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Plumbago indica; photograph (c) sunnyjosef, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) sunnyjosef, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2025-01-25

Plumbago indica L.

Whorled plantain; Indian leadwort; Scarlet leadwort

Plumbaginaceae · China South-Central, Hainan +15

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Plumbago indica, photograph (c) Ravuri Krishna Chaitanya, some rights reserved (CC BY)Plumbago indica, photograph (c) Katharine Khamhaengwong, some rights reserved (CC BY)Plumbago indica, photograph (c) Katharine Khamhaengwong, some rights reserved (CC BY)Plumbago indica, photograph (c) Pranav Chandra Bose, some rights reserved (CC BY)Plumbago indica, photograph (c) Pranav Chandra Bose, some rights reserved (CC BY)Plumbago indica, photograph (c) Pranav Chandra Bose, some rights reserved (CC BY) 28 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
14.6°C
Record low 10.6 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
32°C
Mar and Apr at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
2,133mm
9 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
25–41DLI
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, June to October (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.

Summary

Plumbago indica, the Indian leadwort, scarlet leadwort or whorled plantain, is a species of flowering plant in the family Plumbaginaceae, native to Southeast Asia, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Yunnan in southern China.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Plumbago indica", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Plumbago

Plumbago is a genus of 23 species of flowering plants in the family Plumbaginaceae, native to warm temperate to tropical regions of the world. Common names include plumbago and leadwort.

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

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a sharp season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,622 mm of 2,056 mm) falls in June to October. 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

2,056 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,622 mm of it June to October. Wettest month July at 395 mm, driest month January at 9 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,261 mm to 3,871 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 2,133 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 2,056 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: 25 to 41 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 21, the highest 90th-percentile month 46).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 14.6 °C, the absolute minimum 10.6 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 41.8 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 19.7 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 13.8 °C to 23.5 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 32.2 °C in April (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 14.6 °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: 56 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. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected -63 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, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Plumbago indica through the yearWarmest months March and April, mean daily high 32 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 19.7 °C; 2,056 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, northern hemisphere.0°10°20°30°40°50°41.8° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER10.6° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter050010001500mm rainDLI 25–41RH 56–70%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 43 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 °C29 / 25–3230 / 27–3432 / 29–3532 / 30–3531 / 29–3429 / 27–3228 / 27–3228 / 26–3128 / 27–3029 / 26–3029 / 25–3029 / 25–31
Night °C20 / 14–2421 / 15–2422 / 18–2524 / 20–2625 / 21–2624 / 22–2624 / 21–2623 / 21–2523 / 21–2523 / 19–2522 / 17–2521 / 14–24
Rain mm9 / 1–2012 / 0–2731 / 1–6790 / 4–137200 / 46–268315 / 153–1008395 / 180–1208377 / 195–732299 / 177–413236 / 100–35177 / 24–15815 / 5–51
DLI34 / 31–3738 / 36–4041 / 38–4340 / 37–4635 / 32–4330 / 24–3525 / 21–3327 / 22–3230 / 26–3230 / 28–3331 / 28–3332 / 27–34
RH %56 / 51–6056 / 50–6158 / 48–6261 / 52–6464 / 60–6869 / 61–7370 / 63–7569 / 64–7469 / 64–7267 / 62–7063 / 53–6658 / 51–62
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 43 grid cells holding the 55 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 1426:5059 (18.675, 72.975). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 10.6 °C, 1st-percentile night 14.6 °C, 99th-percentile day 41.8 °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 43 distinct grid cells holding 55 of the 55 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1426:5059 (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 18.50_73.125, lapse-corrected -63 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 58 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 South-Central, Hainan, Assam, Bangladesh, East Himalaya, India, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Jawa, Lesser Sunda Is., Maluku, Philippines, Sulawesi, Sumatera · introduced: Sri Lanka, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Puerto Rico, Trinidad-Tobago, Peru · 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 marker13.75, 100.583 · in the densest population, 41 records (42% of those in range)
Kew's description“scrambling subshrub” · “seasonally dry tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 98 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 55 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 47 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 221 km away. 16 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 43 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 98 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Plumbago indica, photograph 1did not loadPlumbago indica, photograph 2did not loadPlumbago indica, photograph 3did not loadPlumbago indica, photograph 4did not loadPlumbago indica, photograph 5did not loadPlumbago indica, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Ravuri Krishna Chaitanya, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Katharine Khamhaengwong, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Pranav Chandra Bose, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3).

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

Gmelina arborea Gmelina arborea Lamiaceae Photo: CC BY, Sayee GirdhariFicus racemosa Ficus racemosa Clustertree Photo: CC BY, Raja Sekhar ChimiralaMagnolia champaca Magnolia champaca Champak Photo: CC BY, Karthik ThrikkadeeriIxora coccinea Ixora coccinea Rubiaceae Photo: CC BY, Sabarni SarkerPterocarpus marsupium Pterocarpus marsupium Malabar kino Photo: CC BY, rajesh rockyAegle marmelos Aegle marmelos Bengal-quince Photo: CC BY, Raja Sekhar Chimirala

Other Plumbago 6 in the reference

Plumbago auriculata Plumbago auriculata Cape leadwort Photo: CC BY, Greg III EsperaPlumbago caerulea Plumbago caerulea Chilean plumbago Photo: CC BY, Jorge Muñoz CamadroPlumbago europaea Plumbago europaea Eurasian plumbago Photo: CC0, author not stated Plumbago micrantha Plumbaginaceae Plumbago pulchella Plumbago pulchella Iguana's tail Photo: CC BY, Ulises PinedoPlumbago zeylanica Plumbago zeylanica Wild leadwort Photo: CC0, author not stated

Names & registers

Also known as Plumbagidium roseum; Plumbago coccinea; Plumbago rosea; Plumbago rosea var. coccinea; Thela coccinea. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Plumbaginaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
China South-Central, Hainan, Assam +14
Wild records
98 in range · 47 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; 7 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (7 at a botanic garden or arboretum; 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_73.125, lapse-corrected -63 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 2026-10-22none of the photographs on this page is credited to GBIF: those shown are other sources', and GBIF's were the same photographs or were set aside by the photograph rules
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 23 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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