Species
+

Orthosiphon aristatus (Blume) Miq.

Balbas pusa, Cat's Whiskers, Chemadecharebub, Java Tea

Climate known 52 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

Orthosiphon aristatus, commonly known as cat's whiskers or Java tea, is a plant species in the family Lamiaceae. The plant is a medicinal herb found mainly throughout southern China, the Indian subcontinent, South East Asia, and tropical Queensland, Australia. As a medical herb, it is used for increasing excretion of urine, lowering uric acid, protecting kidney, reducing oxidative stress, reducing inflammation, protecting liver, protecting stomach, lowering blood pressure, ameliorating diabetes, ameliorating hyperlipidemia, fighting microorganisms and fighting anorexia. It is known as kumis kucing in Indonesia and misai kucing in Malaysia, both of which translate to cat's whiskers.

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

About the genus · Orthosiphon

Orthosiphon is a genus of plants in the family Lamiaceae native to Africa, Southern Asia and Queensland, with one species (O. americanus) in Colombia. They are herbaceous shrubs which grow to a height of 1.5 m (5 ft). Some Orthosiphon species are popular garden plants because of their flowers, which are white and bluish with filaments resembling a cat's whiskers. More on Wikipedia ›

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

Family
Lamiaceae
Described by
(Blume) Miq.
Native to
China South-Central, Hainan, China Southeast +22
Wild records
1089 in range· 588 open

At a glance

Warmest month
29°C
May, mean day; nights 23 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
2209mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Dec 204 mm (CHELSA)
Light
30–35DLI
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: no season, 70% of the rain takes 9 months (August to January and March to May at the habitat (not shifted)). Habitat rain 2209 mm a year, wettest December at 204 mm, driest February at 166 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 30 to 35 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 18.4 °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 Ocimum aristatum Blume.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 9 months (August to January and March to May 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 (1705 mm of 2209 mm) takes 9 months, August to January and March to May. Mean temperature moves 1.1 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere, within 10° of the equator; with no thermal season there 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 2209 mm a year, wettest December at 204 mm, driest February at 166 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

2209 mm a year at the habitat, 1705 mm of it August to January and March to May. Wettest month December at 204 mm, driest February at 166 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1247 mm to 3662 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: 30 to 35 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 30 to 35 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 22, the highest 90th-percentile month 43).

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 18.4 °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 18.4 °C, the absolute minimum 15.0 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 30.4 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 21.7 °C in January (across the envelope cells 13.1 °C to 24.7 °C), warmest day 28.8 °C in May (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 18.4 °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: 65 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 28 °C in Dec to 29 °C in May; mean night from 22 °C in Jan to 23 °C in May. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 2209 mm of rain a year, most in Dec. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 727 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 15.0 °C and the 99th-percentile day 30.4 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°15°20°25°30°35°30.4° 99th-percentile day (undated)15.0° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 30–35RH 65–66 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 727 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 °C28 / 20–3028 / 22–3128 / 24–3229 / 24–3329 / 24–3229 / 23–3129 / 22–3129 / 23–3128 / 24–3128 / 25–3128 / 24–3028 / 21–30
Night °C22 / 13–2522 / 15–2522 / 17–2523 / 18–2623 / 18–2623 / 17–2623 / 16–2623 / 16–2623 / 17–2522 / 17–2522 / 17–2522 / 14–25
Rain mm187 / 12–461166 / 16–426189 / 31–412181 / 62–342200 / 94–322168 / 63–395170 / 43–389173 / 34–388193 / 38–348193 / 63–357185 / 47–378204 / 15–408
DLI31 / 22–3933 / 24–3835 / 28–4034 / 28–4132 / 27–3731 / 24–3532 / 25–3633 / 27–3734 / 29–3933 / 28–4330 / 25–4230 / 22–41
RH %65 / 57–7166 / 56–7166 / 57–7166 / 59–7166 / 60–7166 / 60–7166 / 59–7165 / 59–7165 / 59–7065 / 60–7066 / 59–7166 / 57–71

Each figure is the median across the 727 grid cells holding the 1034 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 1361:6016 (21.925, 120.825). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 15.0 °C, 1st-percentile night 18.4 °C, 99th-percentile day 30.4 °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 727 distinct grid cells holding the 1034 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1361:6016 (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_120.625, lapse-corrected +21 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 45 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.
NativeChina South-Central, Hainan, China Southeast, Taiwan, Assam, Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Nicobar Is., Thailand, Vietnam, Borneo, Jawa, Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Maluku, Philippines, Sulawesi, Sumatera, Bismarck Archipelago, New Guinea, Queensland· introduced: Fiji, Niue, Samoa, Caroline Is.
Kew's description“subshrub or shrub” · “wet tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker1.368, 103.775 · in the densest population, 259 records (24% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1089 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 588 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 742 km away. 71 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 55 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 inside the densest 4° block of the 1089 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Orthosiphon aristatusOrthosiphon aristatusOrthosiphon aristatusOrthosiphon aristatusOrthosiphon aristatusOrthosiphon aristatusOrthosiphon aristatusOrthosiphon aristatus

Photographs: (c) Ram Dayal Vaishnav, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); no rights reserved · CC0; (c) renjus box, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Bala Subramanian, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA); (c) Jane C Frost, some rights reserved (CC BY) (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 Orthosiphon aristatus, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis of the Phenolic Constituents fromOrthosiphon aristatus
Wahono Sumaryono, Peter Proksch, Victor Wray, Ludger Witte (1991) · Planta Medica
Antiviral and cytotoxic activities of some plants used in Malaysian indigenous medicine
Abdul Manaf Ali, Muhammad Mukram Mohamed Mackeen, Saleh El-Sharkawy, Junainah Abdul Hamid (1996) · Universiti Putra Malaysia Institutional Repository (Universiti Putra Malaysia)
Induction of rosmarinic acid accumulation in cell suspension cultures of Orthosiphon aristatus after treatment with yeast extract
Wahono Sumaryono, Peter Proksch, Tobias Hartmann, Manfred Nimtz (1991) · Phytochemistry
Sinensetin: An Insight on Its Pharmacological Activities, Mechanisms of Action and Toxicity
Lee Han Jie, Ibrahim Jantan, Syaratul Dalina Yusoff, Juriyati Jalil (2021) · Frontiers in Pharmacology
Antioxidant and Anti-Inflammatory Effects of Orthosiphon aristatus and Its Bioactive Compounds
Chin‐Lin Hsu, Bo-Han Hong, Yu‐Shan Yu, Gow‐Chin Yen (2010) · Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
Screening of in vitro antimicrobial activity of plants used in traditional Indonesian medicine
Andreas Romulo, Ervizal A.M. Zuhud, Johana Rondevaldová, Ladislav Kokoška (2018) · Pharmaceutical Biology
Effect of ambient conditions on drying of herbs in solar greenhouse dryer with integrated heat pump
Thing Chai Tham, Mei Xiang Ng, Shu Hui Gan, Lee Suan Chua (2017) · Drying Technology
Antihypertensive Actions of Methylripariochromene A from Orthosiphon aristatus, an Indonesian Traditional Medicinal Plant.
Toshiyuki Matsubara, Takako Bohgaki, Watarai Michiyo, Hideyo Suzuki (1999) · Biological and Pharmaceutical Bulletin
Phytochemical profile of Orthosiphon aristatus extracts after storage: Rosmarinic acid and other caffeic acid derivatives
Lee Suan Chua, Cher Haan Lau, Chee Yung Chew, Nurul Izzati Mohd Ismail (2017) · Phytomedicine

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: filled 2026-09-20
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 61 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.