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Marsdenia formosana Masam.

Apocynaceae · China South-Central, Nansei-shoto +1

English names not checked: Wikidata's common names were not read for this page.

Photographs not checked iNaturalist and GBIF media were skipped (not asked) when this page was built. Not asked, or not answered, is not "none": nothing here claims there is none. Why the site says it this way.
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Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
6.7°C
Record low 0.4 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
27°C
Jul and Aug at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
3,658mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
16–37DLI
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 May to October, read as a summer growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (2,475 mm of 3,411 mm) falls in May to October, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 23.8 °C against a yearly mean of 20.0 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to April.

Rain

3,411 mm in the median year at the habitat, 2,475 mm of it May to October. Wettest month September at 521 mm, driest month December at 95 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 2,823 mm to 4,561 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 3,658 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 3,411 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: 16 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 13, the highest 90th-percentile month 38).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 6.7 °C, the absolute minimum 0.4 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 32.9 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 9.8 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 5.1 °C to 13.6 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 27.4 °C in July (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 6.7 °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: 65 to 69% 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 -12 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, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Marsdenia formosana through the yearWarmest months July and August, mean daily high 27 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 9.8 °C; 3,411 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.-10°0°10°20°30°40°frost32.9° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER0.4° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0200400600800mm rainDLI 16–37RH 65–69%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 164 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 °C16 / 13–1817 / 14–1919 / 16–2222 / 19–2424 / 20–2626 / 22–2827 / 23–3027 / 23–2926 / 21–2823 / 19–2520 / 17–2317 / 14–19
Night °C10 / 5–1411 / 6–1413 / 9–1616 / 12–1919 / 14–2221 / 15–2421 / 15–2521 / 16–2520 / 15–2418 / 13–2115 / 10–1811 / 6–15
Rain mm100 / 54–269177 / 112–317188 / 135–255223 / 177–262351 / 288–480449 / 340–668412 / 243–735456 / 333–791521 / 376–655286 / 105–579153 / 49–46795 / 50–298
DLI17 / 13–2219 / 15–2525 / 21–3129 / 26–3331 / 29–3332 / 30–3437 / 34–3833 / 30–3529 / 27–3024 / 21–2819 / 16–2416 / 13–21
RH %66 / 62–7367 / 63–7367 / 63–7266 / 64–7167 / 64–7167 / 64–7066 / 64–7068 / 66–7169 / 66–7268 / 64–7267 / 62–7265 / 61–72
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 164 grid cells holding the 510 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 1331:6012 (23.425, 120.625). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 0.4 °C, 1st-percentile night 6.7 °C, 99th-percentile day 32.9 °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 164 distinct grid cells holding 510 of the 510 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1331:6012 (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 23.50_120.625, lapse-corrected -12 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 675 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.

This species has no GBIF key of its own. Its records are GBIF's under the key of the name Kew's World Checklist holds as this plant: 3577509 (Marsdenia formosana Masam., 751 records). No name was matched to GBIF; the keys are read from Kew's synonymy. How.

NativeChina South-Central, Nansei-shoto, Taiwan · 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 marker24.701, 121.358 · in the densest population, 595 records (98% of those in range)
Kew's description“climbing shrub” · “subtropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 609 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 510 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 95 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 55 km away. 99 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 3577509 (Marsdenia formosana Masam.): Kew's file holds it as Marsdenia formosana Masam. (accepted); 751 records, from GBIF's download.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 609 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Not checked. iNaturalist and GBIF media were skipped (not asked) when this page was built. Not a statement that none exist.

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

Aralia bipinnata Aralia bipinnata Araliaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedHymenasplenium cheilosorum Hymenasplenium cheilosorum Aspleniaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, 許文俊Vanilla somae Vanilla somae Orchidaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedStrobilanthes formosana Strobilanthes formosana Acanthaceae Photo: CC BY, 如此甚好Acanthophippium striatum Acanthophippium striatum Striped Spiny-Saddle Orchid Photo: CC BY, 黃美滿Aeschynanthus acuminatus Aeschynanthus acuminatus Gesneriaceae Photo: CC BY, 如此甚好

Other Marsdenia 1 in the reference

Marsdenia tinctoria Marsdenia tinctoria Climbing-indigo Photo: CC BY, 黃美滿

Names & registers

IPNIPOWOWikidataWFO

The record

Family
Apocynaceae
Described by
Masam.
Native to
China South-Central, Nansei-shoto, Taiwan
Wild records
609 in range · 95 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
Kew's names (WCVP) kew.names answeredas of 2026-06-04Kew's entry Marsdenia formosana Masam. (plant_name_id 508054), read from Kew's names file
GBIF species record gbif.species not askedGBIF's backbone holds no one accepted species of this name, and a name it holds only as another species' synonym is not taken for this one, so GBIF's records were not asked
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms not askedGBIF's backbone holds no one accepted species of this name, and a name it holds only as another species' synonym is not taken for this one, so GBIF's records were not asked
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular not askedGBIF's backbone holds no one accepted species of this name, and a name it holds only as another species' synonym is not taken for this one, so GBIF's records were not asked
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21this species has no GBIF key of its own; its records are read under GBIF's keys for the names Kew's file holds as this plant, never by a name matched; GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 751 records of GBIF's key 3577509, Marsdenia formosana Masam. (Kew's file holds it as Marsdenia formosana Masam. (accepted)): the GBIF download; 5 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (5 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 23.50_120.625, lapse-corrected -12 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22found by Kew's IPNI identifier 99153-1, POWO 99153-1
Wikipedia wikipedia nothing to reportasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild not asked
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media not askedGBIF's backbone holds no one accepted species of this name, and a name it holds only as another species' synonym is not taken for this one, so GBIF's records were not asked
Wikimedia Commons commons nothing to reportasked 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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