7 photographs › At a glance
- Jan
- Feb
- Mar
- Apr, shaded
- May, shaded
- Jun
- Jul
- Aug, shaded
- Sep, shaded
- Oct, shaded
- Nov, shaded
- Dec, shaded
Summary
Etlingera littoralis is a species of flowering plant in the family Zingiberaceae (gingers), with no subspecies listed in the Catalogue of Life. It is found in lowland tropical forest floors (up to 300 m) in Hainan, Indo-China and Malesia.
Quoted from Wikipedia, "Etlingera littoralis", CC BY-SA 4.0.
About the genus · Etlingera
Etlingera is a genus of Indo-Pacific herbaceous perennial flowering plants in the ginger family, Zingiberaceae, consisting of more than 100 species found in tropical regions of Afro-Eurasia.
Quoted from Wikipedia, "Etlingera", CC BY-SA 4.0.
Cultivation
Seasons
The rain rule reads a sharp season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,873 mm of 2,621 mm) falls in April to May and August to December. The temperature curve is flat, 1.4 °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 habitat lies within 10° of the equator, where the shift rule does not apply, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.
Rain
2,621 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,873 mm of it April to May and August to December. Wettest month November at 325 mm, driest month January at 87 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 2,216 mm to 3,351 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 2,625 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 2,621 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: 28 to 38 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 23, the highest 90th-percentile month 40).
Warmth and air
Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 20.8 °C, the absolute minimum 19.0 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 33.1 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 21.6 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 17.5 °C to 23.7 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 30.6 °C in March (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 20.8 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).
Relative humidity at the habitat: 64 to 70% 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 -515 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
Mean daily high from 28 °C in Sep, Oct, Nov and Dec to 31 °C in Mar; mean nightly low from 22 °C in Jan, Feb, Nov and Dec to 23 °C in Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep and Oct. The cold quarter, Nov to Jan, is the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low, centred on the 4 months in a row that tie for it. 2,621 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added), the wettest month Nov. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 15 habitat cells. Over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER) the absolute minimum was 19.0 °C and the 99th-percentile day 33.1 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.
Figures by month
| Figure | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day °C | 29 / 25–30 | 30 / 26–31 | 31 / 26–32 | 30 / 26–32 | 30 / 26–31 | 29 / 26–31 | 29 / 26–31 | 29 / 26–31 | 28 / 25–30 | 28 / 25–29 | 28 / 25–29 | 28 / 24–29 |
| Night °C | 22 / 18–24 | 22 / 18–24 | 23 / 19–25 | 23 / 19–25 | 23 / 19–25 | 23 / 19–25 | 23 / 19–25 | 23 / 19–25 | 23 / 19–24 | 23 / 19–24 | 22 / 19–24 | 22 / 18–24 |
| Rain mm | 87 / 26–214 | 93 / 22–211 | 169 / 74–293 | 236 / 135–346 | 249 / 203–304 | 196 / 141–244 | 203 / 169–301 | 222 / 179–314 | 297 / 231–360 | 324 / 278–415 | 325 / 204–367 | 220 / 92–290 |
| DLI | 33 / 29–34 | 37 / 34–38 | 38 / 34–40 | 36 / 33–39 | 33 / 31–35 | 33 / 31–35 | 33 / 30–34 | 33 / 30–35 | 32 / 28–34 | 28 / 26–33 | 28 / 23–30 | 29 / 24–31 |
| RH % | 65 / 62–69 | 64 / 61–68 | 65 / 61–68 | 66 / 64–70 | 67 / 65–71 | 66 / 64–71 | 66 / 64–71 | 66 / 64–72 | 68 / 65–73 | 70 / 66–74 | 70 / 67–73 | 68 / 64–71 |
How this section is made
Natural habitat
How this section is made
Photographs
Photographs: author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0; (c) Shaan Aroeste, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Cheongweei Gan, some rights reserved (CC BY); Roy Bateman, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (2).
Related
Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.
Amorphophallus prainii Araceae Photo: CC BY, Павлик Лисицын
Hanguana malayana Hanguanaceae Photo: CC BY, Scott Zona
Intsia palembanica Borneo-teak Photo: CC BY, Adam Kamal
Anaxagorea javanica Annonaceae Photo: CC BY, Cheongweei Gan
Zingiber spectabile Beehive Ginger Photo: CC0, author not stated
Thecostele alata Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, RkitkoOther Etlingera 10 in the reference
Etlingera coccinea Zingiberaceae Photo: CC BY, Sharon Reid
Etlingera corneri Zingiberaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Brocken Inaglory
Etlingera elatior Torch-ginger Photo: CC BY, Tom Heijnen
Etlingera fimbriobracteata Zingiberaceae Photo: CC BY, Paul Prior Etlingera heliconiifolia Zingiberaceae 
Etlingera hemisphaerica Black Tulip Photo: CC BY, Robin White Etlingera polycarpa Zingiberaceae 
Etlingera venusta Zingiberaceae Photo: CC BY, Jake Rehage Etlingera yunnanensis Zingiberaceae Names & registers
Also known as Amomum littorale; Cardamomum littorale. (GBIF Backbone)
The record
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 answeredasked 2026-10-22gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 1 record within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (1 at a botanic garden or arboretum; Wikidata's list)climate answeredasked 2026-10-22climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 4.50_101.250, lapse-corrected -515 m at 6.5 °C/kmwikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22inat.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 2026-10-22inat.photos.cultivated not askedgbif.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 rulescommons answeredasked 2026-10-22openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshotEvery 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 6 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.