Species
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Melastoma malabathricum L.

Indian-rhododendron, Malabar Melastome, Suka

Climate known 58 photographs Tropical foliage plant
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

Melastoma malabathricum, known also as Malabar melastome, Indian rhododendron, Singapore rhododendron, planter's rhododendron and senduduk, is a flowering plant in the family Melastomataceae native to Seychelles, tropical and subtropical Asia to Australia and western Pacific islands. Despite its common names, it does not have any connection to actual rhododendrons, and belongs to the Rosids clade as opposed to the Asterids clade. This plant is usually found at elevations between 100 m and 2,800 m in grassland and sparse forest habitats. It has been used as a medicinal plant in certain parts of the world, but has been declared a noxious weed in the United States. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Melastoma malabathricum”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Melastoma

Melastoma is a genus in the family Melastomataceae. It has over 100 species distributed around Southeast Asia, India, north to Japan, south to Australia and the Pacific Islands. The number of species should probably be reduced according to some sources. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Melastoma”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Melastomataceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Seychelles, China South-Central, Hainan +35
Wild records
1712 in range· 832 open

At a glance

Warmest month
28°C
Aug, mean day; nights 22 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
2129mm/yr
12 wet months · peak May 211 mm (CHELSA)
Light
28–33DLI
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 Melastomataceae, which is usually but not always one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (February to March, May to September and December at the habitat (not shifted)). Habitat rain 2129 mm a year, wettest May at 211 mm, driest October at 118 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 28 to 33 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 12 °C (archetype minimum for a tropical foliage plant, above the 10.1 °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 Melastoma baumianum Naudin; Melastoma malabathricum var. javanum Bakh.f.; Melastoma normale var. divergens Craib; Melastoma osbeckioides Guill.; Melastoma polyanthum var. linearifolium Bakh.f. and 5 more.

Cultivation

Grouped as a tropical foliage plant by Melastomataceae, which is usually but not always 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: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (February to March, May to September and December at the habitat (not shifted)).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (1538 mm of 2129 mm) takes 8 months, February to March, May to September and December. Mean temperature moves 3.0 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; with a flat temperature curve there is no season to reverse, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

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 2129 mm a year, wettest May at 211 mm, driest October at 118 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

2129 mm a year at the habitat, 1538 mm of it February to March, May to September and December. Wettest month May at 211 mm, driest October at 118 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1272 mm to 3993 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: 28 to 33 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 28 to 33 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 15, the highest 90th-percentile month 44).

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 10.1 °C habitat night).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 10.1 °C, the absolute minimum 5.0 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 40.3 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 19.8 °C in November (across the envelope cells 13.8 °C to 25.2 °C), warmest day 28.2 °C in August (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 10.1 °C; the archetype table's conventional minimum for a tropical foliage plant (grouped by Melastomataceae, which is usually but not always 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: 63 to 66% 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 26 °C in Apr to 28 °C in Aug; mean night from 20 °C in Nov to 22 °C in Jun. The cold quarter, Oct to Dec, is the three months around the coldest night. 2129 mm of rain a year, most in May. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 1130 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 5.0 °C and the 99th-percentile day 40.3 °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°40.3° 99th-percentile day (undated)5.0° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 28–33RH 63–66 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 1130 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 °C27 / 16–3127 / 17–3126 / 19–3126 / 22–3227 / 22–3128 / 20–3028 / 20–3028 / 21–3128 / 23–3227 / 23–3226 / 21–3227 / 17–31
Night °C21 / 9–2521 / 10–2520 / 13–2520 / 16–2521 / 16–2522 / 14–2522 / 13–2622 / 13–2622 / 15–2521 / 16–2520 / 14–2520 / 10–25
Rain mm169 / 25–413189 / 37–392186 / 59–346173 / 70–305211 / 27–361200 / 5–476190 / 4–478193 / 3–493195 / 9–499118 / 35–396131 / 44–384174 / 27–350
DLI30 / 15–4032 / 17–3733 / 23–3832 / 26–3831 / 24–3531 / 21–3433 / 22–3833 / 27–3833 / 28–4232 / 23–4429 / 18–4328 / 15–41
RH %65 / 59–7165 / 60–7165 / 60–7065 / 57–7166 / 57–7166 / 55–7165 / 55–7166 / 54–7165 / 56–7064 / 57–7063 / 58–7164 / 58–71

Each figure is the median across the 1130 grid cells holding the 1656 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 2143:6482 (-17.175, 144.125). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 5.0 °C, 1st-percentile night 10.1 °C, 99th-percentile day 40.3 °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 1130 distinct grid cells holding the 1656 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2143:6482 (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 -17.00_144.375, lapse-corrected -87 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 281 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.
NativeSeychelles, China South-Central, Hainan, China Southeast, Tibet, Kazan-retto, Nansei-shoto, Taiwan, Assam, Bangladesh, East Himalaya, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Andaman Is., Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Nicobar Is., Thailand, Vietnam, Borneo, Jawa, Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Maluku, Philippines, Sulawesi, Sumatera, Bismarck Archipelago, New Guinea, Solomon Is., New South Wales, Northern Territory, Queensland, Western Australia, Caroline Is., Marianas· introduced: Mauritius, Madagascar, Hawaii, Florida, Cuba, Jamaica, Trinidad-Tobago
Kew's description“shrub or tree” · “wet tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker24.761, 121.584 · in the densest population, 459 records (27% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1712 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 832 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 17 km away. 63 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 56 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 1712 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Melastoma malabathricumMelastoma malabathricumMelastoma malabathricumMelastoma malabathricumMelastoma malabathricumMelastoma malabathricumMelastoma malabathricumMelastoma malabathricum

Photographs: (c) Sarka Masova, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Hopeland, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); no rights reserved · CC0 (2).

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

Beneficial effect of aluminum on growth of plants adapted to low pH soils
Mitsuru Osaki, Toshihiro Watanabe, Toshiaki Tadano (1997) · Soil Science & Plant Nutrition
Antioxidant and cytotoxic flavonoids from the flowers of Melastoma malabathricum L.
Deny Susanti, Hasnah Mohd Sirat, Farediah Ahmad, Rasadah Mat Ali (2006) · Food Chemistry
Distribution and chemical speciation of aluminum in the Al accumulator plant, Melastoma malabathricum L.
Toshihiro Watanabe, Mitsuru Osaki, Teruhiko Yoshihara, Toshiaki Tadano (1998) · Plant and Soil
Reducing Sugar, Total Phenolic Content, and Antioxidant Potential of Nepalese Plants
Deepa Khatri, Sumit Bahadur Baruwal Chhetri (2020) · BioMed Research International
Melastoma malabathricum(L.) Smith Ethnomedicinal Uses, Chemical Constituents, and Pharmacological Properties: A Review
Suhaidah Mohd Joffry, N. J. Yob, Mohd Salleh Rofiee, Meor Mohd Redzuan Meor Mohd Affandi (2011) · Evidence-based Complementary and Alternative Medicine
RETRACTED ARTICLE: Anti-diabetic, anti-oxidant and anti-hyperlipidemic activities of Melastoma malabathricum Linn. leaves in streptozotocin induced diabetic rats
Vikas Kumar, Danish Ahmed, Pushpraj S Gupta, Firoz Anwar (2013) · BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine
Effects of abiotic stress on biomass and anthocyanin production in cell cultures of Melastoma malabathricum
Chan Lai Keng, S. S. Koay, Peng Lim Boey, Arvind Bhatt (2010) · Biological Research
Attenuation of quorum-sensing-dependent virulence factors and biofilm formation by medicinal plants against antibiotic resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa
Pitchaipillai Sankar Ganesh, V. Ravishankar (2017) · Journal of Traditional and Complementary Medicine
The relationship between aluminium and silicon accumulation in leaves of Faramea marginata (Rubiaceae)
Ricardo Miranda de Britez, Toshihiro Watanabe, Steven Jansen, Carlos Bruno Reissmann (2002) · New Phytologist
Antidiabetic and antihyperlipidaemic activity of ethanol extract of Melastoma malabathricum Linn. leaf in alloxan induced diabetic rats
Karuppasamy Balamurugan, A. Nishanthini, V. R. Mohan (2014) · Asian Pacific Journal of Tropical Biomedicine

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.

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 92 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.