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Mussaenda macrophylla; photograph 胡正恆(Jackson Hu), CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF CC BY胡正恆(Jackson Hu), CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF

Mussaenda macrophylla Wall.

Rubiaceae · China Southeast, Taiwan +11

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Mussaenda macrophylla, photograph 胡正恆(Jackson Hu), CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFMussaenda macrophylla, photograph 胡正恆(Jackson Hu), CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFMussaenda macrophylla, photograph 胡正恆(Jackson Hu), CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFMussaenda macrophylla, photograph 胡正恆(Jackson Hu), CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFMussaenda macrophylla, photograph 胡正恆(Jackson Hu), CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFMussaenda macrophylla, photograph 胡正恆(Jackson Hu), CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF 13 photographs ›
Habitat figuresfrom few records
Coldest month, mean nightly low
20.2°C
Jan at the habitat, not a floor; extremes not used (sea cell) CHELSA
Warmest month, mean daily high
28°C
Jun, Jul and Aug at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
3,465mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
20–39DLI
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 November, read as a summer growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

From few records: 11 records in 7 grid cells. The records.

Summary

Mussaenda macrophylla, commonly known as sweet root is an evergreen Asian shrub. The bracts of the shrub may have different shades, including red, white or some mixtures. M. macrophylla is native to Asian countries like China, Taiwan, Nepal, Myanmar, Malaysia, Philippines.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Mussaenda macrophylla", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Mussaenda

Mussaenda is a genus of flowering plants in the family Rubiaceae. They are native to the African and Asian tropics and subtropics. Several species are cultivated as ornamental plants.

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

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (2,657 mm of 3,650 mm) falls in May to November, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 26.3 °C against a yearly mean of 24.7 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to May.

Rain

3,650 mm in the median year at the habitat, 2,657 mm of it May to November. Wettest month September at 479 mm, driest month March at 154 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 2,320 mm to 4,084 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 3,465 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 3,650 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: 20 to 39 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 18, the highest 90th-percentile month 41).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 20.2 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 8.1 °C to 22.3 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 28.1 °C in July and August (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: none read. The nearest figure is 20.2 °C, the coldest month's mean nightly low, January, in the median year (CHELSA); a month's mean of its nightly lows is warmer than the nights a floor is read from. The daily extremes were read at a weather cell that is mostly sea and are not used.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 60 to 70% 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. CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. No cold floor is read without a daily extremes series; the coldest month's mean nightly low named in its sentence is not one. 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

From few records: this habitat climate is read from 11 records in 7 grid cells; a page says so under 12 records or 5 cells, and shows the figures as read.

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Mussaenda macrophylla through the yearWarmest months June, July and August, mean daily high 28 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 20.2 °C; 3,650 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.5°10°15°20°25°30°°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500600mm rainDLI 20–39RH 60–70%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 7 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C22 / 18–2422 / 19–2424 / 23–2625 / 25–2727 / 26–2828 / 27–2828 / 27–2828 / 27–2827 / 26–2826 / 25–2725 / 22–2623 / 20–24
Night °C20 / 8–2221 / 9–2322 / 13–2424 / 16–2525 / 19–2626 / 21–2727 / 22–2727 / 22–2726 / 21–2625 / 17–2523 / 13–2421 / 10–23
Rain mm247 / 24–303206 / 21–252154 / 33–188170 / 72–189316 / 226–360427 / 325–476389 / 323–456420 / 380–472479 / 349–558343 / 158–410283 / 40–344216 / 26–264
DLI21 / 19–2925 / 24–3431 / 30–3937 / 33–4137 / 31–3837 / 27–3839 / 23–3936 / 25–3632 / 25–3329 / 27–3023 / 22–2720 / 18–26
RH %60 / 59–6162 / 58–6263 / 57–6364 / 59–6567 / 62–6869 / 67–7169 / 68–7470 / 68–7268 / 66–7064 / 62–6662 / 60–6460 / 59–61

The daily extremes were read at a NASA POWER cell that is 0% land: neither it nor the next candidates whose coldest month's mean nightly low is within 2 °C of the median across cells sit in a POWER cell that is mostly land, and the rule reads a cold floor only from a cell that is mostly land, so none is read for this species. Nor is the coldest month's mean nightly low taken as one: it is a mean of a month's lows, not its coldest night. What that cell gave over 44 years: absolute minimum 14.3 °C, 1st-percentile night 18.1 °C, 99th-percentile day 29.4 °C.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 7 grid cells holding the 11 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 1359:6031 (22.025, 121.575). 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 7 distinct grid cells holding 11 of the 11 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1359:6031 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells, though its NASA POWER cell is only 0% land and none of the 3 next candidates within 2 °C of the median was mostly land); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 22.00_121.875, lapse-corrected +123 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 123 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.
NativeChina Southeast, Taiwan, Assam, Bangladesh, East Himalaya, Nepal, Andaman Is., Cambodia, Myanmar, Nicobar Is., Thailand, Malaya, 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 marker22.049, 121.529 · in the densest population, 35 records (45% of those in range)
Kew's description“scrambling shrub or tree” · “wet tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 77 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 11 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 33 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 1 km away. 10 records outside the WCVP native range not used. Under a dozen records behind the climate. 66 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 77 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Mussaenda macrophylla, photograph 1did not loadMussaenda macrophylla, photograph 2did not loadMussaenda macrophylla, photograph 3did not loadMussaenda macrophylla, photograph 4did not loadMussaenda macrophylla, photograph 5did not loadMussaenda macrophylla, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: 胡正恆(Jackson Hu), CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF (6).

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

Maesa lanyuensis Maesa lanyuensis Primulaceae Photo: CC BY, 胡正恆(Jackson Hu)Kalanchoe tashiroi Kalanchoe tashiroi Crassulaceae Photo: CC BY, 胡正恆(Jackson Hu) Clausena anisum-olens Rutaceae Gomphandra luzoniensis Gomphandra luzoniensis Stemonuraceae Photo: CC BY, Cheng-Te HsuMurraya omphalocarpa Murraya omphalocarpa Rutaceae Photo: CC BY, Cheng-Te HsuAlpinia flabellata Alpinia flabellata Zingiberaceae Photo: CC BY, Weiting Liu

Other Mussaenda 9 in the reference

Mussaenda erosa Mussaenda erosa Rubiaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedMussaenda erythrophylla Mussaenda erythrophylla Red-leaved Mussaenda Photo: CC0, author not statedMussaenda frondosa Mussaenda frondosa Bangkok rose Photo: CC BY, rajesh rocky Mussaenda glabra Hairless Mussaenda Mussaenda mollissima Rubiaceae Mussaenda parviflora Mussaenda parviflora Taipei mursaenda Photo: CC0, author not statedMussaenda philippica Mussaenda philippica Buddha's-lamp Photo: CC BY, Natan GabrielMussaenda pubescens Mussaenda pubescens Rubiaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedMussaenda sanderiana Mussaenda sanderiana Rubiaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Franz Xaver

Names & registers

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipedia

The record

Family
Rubiaceae
Described by
Wall.
Native to
China Southeast, Taiwan, Assam +10
Wild records
77 in range · 33 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 2026-10-22
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
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 22.00_121.875, lapse-corrected +123 m at 6.5 °C/km; read, and set aside: NASA POWER's cell is mostly sea (0% land), so no cold floor is shown
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22IPNI and POWO linked by Kew's number for Mussaenda macrophylla Wall. (the item's: IPNI 756720-1, POWO 756718-1)
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist taxon inat.taxon not asked
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild not asked
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 28 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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