Example ⟳ +
An example collection, so you can see what this page does. Nothing added here is kept: leaving deletes it.
Frankenia portulacifolia; photograph author not stated, no rights reserved CC0author not stated, no rights reserved · observed growing wild · 2022-11-13

Frankenia portulacifolia (Roxb.) Spreng.

St Helena Tea Plant; Tea Plant; Saint Helena Tea Plant

Frankeniaceae · St.Helena

No habitat climate
Add one to my plants
Sow seed
Frankenia portulacifolia, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedFrankenia portulacifolia, photograph author not stated, no rights reserved 3 photographs ›

Summary

Frankenia portulacifolia, also called Saint Helena tea or tea plant, is a species of salt-tolerant plant in the Frankeniaceae family. It is a subshrub or shrub endemic to the island of Saint Helena. Its natural habitats are inhospitable, dry and rocky areas and rocky shores, often on weathered volcanic ash. As its total population has been estimated at only around 3,500 individuals, it is currently classified as Critically Endangered by the IUCN.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Frankenia portulacifolia", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Nothing derived: no habitat climate for this species.

Climate across the habitat

No habitat climate can be derived: 8 in-range records, none placed to within 10 km. 8 of the 8 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or to no stated accuracy and fewer than three decimals or by something other than a person's observation, and cannot place a climate cell, though they count for the map and its marker.

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeSt.Helena · 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-15.96, -5.7 · in the densest population, 8 records (100% of those in range)
Kew's description“subshrub or shrub” · “subtropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 8 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 4 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 2 km away. 8 records outside the WCVP native range not used. Under a dozen records behind the map. No climate across the range is derived for this species. 8 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.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 8 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Frankenia portulacifolia, photograph 1did not loadFrankenia portulacifolia, photograph 2did not load

Photographs: author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0 (2).

Other Frankenia 8 in the reference

Frankenia cordata Frankenia cordata Frankeniaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, AllthingsnativeFrankenia hirsuta Frankenia hirsuta Hairy Sea-heath Photo: CC0, author not statedFrankenia laevis Frankenia laevis Sea-heath Photo: CC BY, Flavien SaboureauFrankenia pauciflora Frankenia pauciflora Sea Heath Photo: CC BY, Jane CanawayFrankenia pulverulenta Frankenia pulverulenta European sea-heath Photo: CC BY, Мария ТкаченкоFrankenia salina Frankenia salina Alkali-heath Photo: CC BY, Ryan DonnellyFrankenia serpyllifolia Frankenia serpyllifolia Bristly Sea-heath Photo: CC BY, Petra HollandFrankenia thymifolia Frankenia thymifolia Frankeniaceae Photo: CC BY, Fran

Names & registers

Also known as Beatsonia compacta; Beatsonia portulacifolia; Frankenia beatsonia. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Frankeniaceae
Described by
(Roxb.) Spreng.
Native to
St.Helena
Wild records
8 in range · 4 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 2026-10-22
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 answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21
Habitat climate climate nothing to reportasked 2026-10-228 in-range records, none placed to within 10 km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
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 4 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…