Species
+

Rotheca myricoides (Hochst.) Steane & Mabb.

Bicoloured Cat's Whiskers, Blue Butterfly-bush, Blue Cat's Whiskers, Blue-Flowered Tinderwood

Climate known 68 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

Rotheca myricoides or Butterfly Clerodendrum, Butterfly Bush, and is a species of flowering plant in the family Lamiaceae. It is native to tropical eastern Africa and widely cultivated elsewhere. In cultivation, it is frequently known by one of its synonyms, such as Clerodendrum myricoides.

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

About the genus · Rotheca

Rotheca is a genus of flowering plants in the family Lamiaceae. Estimates of the number of species in the genus vary from about 35 to as many as 60. Three of the species are native to tropical Asia, with the rest occurring in Sub-Saharan Africa. More on Wikipedia ›

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

Family
Lamiaceae
Described by
(Hochst.) Steane & Mabb.
Native to
Burundi, Rwanda, Zaïre +19
Wild records
911 in range· 717 open

At a glance

Warmest month
26°C
Feb, mean day; nights 17 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
930mm/yr
8 wet months · peak Dec 128 mm (CHELSA)
Light
31–38DLI
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: a summer growing season, November to April at the habitat (not shifted). Habitat rain 930 mm a year, wettest December at 128 mm, driest July at 13 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 31 to 38 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 8.3 °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 Clerodendrum bequaertii DeWild.; Clerodendrum bequaertii var. debeerstii DeWild.; Clerodendrum myricoides (Hochst.) R.Br. ex Vatke; Clerodendrum myricoides var. capirense R.Fern.; Clerodendrum savanorum DeWild. and 6 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, November to April at the habitat (not shifted).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (735 mm of 930 mm) falls in November to April, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 20.9 °C against a yearly mean of 19.8 °C). 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 930 mm a year, wettest December at 128 mm, driest July at 13 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

930 mm a year at the habitat, 735 mm of it November to April. Wettest month December at 128 mm, driest July at 13 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 601 mm to 1808 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: 31 to 38 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 31 to 38 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 24, the highest 90th-percentile month 45).

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 8.3 °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 8.3 °C, the absolute minimum 4.5 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 38.8 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 11.9 °C in July (across the envelope cells 6.3 °C to 18.3 °C), warmest day 26.2 °C in February (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 8.3 °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: 56 to 62% 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 22 °C in Jul to 26 °C in Feb; mean night from 12 °C in Jul to 17 °C in Feb. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest night. 930 mm of rain a year, most in Dec. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 766 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 4.5 °C and the 99th-percentile day 38.8 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°20°30°40°38.8° 99th-percentile day (undated)4.5° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250300mm rainDLI 31–38RH 56–62 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 766 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 °C26 / 22–3026 / 22–3026 / 22–3025 / 21–2924 / 20–2823 / 18–2722 / 18–2724 / 19–2825 / 21–3026 / 22–3025 / 22–3025 / 22–30
Night °C16 / 12–2117 / 12–2217 / 13–2116 / 12–2114 / 10–2013 / 7–1912 / 6–1813 / 8–1914 / 10–1915 / 11–2016 / 12–2116 / 12–21
Rain mm126 / 27–271113 / 30–239127 / 65–253126 / 34–27258 / 8–19016 / 1–11013 / 1–15215 / 1–17424 / 3–15869 / 17–179115 / 43–206128 / 27–244
DLI38 / 33–4238 / 33–4236 / 32–4133 / 29–3832 / 26–3731 / 24–3631 / 25–3633 / 28–3937 / 33–4338 / 32–4537 / 32–4237 / 32–42
RH %61 / 51–6861 / 51–6862 / 53–6862 / 54–7059 / 51–6857 / 50–6656 / 48–6656 / 47–6656 / 47–6558 / 50–6561 / 52–6762 / 52–67

Each figure is the median across the 766 grid cells holding the 905 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 2179:4265 (-18.975, 33.275). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 4.5 °C, 1st-percentile night 8.3 °C, 99th-percentile day 38.8 °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 766 distinct grid cells holding the 905 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2179:4265 (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 -19.00_33.125, lapse-corrected -55 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 637 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.
NativeBurundi, Rwanda, Zaïre, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Angola, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Caprivi Strip, Namibia, KwaZulu-Natal, Swaziland, Northern Provinces· introduced: Trinidad-Tobago
Kew's description“subshrub or shrub” · “seasonally dry tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker0.112, 37.406 · in the densest population, 356 records (39% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 911 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 717 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 4 km away. 128 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 6 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 911 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Rotheca myricoidesRotheca myricoidesRotheca myricoidesRotheca myricoidesRotheca myricoidesRotheca myricoidesRotheca myricoidesRotheca myricoides

Photographs: (c) Benjamin Fredlund, some rights reserved (CC BY); no rights reserved · CC0 (4); (c) Sunčana Bradley, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Andrew Hankey, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA).

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 Rotheca myricoides, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Medicinal plants used for management of malaria among the Luhya community of Kakamega East sub-County, Kenya
Nillian Mukungu, Kennedy O. Abuga, Faith Okalebo, Raphael Ingwela (2016) · Journal of Ethnopharmacology
Rotheca (Lamiaceae) Revived
Dorothy A. Steane, D. J. Mabberley (1998) · Novon A Journal for Botanical Nomenclature
Phytochemical Screening of Medicinal Plants of the Kakamega Country, Kenya Commonly Used against Cancer
Dominic O Ochwang, Charles Kimwele, Jemimah Oduma (2016) · Medicinal & Aromatic Plants
The freeze-dried extracts of Rotheca myricoides (Hochst.) Steane & Mabb possess hypoglycemic, hypolipidemic and hypoinsulinemic on type 2 diabetes rat model
Boniface M. Chege, Mwangi Peter Waweru, Frederick Bukachi, Nelly Murugi Nyaga (2019) · Journal of Ethnopharmacology
A systematic review of plant-based therapy for the management of diabetes mellitus in the East Africa community
Nancy Bonareri Mitaki, Ilemobayo Victor Fasongbon, Onyinye Vivian Ojiakor, Wusa Makena (2024) · Phytomedicine Plus
Utility of Raman spectroscopy in diabetes detection based on biomarker Raman bands and in antidiabetic efficacy studies of herbal extract Rotheca myricoides Hochst
Boniface M. Chege, Zephania Birech, Peter W. Mwangi, Frederick Bukachi (2019) · Journal of Raman Spectroscopy
In vitro study on efficacy of PHELA, an African traditional drug against SARS-CoV-2
Motlalepula G. Matsabisa, Kabamba B. Alexandre, Collins U. Ibeji, Satyajit Tripathy (2022) · Scientific Reports
Growth Regulation of New Clones of Rotheca myricoides 'Uganden- sis' (syn. Clerodendrum ugandense)
Heiner Grüneberg, Luise Ehrich, Nazim S. Gruda (2007) · DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals)
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility

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 63 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.