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Heliotropium messerschmidioides; photograph Paul F, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF CC BYPaul F, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF

Heliotropium messerschmidioides Kuntze

Heliotropiaceae · Canary Is.

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Heliotropium messerschmidioides, photograph Paul F, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFHeliotropium messerschmidioides, photograph Paul F, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFHeliotropium messerschmidioides, photograph christinelesca, CC BY-SA, via GBIFHeliotropium messerschmidioides, photograph Alessia Guggisberg, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFHeliotropium messerschmidioides, photograph Alessia Guggisberg, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFHeliotropium messerschmidioides, photograph Alessia Guggisberg, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF 24 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Coldest month, mean nightly low
15.1°C
Feb at the habitat, not a floor; extremes not used (sea cell) CHELSA
Warmest month, mean daily high
23°C
Aug and Sep at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
382mm
6 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
22–49DLI
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
Wet winters: the rain comes November to March, read as a winter growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

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 winter growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (296 mm of 381 mm) falls in November to March, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 17.0 °C against a yearly mean of 18.7 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: May to September.

Rain

381 mm in the median year at the habitat, 296 mm of it November to March. Wettest month December at 77 mm, driest month July at 1 mm; 3 months under 5 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 222 mm to 618 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 382 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 381 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: 22 to 49 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 50).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 15.1 °C in February (across the grid cells of the range 11.6 °C to 16.5 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 22.8 °C in August and September (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: none read. The nearest figure is 15.1 °C, the coldest month's mean nightly low, February, in the median year (CHELSA); a month's mean of its nightly lows is warmer than the nights a floor is read from. The daily extremes were read at a weather cell that is mostly sea and are not used.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 59 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. CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. No cold floor is read without a daily extremes series; the coldest month's mean nightly low named in its sentence is not one. 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

Habitat climate of Heliotropium messerschmidioides through the yearWarmest months August and September, mean daily high 23 °C; coldest month February, mean nightly low 15.1 °C; 381 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.10°15°20°25°30°°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125150mm rainDLI 22–49RH 59–63%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 107 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C17 / 15–1817 / 15–1918 / 15–1918 / 16–1919 / 17–2021 / 19–2222 / 21–2423 / 22–2523 / 21–2422 / 20–2320 / 17–2118 / 16–20
Night °C15 / 12–1715 / 12–1715 / 12–1716 / 13–1717 / 14–1819 / 16–2020 / 18–2121 / 19–2221 / 19–2220 / 17–2118 / 15–2016 / 13–18
Rain mm53 / 32–8456 / 36–9546 / 22–7222 / 12–358 / 3–143 / 1–51 / 0–33 / 1–610 / 5–1738 / 20–6964 / 32–9977 / 49–137
DLI24 / 21–2731 / 27–3338 / 35–4043 / 42–4547 / 46–4849 / 47–5048 / 46–5045 / 43–4640 / 37–4133 / 30–3426 / 22–2822 / 19–24
RH %60 / 57–6261 / 57–6359 / 55–6361 / 57–6461 / 58–6562 / 55–6760 / 48–6861 / 49–6862 / 56–6763 / 59–6661 / 58–6461 / 59–64

The daily extremes were read at a NASA POWER cell that is 16% land: neither it nor the next candidates whose coldest month's mean nightly low is within 2 °C of the median across cells sit in a POWER cell that is mostly land, and the rule reads a cold floor only from a cell that is mostly land, so none is read for this species. Nor is the coldest month's mean nightly low taken as one: it is a mean of a month's lows, not its coldest night. What that cell gave over 44 years: absolute minimum 12.1 °C, 1st-percentile night 15.2 °C, 99th-percentile day 25.1 °C.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 107 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (312 records in those cells; 7 more cells hold records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cells are left out), 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 1235:3317 (28.225, -14.125). 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 107 distinct grid cells holding 312 of the 319 in-range records (7 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1235:3317 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells, though its NASA POWER cell is only 16% land and none of the 11 next candidates within 2 °C of the median was mostly land); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 28.00_-14.375, lapse-corrected +90 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 105 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.
NativeCanary Is. · 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 marker28.4, -16.55 · in the densest population, 317 records (89% of those in range)
Kew's description“shrub” · “subtropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 355 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 312 of them in the land cells it reads, of 319 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 70 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 65 km away. 5 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 36 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 8195577 (Tournefortia fruticosa (L.f.) KerGawl.): Kew's file holds it as Tournefortia fruticosa (L.f.) Ker Gawl. (illegitimate under Heliotropium messerschmidioides Kuntze); 0 records, from GBIF's search API on the day of the build.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 355 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 messerschmidioides, photograph 1did not loadHeliotropium messerschmidioides, photograph 2did not loadHeliotropium messerschmidioides, photograph 3did not loadHeliotropium messerschmidioides, photograph 4did not loadHeliotropium messerschmidioides, photograph 5did not loadHeliotropium messerschmidioides, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: Paul F, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF (2); christinelesca, CC BY-SA, via GBIF; Alessia Guggisberg, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF (3).

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

Schizogyne sericea Schizogyne sericea Salado Photo: CC BY, Silvan AlderArgyranthemum frutescens Argyranthemum frutescens Paris daisy Photo: CC BY, milan kořínekPeriploca laevigata Periploca laevigata Hallab Photo: CC BY, Daniel Heras GonzálezEuphorbia canariensis Euphorbia canariensis Euphorbiaceae Photo: CC BY, Elizabete MarchanteForsskaolea angustifolia Forsskaolea angustifolia Urticaceae Photo: CC BY, Daniel Heras GonzálezReichardia ligulata Reichardia ligulata Asteraceae Photo: CC BY, Hendrik Luup

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 Ceballosia fruticosa; Messerschmidia floribunda; Messerschmidia fruticosa; Messerschmidtia fruticosa; Tournefortia fruticosa and 1 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidata

The record

Family
Heliotropiaceae
Described by
Kuntze
Native to
Canary Is.
Wild records
355 in range · 70 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 answeredasked 2026-10-22GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 0 records of GBIF's key 8195577, Tournefortia fruticosa (L.f.) KerGawl. (Kew's file holds it as Tournefortia fruticosa (L.f.) Ker Gawl. (illegitimate under Heliotropium messerschmidioides Kuntze)): GBIF occurrence search API; 14 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (11 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 3 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 28.00_-14.375, lapse-corrected +90 m at 6.5 °C/km; read, and set aside: NASA POWER's cell is mostly sea (16% land), so no cold floor is shown
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22found by its label; its IPNI identifier 117039-1 is Kew's for Heliotropium messerschmidioides Kuntze
Wikipedia wikipedia nothing to reportasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist taxon inat.taxon not asked
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild not asked
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 28 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

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