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Phyllanthus niruri; photograph (c) swanand kesari, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) swanand kesari, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-04-25

Phyllanthus niruri L.

Gale of the wind; Niruri; Stone breaker tea

Phyllanthaceae · Texas, Mexico Central +30

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Phyllanthus niruri, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedPhyllanthus niruri, photograph (c) swanand kesari, some rights reserved (CC BY)Phyllanthus niruri, photograph (c) Nicolas Olejnik, some rights reserved (CC BY)Phyllanthus niruri, photograph (c) Nicolas Olejnik, some rights reserved (CC BY)Phyllanthus niruri, photograph (c) Joaquín Krasuk, some rights reserved (CC BY)Phyllanthus niruri, photograph (c) Nicolas Olejnik, some rights reserved (CC BY) 65 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
13.0°C
Record low 11.0 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
27°C
Apr, May and Aug at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,859mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
27–39DLI
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 December to April (June to October at the habitat), read as a summer growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Phyllanthus niruri in the genus Phyllanthus of the family Phyllanthaceae is a widespread tropical plant commonly found in coastal areas from Texas southward through Mexico, Central America, and wide regions of South America and India. It has the common name chanca piedra among numerous others in Spanish.

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

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 summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,235 mm of 1,763 mm) falls in June to October, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 22.2 °C against a yearly mean of 21.2 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: December to April.

Rain

1,763 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,235 mm of it June to October. Wettest month September at 300 mm, driest month March at 48 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,047 mm to 3,278 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,859 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,763 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, southern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 27 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 22, the highest 90th-percentile month 44).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 13.0 °C, the absolute minimum 11.0 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 27.8 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 14.2 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 9.2 °C to 22.5 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 27.3 °C in May (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 13.0 °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: 61 to 68% 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 -80 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, southern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Phyllanthus niruri through the yearWarmest months April, May and August, mean daily high 27 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 14.2 °C; 1,763 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, southern hemisphere.5°10°15°20°25°30°35°27.8° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER11.0° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 27–39RH 61–68%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 204 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 °C23 / 18–2925 / 20–3026 / 21–3127 / 21–3227 / 21–3326 / 20–3226 / 21–3127 / 21–3126 / 20–3025 / 20–3024 / 19–2924 / 18–29
Night °C14 / 9–2315 / 10–2315 / 10–2317 / 12–2318 / 12–2419 / 13–2519 / 12–2419 / 12–2419 / 12–2417 / 12–2316 / 11–2215 / 10–22
Rain mm51 / 14–14249 / 11–14548 / 12–20873 / 26–317141 / 61–356262 / 90–401234 / 75–445247 / 83–432300 / 132–454192 / 96–39298 / 28–28668 / 16–190
DLI29 / 23–3533 / 27–3836 / 31–4239 / 28–4439 / 27–4235 / 26–4036 / 28–4036 / 30–4032 / 29–3730 / 27–3428 / 25–3327 / 22–33
RH %64 / 54–6963 / 54–6861 / 55–6862 / 56–7064 / 58–7067 / 60–7166 / 59–7166 / 60–7168 / 62–7267 / 62–7167 / 59–7165 / 57–70

Records on both sides of the equator: the 81 cells at least 10° south of it have seasons six months apart and are left out, not combined into a year no place has. These figures are across the 204 cells that remain: the 139 at least 10° north and the 65 within 10° of the equator, which stay in either way.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 204 grid cells holding the 240 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 1702:2134 (4.875, -73.275). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 11.0 °C, 1st-percentile night 13.0 °C, 99th-percentile day 27.8 °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 204 distinct grid cells holding 240 of the 330 in-range records on the northern side of the equator (139 cells poleward of 10° north, 81 poleward of 10° south: the two sides' seasons are not combined, and cells within 10° of the equator stay in); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1702:2134 (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 5.00_-73.125, lapse-corrected -80 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1467 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.
NativeTexas, Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Belize, Costa Rica, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Puerto Rico, Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuelan Antilles, Windward Is., Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Brazil West-Central, Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast, Brazil North, Brazil South, Argentina Northeast, Argentina Northwest, Paraguay, Uruguay · 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 marker-20.244, -43.857 · in the densest population, 223 records (19% of those in range)
Kew's description“annual” · “wet tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 1200 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 240 of them in the land cells it reads, of 330 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 1018 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 11 km away. 258 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 870 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 inside the densest 4° block of the 1200 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 niruri, photograph 1did not loadPhyllanthus niruri, photograph 2did not loadPhyllanthus niruri, photograph 3did not loadPhyllanthus niruri, photograph 4did not loadPhyllanthus niruri, photograph 5did not loadPhyllanthus niruri, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0; (c) swanand kesari, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Nicolas Olejnik, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Joaquín Krasuk, some rights reserved (CC BY).

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

Ipomoea batatas Ipomoea batatas Sweet potato Photo: CC BY, winterfamilyCritonia morifolia Critonia morifolia Asteraceae Photo: CC BY, Alexis López HernándezVernonanthura patens Vernonanthura patens Asteraceae Photo: CC BY, Raúl A. Ruiz M.Croton draco Croton draco Weeping blood Photo: CC BY, River AhlquistTrichosalpinx blaisdellii Trichosalpinx blaisdellii Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY, Victor De la CruzVitis tiliifolia Vitis tiliifolia West Indian grape Photo: CC BY, Alexis López Hernández

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 angustifolius Phyllanthus angustifolius Foliage flower Photo: CC0, author not statedPhyllanthus 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 Mesaglio all 54 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Diasperus niruri; Niruris annua; Nymphanthus niruri; Phyllanthus lathyroides; Phyllanthus niruri var. genuinus and 1 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Phyllanthaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Texas, Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast +29
Wild records
1200 in range · 1018 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; 31 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (22 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 4 at a herbarium, 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 5.00_-73.125, lapse-corrected -80 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 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 231 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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