Species
+

Justicia adhatoda L.

Aatalootakam, Indisches Lungenkraut (DE); Malabar Nut (EN), Malabar Nut, Malabar nut tree

Climate known 59 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

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.

Summary

Justicia adhatoda commonly known in English as Malabar nut, adulsa, adhatoda, vasa, vasaka, is native to Asia. Adathoda means 'untouched by goats' in Tamil. The name derives from the fact that animals like goats do not eat this plant due to its extreme bitter taste.

Text from Wikipedia, “Justicia adhatoda”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

Family
Acanthaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Afghanistan, Assam, Bangladesh +9
Wild records
395 in range· 177 open

At a glance

Warmest month
33°C
May, mean day; nights 23 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1205mm/yr
7 wet months · peak Jul 331 mm (CHELSA)
Light
27–43DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: a summer growing season, June to September in the northern hemisphere (June to September at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 1205 mm a year, wettest July at 331 mm, driest January at 11 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 27 to 43 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 7.6 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
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 Adeloda serrata Raf.; Adhatoda adhatoda (L.) Huth; Adhatoda arborea Raf.; Adhatoda pubescens Moench; Adhatoda vasica Nees and 6 more.

Cultivation

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

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 (939 mm of 1205 mm) falls in June to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 27.3 °C against a yearly mean of 24.1 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December to March.

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 1205 mm a year, wettest July at 331 mm, driest January at 11 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1205 mm a year at the habitat, 939 mm of it June to September. Wettest month July at 331 mm, driest January at 11 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 673 mm to 3097 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern 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: 27 to 43 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 27 to 43 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 20, 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 7.6 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 7.6 °C, the absolute minimum 1.4 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 38.3 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 10.7 °C in January (across the envelope cells 3.8 °C to 19.8 °C), warmest day 33.2 °C in May (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 7.6 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

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. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 50 to 67% 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 23 °C in Jan to 33 °C in May; mean night from 11 °C in Jan to 24 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1205 mm of rain a year, most in Jul. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 286 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 1.4 °C and the 99th-percentile day 38.3 °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°50°38.3° 99th-percentile day (undated)1.4° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter02004006008001000mm rainDLI 27–43RH 50–67 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 286 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 °C23 / 15–2926 / 17–3130 / 21–3433 / 25–3833 / 27–4032 / 25–3830 / 24–3329 / 24–3229 / 24–3229 / 23–3327 / 20–3124 / 17–29
Night °C11 / 4–2013 / 6–2117 / 10–2321 / 13–2523 / 16–2724 / 18–2824 / 19–2624 / 19–2623 / 17–2519 / 14–2415 / 9–2212 / 6–21
Rain mm11 / 2–6916 / 1–7220 / 1–10639 / 2–14662 / 10–248152 / 54–565331 / 100–904288 / 120–651168 / 91–37885 / 19–21020 / 7–10013 / 3–50
DLI29 / 21–3634 / 25–4040 / 32–4443 / 37–4743 / 33–4834 / 26–4428 / 22–3527 / 23–3431 / 26–3432 / 26–3529 / 24–3327 / 20–32
RH %54 / 48–6152 / 45–6050 / 42–6151 / 37–6357 / 40–6662 / 48–7266 / 59–7467 / 62–7365 / 56–7160 / 46–6754 / 46–6454 / 48–62

Each figure is the median across the 286 grid cells holding the 376 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 1359:5616 (22.025, 100.825). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 1.4 °C, 1st-percentile night 7.6 °C, 99th-percentile day 38.3 °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 286 distinct grid cells holding the 376 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1359:5616 (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 22.00_100.625, lapse-corrected -418 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 718 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.
NativeAfghanistan, Assam, Bangladesh, East Himalaya, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, West Himalaya, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam· introduced: Sicilia, Algeria, Ethiopia, Madagascar, China South-Central, Hainan, China Southeast, Cuba, Jamaica
Kew's description“shrub or tree” · “seasonally dry tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker27.564, 76.61 · in the densest population, 82 records (21% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 395 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 177 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 637 km away. 108 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 19 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 of the 395 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Justicia adhatodaJusticia adhatodaJusticia adhatodaJusticia adhatodaJusticia adhatodaJusticia adhatodaJusticia adhatodaJusticia adhatoda

Photographs: (c) Siddarth Machado, some rights reserved (CC BY) (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 Justicia adhatoda, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Maxent modeling for predicting the potential distribution of medicinal plant, Justicia adhatoda L. in Lesser Himalayan foothills
Xueqing Yang, S. P. S. Kushwaha, S. Saran, Jianchu Xu (2013) · Ecological Engineering
Determination of major and trace elements in ten important folk therapeutic plants of Haripur basin, Pakistan
Shazia Jabeen, Muhammad Tahir Shah, Sardar Khan, Muhammad Qasim Hayat (2010) · Journal of Medicinal Plants Research
Ionic liquid - A greener templating agent with Justicia adhatoda plant extract assisted green synthesis of morphologically improved Ag-Au/ZnO nanostructure and it's antibacterial and anticancer activities
P. Nithya, Balaji Murugesan, Mayakrishnan Arumugam, Jegatheeswaran Sonamuthu (2019) · Journal of Photochemistry and Photobiology B Biology
Efficiency of ISSR and RAPD markers in genetic divergence analysis and conservation management of Justicia adhatoda L., a medicinal plant
Amit Kumar, Priyanka Mishra, Subhash Singh, Velusamy Sundaresan (2014) · Plant Systematics and Evolution
Green Synthesis of Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles by Justicia adhatoda Leaves and Their Antimicrobial Activity
Rekha Pachaiappan, Saravanan Rajendran, Gomathi Ramalingam, Dai‐Viet N. Vo (2021) · Chemical Engineering & Technology
A review on Justicia adhatoda: A potential source of natural medicine
eep Dhankhar, Ramanjeet Kaur, Sonam Ruhil, Meenakshi Balhara (2013) · African Journal of Plant Science
Identification of alkaloids from Justicia adhatoda as potent SARS CoV-2 main protease inhibitors: An in silico perspective
Rajesh Ghosh, Ayon Chakraborty, Ashis Biswas, Snehasis Chowdhuri (2020) · Journal of Molecular Structure

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 Justicia 5 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 answeredcarried 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.