Species
+

Hypoestes aristata (Vahl) Sol. ex Roem. & Schult.

Acanthaceae

Climate known 78 photographs Tropical foliage plant
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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.

About the genus · Hypoestes

Hypoestes is a flowering plant genus of about 150 species. They are widely distributed throughout the tropical and subtropical lands around the Indian Ocean, and some adjacent regions.

Text from Wikipedia, “Hypoestes”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Acanthaceae
Described by
(Vahl) Sol. ex Roem. & Schult.
Native to
Burkina, Ivory Coast, Nigeria +20
Wild records
1273 in range· 574 open

At a glance

Warmest month
25°C
Feb, mean day; nights 18 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
828mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Nov 105 mm (CHELSA)
Light
23–39DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a tropical foliage plant by the genus Hypoestes, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a summer growing season, April to October in the northern hemisphere (October to April at the habitat, southern). Habitat rain 828 mm a year, wettest November at 105 mm, driest June at 33 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 23 to 39 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 12 °C (archetype minimum for a tropical foliage plant, above the 6.7 °C habitat night).
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 Diapedium verticillare (L.fil.) Kuntze; Dicliptera jussiaei Webb; Dicliptera verticillaris (L.fil.) Juss.; Hypoestes antennifera S.Moore; Hypoestes aristata (Vahl) Sol. and 25 more.

Cultivation

Grouped as a tropical foliage plant by the genus Hypoestes, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). The table supplies one figure for this group, a conventional minimum for the cold floor, and no prose.

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, April to October in the northern hemisphere (October to April at the habitat, southern).

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 (618 mm of 828 mm) falls in October to April, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 19.9 °C against a yearly mean of 18.3 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: April to October.

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 828 mm a year, wettest November at 105 mm, driest June at 33 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

828 mm a year at the habitat, 618 mm of it October to April. Wettest month November at 105 mm, driest June at 33 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 612 mm to 1875 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, southern 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: 23 to 39 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 23 to 39 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 17, the highest 90th-percentile month 48).

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 12 °C (archetype minimum for a tropical foliage plant, above the 6.7 °C habitat night).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 6.7 °C, the absolute minimum 4.4 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 34.9 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 11.1 °C in July (across the envelope cells 4.8 °C to 19.4 °C), warmest day 25.4 °C in February (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 12 °C. The habitat figure, the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER), is 6.7 °C; the archetype table's conventional minimum for a tropical foliage plant (grouped by the genus Hypoestes, which is reliably one kind of plant) is 12 °C, which is higher, and the floor rule takes the higher.

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, and the archetype table's group minimum where that is higher. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 56 to 64% 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 20 °C in Jul to 25 °C in Feb; mean night from 11 °C in Jul to 18 °C in Feb. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest night. 828 mm of rain a year, most in Nov. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 697 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 4.4 °C and the 99th-percentile day 34.9 °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°34.9° 99th-percentile day (undated)4.4° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250300mm rainDLI 23–39RH 56–64 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 697 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 °C25 / 22–3025 / 22–3025 / 21–3023 / 20–2922 / 19–2820 / 17–2720 / 16–2621 / 17–2722 / 18–2823 / 19–2823 / 20–2924 / 21–29
Night °C18 / 13–2118 / 13–2117 / 13–2215 / 11–2114 / 8–2112 / 5–2011 / 5–1912 / 7–1913 / 9–2014 / 11–2015 / 12–2017 / 12–20
Rain mm95 / 18–21784 / 22–20693 / 40–20365 / 41–23643 / 15–21533 / 9–17234 / 4–20549 / 7–25151 / 12–21579 / 39–187105 / 34–16297 / 22–200
DLI39 / 33–4738 / 33–4334 / 31–4028 / 25–3625 / 19–3523 / 17–3323 / 18–3326 / 23–3531 / 29–3936 / 30–4239 / 32–4538 / 33–48
RH %63 / 53–6763 / 52–6764 / 54–6762 / 56–6959 / 53–6856 / 51–6656 / 51–6758 / 51–6860 / 52–6761 / 54–6662 / 55–6663 / 54–67

Each figure is the median across the 697 grid cells holding the 1263 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 2479:3969 (-33.975, 18.475). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 4.4 °C, 1st-percentile night 6.7 °C, 99th-percentile day 34.9 °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 697 distinct grid cells holding the 1263 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2479:3969 (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 -34.00_18.750, lapse-corrected -164 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 45 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.
NativeBurkina, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Burundi, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Gabon, Gulf of Guinea Is., Zaïre, Chad, Ethiopia, Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Cape Provinces, KwaZulu-Natal, Swaziland, Northern Provinces
Kew's description“scrambling subshrub or shrub” · “wet tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-33.7, 26.535 · in the densest population, 714 records (56% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1273 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 574 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 29 km away. 162 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 10 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 inside the densest 4° block of the 1273 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Hypoestes aristataHypoestes aristataHypoestes aristataHypoestes aristataHypoestes aristataHypoestes aristataHypoestes aristataHypoestes aristata

Photographs: (c) Nicola van Berkel, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (8).

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

Generalization versus Specialization in Pollination Systems: Visitors, Thieves, and Pollinators of Hypoestes aristata (Acanthaceae)
Eliška Padyšáková, Michael Bartoš, Robert Tropek, Štěpán Janeček (2013) · PLoS ONE
Food selection by avian floral visitors: an important aspect of plant-flower visitor interactions in West Africa
Štěpán Janeček, Jan Riegert, Ondřej Sedláček, Michael Bartoš (2012) · Biological Journal of the Linnean Society
Taxonomic studies in the Acanthaceae; the genus Hypoestes in southern Africa
K. Balkwill, Fiona Getliffe Norris (1985) · South African Journal of Botany
Bioactive Lignans from Hypoestes aristata
Tshifhiwa Ramabulana, Luki-Marié Scheepers, Thirshen Moodley, Vinesh Maharaj (2020) · Journal of Natural Products
Interference Competition Between Sunbirds and Carpenter Bees for the Nectar ofHypoestes aristata
Robert Tropek, Michael Bartoš, Eliška Padyšáková, Štěpán Janeček (2013) · African Zoology
Interference competition between sunbirds and carpenter bees for the nectar of Hypoestes aristata
Robert Tropek, Michael Bartoš, Eliška Padyšáková, Štěpán Janeček (2013) · African Zoology
Hypoestes aristata (Vahl) Sol. ex Roem. & Schult. Hypoestes forsskaolii (Vahl.) R. Br. Acanthaceae
Rainer W. Bussmann, Narel Y. Paniagua-Zambrana, Grace N. Njoroge (2021) · Ethnobotany of mountain regions
Hypoestes aristata (Vahl) Sol. ex Roem. & Schult. Hypoestes forsskaolii (Vahl.) R. Br. Acanthaceae
Rainer W. Bussmann, Narel Y. Paniagua-Zambrana, Grace N. Njoroge (2020) · Ethnobotany of mountain regions
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility

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 Hypoestes 1 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (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 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried 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 2026-09-19; 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 65 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.