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Phyllanthus angustifolius; photograph (c) Jared Shorma, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Jared Shorma, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2023-12-12

Phyllanthus angustifolius (Sw.) Sw.

Foliage flower; Duppy Bush

Phyllanthaceae · Cayman Is., Cuba +3

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Phyllanthus angustifolius, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedPhyllanthus angustifolius, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedPhyllanthus angustifolius, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedPhyllanthus angustifolius, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedPhyllanthus angustifolius, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedPhyllanthus angustifolius, photograph (c) Dan Schofield, some rights reserved (CC BY) 38 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Coldest month, mean nightly low
24.0°C
Feb at the habitat, not a floor; extremes not used (sea cell) CHELSA
Warmest month, mean daily high
29°C
Jul, Aug and Sep at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,438mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
27–44DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in the habitat's months, not shifted
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
A sharp rainy season, May to June and August to November (the habitat's months, not shifted), in a year of even temperature. rain rule, CHELSA
Not shifted: the shift rule does not apply to this habitat. The chart is in the habitat's months.

About the genus · Phyllanthus

Phyllanthus is the largest genus in the plant family Phyllanthaceae. Estimates of the number of species in this genus vary widely, from 750 to 1200. Phyllanthus has a remarkable diversity of growth forms including annual and perennial herbs, shrubs, climbers, floating aquatics, and pachycaulous succulents. More on Wikipedia ›

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

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a sharp season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,023 mm of 1,379 mm) falls in May to June and August to November. The temperature curve is flat, 3.2 °C between the warmest and coldest month, so the growing-season rule does not infer a growing season from it. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere. The temperature curve moves under 4 °C between the warmest and coldest month, where the shift rule does not apply, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

Rain

1,379 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,023 mm of it May to June and August to November. Wettest month October at 223 mm, driest months (2 at 39 mm). Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,035 mm to 1,885 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,438 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,379 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: 27 to 44 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 24.0 °C in February (across the grid cells of the range 20.3 °C to 24.4 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 29.0 °C in August (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: none read. The nearest figure is 24.0 °C, the coldest month's mean nightly low, February, 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: 61 to 64% 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

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Phyllanthus angustifolius through the yearWarmest months July, August and September, mean daily high 29 °C; coldest month February, mean nightly low 24.0 °C; 1,379 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.15°20°25°30°35°°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250300mm rainDLI 27–44RH 61–64%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 26 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 °C26 / 26–2726 / 26–2726 / 26–2827 / 27–2827 / 27–2928 / 28–2929 / 29–3029 / 29–3029 / 29–3028 / 28–2927 / 27–2826 / 26–27
Night °C24 / 20–2424 / 20–2424 / 21–2525 / 22–2526 / 23–2627 / 24–2727 / 24–2727 / 24–2727 / 24–2726 / 24–2626 / 22–2625 / 21–25
Rain mm56 / 32–11139 / 28–8639 / 32–9547 / 32–130161 / 128–238137 / 88–168104 / 70–153150 / 106–170206 / 155–220223 / 160–289146 / 85–20171 / 48–156
DLI29 / 29–3134 / 34–3539 / 39–4044 / 42–4442 / 40–4342 / 41–4343 / 42–4442 / 41–4237 / 37–3932 / 32–3429 / 29–3127 / 27–29
RH %61 / 60–6761 / 60–6661 / 61–6661 / 61–6663 / 63–6764 / 64–6763 / 63–6663 / 62–6663 / 63–6764 / 63–6862 / 61–6861 / 60–67

The daily extremes were read at a NASA POWER cell that is 44% 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 18.8 °C, 1st-percentile night 22.2 °C, 99th-percentile day 32.4 °C.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 26 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (64 records in those cells; 3 more cells hold records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cells are left out), 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 1434:2034 (18.275, -78.275). 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 26 distinct grid cells holding 64 of the 69 in-range records (3 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1434:2034 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells, though its NASA POWER cell is only 44% land and none of the 11 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 18.50_-78.125, lapse-corrected -19 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 54 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.
NativeCayman Is., Cuba, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Southwest Caribbean · introduced: Florida · 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 marker19.326, -81.192 · in the densest population, 55 records (65% of those in range)
Kew's description“shrub” · “wet tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 85 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 64 of them in the land cells it reads, of 69 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 57 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 1 km away. 8 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 16 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 85 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Phyllanthus angustifolius, photograph 1did not loadPhyllanthus angustifolius, photograph 2did not loadPhyllanthus angustifolius, photograph 3did not loadPhyllanthus angustifolius, photograph 4did not loadPhyllanthus angustifolius, photograph 5did not loadPhyllanthus angustifolius, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0 (5); (c) Dan Schofield, some rights reserved (CC BY).

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

Coccothrinax proctorii Coccothrinax proctorii Thatch Palm Photo: CC0, author not statedStylosanthes hamata Stylosanthes hamata Cheesytoes Photo: CC BY-SA, Kurt MillerHamelia cuprea Hamelia cuprea Antillean firebush Photo: CC BY, J. L. Gómez-HechavarríaErithalis fruticosa Erithalis fruticosa Blacktorch Photo: CC BY, Abby HydeVachellia tortuosa Vachellia tortuosa Poponax Photo: CC BY-SA, Kurt MillerTournefortia gnaphalodes Tournefortia gnaphalodes Heliotropiaceae Photo: CC BY, Kaden Slone

Other Phyllanthus 53 in the reference

Phyllanthus abnormis Phyllanthus abnormis Drummond's leaf-flower Photo: CC0, author not statedPhyllanthus acidus Phyllanthus acidus Otaheite gooseberry Photo: CC BY, Annika LindqvistPhyllanthus albiflorus Phyllanthus albiflorus Phyllanthaceae Photo: CC BY, Ethel AardvarkPhyllanthus amarus Phyllanthus amarus Carry me seed Photo: CC BY, Raja Sekhar ChimiralaPhyllanthus anamalayanus Phyllanthus anamalayanus Phyllanthaceae Photo: CC BY, Srinivasan KasinathanPhyllanthus arbuscula Phyllanthus arbuscula Phyllanthaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, User:BotBlnPhyllanthus assamicus Phyllanthus assamicus Phyllanthaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, VinayarajPhyllanthus buxifolius Phyllanthus buxifolius Phyllanthaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedPhyllanthus calycinus Phyllanthus calycinus Phyllanthaceae Photo: CC BY, Millie BradyPhyllanthus caroliniensis Phyllanthus caroliniensis Carolina leaf-flower Photo: CC BY, Christopher EvansPhyllanthus cernuus Phyllanthus cernuus Phyllanthaceae Photo: CC BY, Thomas MesaglioPhyllanthus chacoensis Phyllanthus chacoensis Phyllanthaceae Photo: CC BY, Tomás Tamagno all 54 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Diasperus angustifolius; Hexadena angustifolia; Phyllanthus angustifolius f. elongatus; Phyllanthus angustifolius var. elongatus; Phyllanthus angustifolius var. genuinus and 7 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataiNaturalist

The record

Family
Phyllanthaceae
Described by
(Sw.) Sw.
Native to
Cayman Is., Cuba, Dominican Republic +2
Wild records
85 in range · 57 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; 48 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (46 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 2 at a herbarium; 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 18.50_-78.125, lapse-corrected -19 m at 6.5 °C/km; read, and set aside: NASA POWER's cell is mostly sea (44% land), so no cold floor is shown
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22IPNI and POWO linked by Kew's number for Phyllanthus angustifolius (Sw.) Sw. (the item's: IPNI 353500-1, POWO 194623-2)
Wikipedia wikipedia nothing to reportasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
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 22 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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