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Heliotropium indicum; photograph (c) Linda Jo Conn, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Linda Jo Conn, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-09-25

Heliotropium indicum L.

Indian heliotrope; Eye Bright; Hatisur; Turnsole

Heliotropiaceae · Bolivia, Peru +9

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Heliotropium indicum, photograph (c) Linda Jo Conn, some rights reserved (CC BY)Heliotropium indicum, photograph (c) Linda Jo Conn, some rights reserved (CC BY)Heliotropium indicum, photograph (c) Linda Jo Conn, some rights reserved (CC BY)Heliotropium indicum, photograph (c) Linda Jo Conn, some rights reserved (CC BY)Heliotropium indicum, photograph (c) Kevin Faccenda, some rights reserved (CC BY)Heliotropium indicum, photograph (c) Kevin Faccenda, some rights reserved (CC BY) 85 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
17.0°C
Record low 15.3 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
30°C
Oct at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,543mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
26–37DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in the habitat's months, not shifted
  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 sharp rainy season, November to April (the habitat's months, not shifted), in a year of even temperature. rain rule, CHELSA
Not shifted: the shift rule does not apply to this habitat. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Heliotropium indicum, commonly known as Indian heliotrope or Indian turnsole, is an annual, hirsute plant. It has a curved arrangement of small flowers and velvety broad green leaves.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Heliotropium indicum", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Heliotropium

Heliotropium is a genus of flowering plants with around 325 species commonly known as heliotropes. They are highly toxic to dogs and cats, as well as to humans.

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

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a sharp season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,058 mm of 1,473 mm) falls in November to April. The temperature curve is flat, 3.1 °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, southern hemisphere. The temperature curve moves under 4 °C between the warmest and coldest month, where the shift rule does not apply, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

Rain

1,473 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,058 mm of it November to April. Wettest month January at 225 mm, driest month July at 37 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,138 mm to 2,635 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,543 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,473 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: 26 to 37 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 19, the highest 90th-percentile month 41).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 17.0 °C, the absolute minimum 15.3 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 31.3 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 18.3 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range 12.7 °C to 22.6 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 29.5 °C in October (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 17.0 °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: 59 to 64% 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 -603 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 Heliotropium indicum through the yearWarmest month October, mean daily high 30 °C; coldest month July, mean nightly low 18.3 °C; 1,473 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.10°15°20°25°30°35°31.3° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER15.3° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 26–37RH 59–64%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 125 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 °C29 / 27–3129 / 27–3129 / 27–3128 / 25–3028 / 23–2926 / 22–2926 / 22–3027 / 24–3229 / 25–3230 / 26–3229 / 26–3129 / 27–31
Night °C22 / 20–2422 / 19–2422 / 19–2421 / 17–2420 / 15–2319 / 13–2318 / 13–2320 / 13–2320 / 15–2321 / 16–2421 / 17–2422 / 19–24
Rain mm225 / 58–313181 / 92–306186 / 115–345143 / 71–31498 / 30–30449 / 9–31237 / 6–27241 / 6–17272 / 12–160118 / 13–194143 / 28–239180 / 47–307
DLI36 / 28–4136 / 29–3933 / 28–3730 / 24–3327 / 21–3126 / 19–3127 / 21–3332 / 24–3635 / 28–3937 / 32–4037 / 31–4136 / 29–41
RH %63 / 58–6963 / 59–7064 / 60–7064 / 59–7064 / 57–6963 / 55–6961 / 52–6859 / 50–6760 / 52–6661 / 56–6661 / 58–6963 / 58–70
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 125 grid cells holding the 141 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 1717:2126 (4.125, -73.675). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 15.3 °C, 1st-percentile night 17.0 °C, 99th-percentile day 31.3 °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 125 distinct grid cells holding 141 of the 141 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1717:2126 (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 4.00_-73.750, lapse-corrected -603 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 789 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.
NativeBolivia, Peru, Brazil West-Central, Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast, Brazil North, Brazil South, Argentina Northeast, Argentina Northwest, Paraguay, Uruguay · introduced: Benin, Burkina, Gambia, The, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Nigeria, Niger, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo, Burundi, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Gulf of Guinea Is., Zaïre, Chad, Ethiopia, Sudan, Tanzania, Angola, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Caprivi Strip, Namibia, KwaZulu-Natal, Northern Provinces, Aldabra, Chagos Archipelago, Comoros, Mauritius, Madagascar, Réunion, Rodrigues, Seychelles, China South-Central, Hainan, China Southeast, Nansei-shoto, Taiwan, Assam, Bangladesh, East Himalaya, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Andaman Is., Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Nicobar Is., South China Sea, Thailand, Vietnam, Borneo, Jawa, Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Maluku, Philippines, Sulawesi, Sumatera, Christmas I., New Guinea, Solomon Is., New Caledonia, Vanuatu, Caroline Is., Marianas, Illinois, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Indiana, Massachusetts, Ohio, West Virginia, Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Bahamas, Cayman Is., Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Netherlands Antilles, Puerto Rico, Southwest Caribbean, Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuelan Antilles, Windward Is., Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Galápagos · 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-12.3, -38.3 · in the densest population, 66 records (22% of those in range)
Kew's description“annual or subshrub” · “seasonally dry tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 300 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 141 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 253 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 13 km away. 1563 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 159 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 inside the densest 4° block of the 300 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Heliotropium indicum, photograph 1did not loadHeliotropium indicum, photograph 2did not loadHeliotropium indicum, photograph 3did not loadHeliotropium indicum, photograph 4did not loadHeliotropium indicum, photograph 5did not loadHeliotropium indicum, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Linda Jo Conn, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4); (c) Kevin Faccenda, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Fridericia chica Fridericia chica Cricketvine Photo: CC BY, Silvia TenCipura paludosa Cipura paludosa Iridaceae Photo: CC BY, Guillaume DelaitreAnacardium occidentale Anacardium occidentale Cashew Photo: CC BY-SA, Suzana Ehlin MartinsHippeastrum puniceum Hippeastrum puniceum Amaryllidaceae Photo: CC BY, Zac PetersonTurnera subulata Turnera subulata Cuban Buttercup Photo: CC BY, Ashley Nahomy BeitiaErythrochiton brasiliensis Erythrochiton brasiliensis Rutaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Kurt Stüber

Other Heliotropium 21 in the reference

Heliotropium amplexicaule Heliotropium amplexicaule Summer heliotrope Photo: CC BY, smathichongHeliotropium angiospermum Heliotropium angiospermum Scorpion's-tail Photo: CC BY, Luis Ángel Niño BarreatHeliotropium anomalum Heliotropium anomalum Polynesian heliotrope Photo: CC BY, Neal KelsoHeliotropium arborescens Heliotropium arborescens Cherry-pie Photo: CC BY, Lorenzo GiordaniHeliotropium arboreum Heliotropium arboreum Boraginaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Maria Glenda Perico "Daragang Nagueña"Heliotropium bacciferum Heliotropium bacciferum Heliotropiaceae Photo: CC BY, Karim HaddadHeliotropium curassavicum Heliotropium curassavicum Seaside heliotrope Photo: CC BY, Irina MitineHeliotropium ellipticum Heliotropium ellipticum Heliotropiaceae Photo: CC BY, Dr. Alexey YakovlevHeliotropium elongatum Heliotropium elongatum Heliotropiaceae Photo: CC BY, Franco RichieriHeliotropium europaeum Heliotropium europaeum European Turn-sole Photo: CC BY-SA, Josep Gesti Heliotropium hartwegianum Boraginaceae Heliotropium hirsutissimum Heliotropium hirsutissimum Heliotropiaceae Photo: CC0, author not stated all 22 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Eliopia riparia; Eliopia serrata; Heliophytum foetidum; Heliophytum indicum; Heliophytum velutinum and 11 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Heliotropiaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Bolivia, Peru, Brazil West-Central +8
Wild records
300 in range · 253 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; 17 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (11 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 2 at a herbarium, 4 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 4.00_-73.750, lapse-corrected -603 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22IPNI and POWO linked by Kew's number for Heliotropium indicum L. (the item's: IPNI 116884-3, POWO 116938-1)
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 2026-10-22
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 221 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

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