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Hypoestes cumingiana; photograph (c) 林正文, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) 林正文, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2025-05-20

Hypoestes cumingiana (Nees) Fern.-Vill.

Acanthaceae · Taiwan, Philippines · listed by its genus as a tropical foliage plant

Cited as Kew's World Checklist cites it, Hypoestes cumingiana (Nees) Fern.-Vill.: GBIF's backbone key for this page carries the name with another author, Benth. & Hook.fil.

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Hypoestes cumingiana, photograph (c) 如此甚好, some rights reserved (CC BY)Hypoestes cumingiana, photograph (c) 如此甚好, some rights reserved (CC BY)Hypoestes cumingiana, photograph (c) 謝麗霦, some rights reserved (CC BY)Hypoestes cumingiana, photograph (c) 謝麗霦, some rights reserved (CC BY)Hypoestes cumingiana, photograph (c) 謝麗霦, some rights reserved (CC BY)Hypoestes cumingiana, photograph (c) 謝麗霦, some rights reserved (CC BY) 67 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
15.2°C
Record low 10.7 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
28°C
Jun, Jul, Aug and Sep at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
2,753mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
21–36DLI
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 summers: the rain comes June to September, read as a summer growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

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.

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

Cultivation

Grouped as a tropical foliage plant, listed under the genus Hypoestes in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “perennial or subshrub”, “wet tropical”.

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (2,065 mm of 2,713 mm) falls in June to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 26.5 °C against a yearly mean of 23.3 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December to March.

Rain

2,713 mm in the median year at the habitat, 2,065 mm of it June to September. Wettest month August at 628 mm, driest month January at 30 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 2,042 mm to 3,302 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 2,753 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 2,713 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: 21 to 36 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 20, the highest 90th-percentile month 39).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 15.2 °C, the absolute minimum 10.7 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 33.2 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 14.0 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 10.6 °C to 19.7 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 28.4 °C in July (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 15.2 °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: 63 to 68% 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 -91 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.

Group. Listed under the genus Hypoestes in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “perennial or subshrub”, “wet tropical”. A group is taken only where Kew's description of the species agrees with the table's listing. The table gives no figure and no prose; the cold floor is the habitat's alone.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Hypoestes cumingiana through the yearWarmest months June, July, August and September, mean daily high 28 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 14.0 °C; 2,713 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, northern hemisphere.5°10°15°20°25°30°35°33.2° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER10.7° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0200400600800mm rainDLI 21–36RH 63–68%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 69 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 °C21 / 19–2222 / 20–2324 / 22–2625 / 24–2827 / 25–2928 / 26–3028 / 27–3028 / 26–3028 / 26–2927 / 24–2824 / 22–2622 / 19–23
Night °C14 / 11–2015 / 12–2018 / 15–2221 / 17–2423 / 19–2524 / 20–2624 / 21–2724 / 21–2723 / 20–2621 / 18–2519 / 15–2315 / 12–21
Rain mm30 / 22–4342 / 26–8253 / 31–10695 / 47–169234 / 161–338485 / 387–546542 / 397–635628 / 445–701410 / 307–471115 / 85–14948 / 35–7231 / 23–42
DLI23 / 22–2426 / 24–2831 / 30–3434 / 33–3934 / 32–3833 / 32–3736 / 34–3933 / 31–3631 / 29–3429 / 27–3124 / 23–2621 / 20–23
RH %63 / 59–6563 / 59–6664 / 61–6664 / 62–6665 / 63–6767 / 66–7067 / 65–7068 / 66–7166 / 63–6865 / 60–6764 / 59–6563 / 59–65
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 69 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (179 records in those cells; 1 more cell holds records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cell is 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 1345:6012 (22.725, 120.625). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 10.7 °C, 1st-percentile night 15.2 °C, 99th-percentile day 33.2 °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 69 distinct grid cells holding 179 of the 182 in-range records (1 further cell with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1345:6012 (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 22.50_120.625, lapse-corrected -91 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 117 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.
NativeTaiwan, Philippines · 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 marker22.669, 120.692 · in the densest population, 232 records (95% of those in range)
Kew's description“perennial or subshrub” · “wet tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 245 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 179 of them in the land cells it reads, of 182 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 54 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 15 km away. 5 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 63 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 245 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Hypoestes cumingiana, photograph 1did not loadHypoestes cumingiana, photograph 2did not loadHypoestes cumingiana, photograph 3did not loadHypoestes cumingiana, photograph 4did not loadHypoestes cumingiana, photograph 5did not loadHypoestes cumingiana, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) 如此甚好, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) 謝麗霦, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4).

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

Champereia manillana Champereia manillana Manila Champereia Photo: CC BY, 黃美滿Stictocardia tiliifolia Stictocardia tiliifolia Spottedheart Photo: CC BY, GabrielCroton cascarilloides Croton cascarilloides Euphorbiaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, vrxzSmilax ocreata Smilax ocreata Smilacaceae Photo: CC BY, 黃美滿Lindera akoensis Lindera akoensis Taiwan spicebush Photo: CC BY, Yu-Huang WangVitex negundo Vitex negundo Chinese Chaste Tree Photo: CC BY, Sandy Wolkenberg

Other Hypoestes 6 in the reference

Hypoestes aristata Hypoestes aristata Acanthaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedHypoestes floribunda Hypoestes floribunda Hypoestes Photo: CC BY-SA, Lachlan CopelandHypoestes forskaolii Hypoestes forskaolii Acanthaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedHypoestes phyllostachya Hypoestes phyllostachya Polkadot-plant Photo: CC BY, Shaan AroesteHypoestes purpurea Hypoestes purpurea Acanthaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedHypoestes triflora Hypoestes triflora Acanthaceae Photo: CC BY, Wynand Uys

Names & registers

Also known as Hypoestes linearis; Peristrophe cumingiana. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataiNaturalist

The record

Family
Acanthaceae
Described by
(Nees) Fern.-Vill.
Native to
Taiwan, Philippines
Wild records
245 in range · 54 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 2026-10-22GBIF's key 8361326 is Hypoestes cumingiana Benth. & Hook.fil.; the page links Kew's Hypoestes cumingiana (Nees) Fern.-Vill., and the name is cited as Kew cites it
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; 19 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (19 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 22.50_120.625, lapse-corrected -91 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22found by its label; its IPNI identifier 49876-1 is IPNI's record of Hypoestes cumingiana Benth. & Hook.f., the same name; IPNI and POWO linked by Kew's number for Hypoestes cumingiana (Nees) Fern.-Vill. (the item's: IPNI 49876-1, POWO 49876-1)
Wikipedia wikipedia nothing to reportasked 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 12 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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