forsteri Spreng.; Cordyline ensifolia (L.) Planch.; Dianella albiflora Hallier f. and 45 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, March to September in the northern hemisphere (March 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 (1695 mm of 2213 mm) falls in March to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 24.2 °C against a yearly mean of 21.9 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: September 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 2213 mm a year, wettest June at 294 mm, driest December at 72 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

2213 mm a year at the habitat, 1695 mm of it March to September. Wettest month June at 294 mm, driest December at 72 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1533 mm to 3795 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: 22 to 35 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 22 to 35 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 39).

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 8.7 °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 8.7 °C, the absolute minimum 3.9 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 34.2 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 12.9 °C in January (across the envelope cells 6.3 °C to 23.3 °C), warmest day 28.4 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 8.7 °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: 63 to 67% 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 19 °C in Jan to 28 °C in Jul; mean night from 13 °C in Jan to 24 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 2213 mm of rain a year, most in Jun. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 899 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 3.9 °C and the 99th-percentile day 34.2 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°20°30°40°34.2° 99th-percentile day (undated)3.9° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500600mm rainDLI 22–35RH 63–67 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 899 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 °C19 / 13–2819 / 14–2822 / 17–2824 / 20–2926 / 22–2927 / 22–3028 / 22–3128 / 22–3127 / 22–2925 / 22–2823 / 19–2820 / 15–28
Night °C13 / 6–2314 / 7–2316 / 10–2319 / 14–2421 / 15–2423 / 16–2624 / 15–2624 / 15–2623 / 15–2520 / 14–2417 / 12–2314 / 8–23
Rain mm82 / 25–407135 / 45–391169 / 62–364191 / 98–301270 / 135–366294 / 118–483249 / 111–478267 / 116–527255 / 93–481129 / 55–374100 / 40–34572 / 27–348
DLI22 / 15–3423 / 17–3628 / 21–3730 / 25–3731 / 26–3531 / 24–3435 / 24–3933 / 27–3630 / 28–3528 / 23–3724 / 18–3822 / 15–36
RH %64 / 58–7165 / 60–7165 / 60–7166 / 62–7167 / 63–7167 / 63–7267 / 63–7267 / 63–7166 / 62–7064 / 59–7063 / 57–7063 / 56–71

Each figure is the median across the 899 grid cells holding the 1601 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 1299:6029 (25.025, 121.475). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 3.9 °C, 1st-percentile night 8.7 °C, 99th-percentile day 34.2 °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 899 distinct grid cells holding the 1601 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1299:6029 (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 25.00_121.250, lapse-corrected -221 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 8 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.
NativeMozambique, Zimbabwe, Mauritius, Madagascar, Réunion, Seychelles, China South-Central, Hainan, China Southeast, Japan, Nansei-shoto, Ogasawara-shoto, Taiwan, Assam, Bangladesh, East Himalaya, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Borneo, Jawa, Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Maluku, Philippines, Sulawesi, Sumatera, New Guinea, Solomon Is.· introduced: Florida, Jamaica
Kew's description“subshrub or shrub” · “wet tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker24.567, 120.936 · in the densest population, 615 records (37% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1650 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 586 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 55 km away. 54 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 49 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 of the 1650 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Dianella ensifoliaDianella ensifoliaDianella ensifoliaDianella ensifoliaDianella ensifoliaDianella ensifoliaDianella ensifoliaDianella ensifolia

Photographs: (c) 胡正恆(Jackson Hu), some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Vladislav Isaev, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Aaron Liston, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); no rights reserved · CC0.

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

1-(2,4-Dihydroxyphenyl)-3-(2,4-dimethoxy-3-methylphenyl)propane, a Novel Tyrosinase Inhibitor with Strong Depigmenting Effects
Alexandre Nesterov, Jifu Zhao, David E. Minter, Carmen Hertel (2008) · Chemical and Pharmaceutical Bulletin
Chemical Composition, Antibacterial, Antioxidant and Cytotoxic Activities of the Essential Oil of Dianella ensifolia
Zi-qian He, Xue-yuan Shen, Ze-yu Cheng, Ruo‐Lan Wang (2019) · Records of Natural Products
New phenolics from Dianella ensifolia
Le Thi Hong Nhung, Nguyễn Thị Thùy Linh, Ba Thi Cham, Trịnh Thị Thủy (2019) · Natural Product Research
Two new flavans from the roots of Dianella ensifolia (L.) DC
Ben-Qin Tang, Shu-Sheng Huang, Yeer Liang, Jianbo Sun (2017) · Natural Product Research
Modification of skin discoloration by a topical treatment containing an extract ofDianella ensifolia: a potent antioxidant
Thomas Mammone, Neelam Muizzuddin, L. Declercq, Dominique Clio (2010) · Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology
A new cycloartane-type triterpenoid from the roots of Dianella ensifolia (L.) DC
Ben-Qin Tang, Chuwen Li, Jianbo Sun, Yu Chang (2016) · Natural Product Research
Phytochemical and chemotaxonomic study on Dianella ensifolia (L.) DC
Ben-Qin Tang, Zhen-Yang Chen, Jianbo Sun, Simon Ming‐Yuen Lee (2017) · Biochemical Systematics and Ecology
Impact of green wall orientation on building energy performance in a tropical climate: An experimental assessment
V. M. Jayasooriya, Chathuri Tharanga Liyanage, Shobha Muthukumaran, Rathmalgodage Thejani Nilusha (2025) · PLOS Sustainability and Transformation
Tingkah laku makan kambing lokal persilangan yang digembalakan di lahan gambut: studi kasus di Kalampangan, Palangkaraya, Kalimantan Tengah
R. Setianah, Sudarsono Jayadi, Robert J. Herman (2004) · DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals)
Tyrosinase Inhibitors Derived from Chemical Constituents of Dianella ensifolia
Yu‐Chang Chen, Sheng‐Han Su, Jheng-Cian Huang, Che‐Yi Chao (2022) · Plants

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.

Other Dianella 1 in the reference

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: filled 2026-09-20
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 80 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.