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Russelia sarmentosa; photograph (c) Alexis López Hernández, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Alexis López Hernández, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2021-01-05

Russelia sarmentosa Jacq.

Antiqua Sage

Plantaginaceae · Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast +14

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Russelia sarmentosa, photograph (c) Alexis López Hernández, some rights reserved (CC BY)Russelia sarmentosa, photograph (c) Alexis López Hernández, some rights reserved (CC BY)Russelia sarmentosa, photograph (c) Alexis López Hernández, some rights reserved (CC BY)Russelia sarmentosa, photograph (c) Alexis López Hernández, some rights reserved (CC BY)Russelia sarmentosa, photograph (c) Alexis López Hernández, some rights reserved (CC BY)Russelia sarmentosa, photograph author not stated, no rights reserved 69 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Coldest month, mean nightly low
17.6°C
Jan at the habitat, not a floor; extremes not used (the weather cell's ground is too far off) CHELSA
Warmest month, mean daily high
30°C
Apr and May at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,499mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
28–42DLI
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 June to October, read as a summer growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

About the genus · Russelia

Russelia is a genus of flowering plants in the plantain family, Plantaginaceae. It is sometimes placed in the families Scrophulariaceae or Veronicaceae. The name honours Scottish naturalist Alexander Russell (1715–1768). More on Wikipedia ›

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

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,134 mm of 1,481 mm) falls in June to October, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 25.0 °C against a yearly mean of 24.0 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December to April.

Rain

1,481 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,134 mm of it June to October. Wettest month September at 271 mm, driest month March at 25 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 988 mm to 2,949 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,499 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,481 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: 28 to 42 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 23, the highest 90th-percentile month 47).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 17.6 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 9.4 °C to 21.8 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 29.9 °C in April (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: none read. The nearest figure is 17.6 °C, the coldest month's mean nightly low, January, 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 whose ground is too far above or below the typical spot to correct for, and are not used.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 58 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. 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 Russelia sarmentosa through the yearWarmest months April and May, mean daily high 30 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 17.6 °C; 1,481 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.5°10°15°20°25°30°35°°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500600mm rainDLI 28–42RH 58–68%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 499 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 / 21–2927 / 22–3129 / 24–3230 / 26–3430 / 25–3428 / 23–3228 / 22–3228 / 23–3228 / 22–3127 / 22–3027 / 21–2926 / 21–29
Night °C18 / 9–2218 / 10–2219 / 11–2220 / 13–2422 / 14–2522 / 15–2522 / 14–2522 / 14–2521 / 14–2521 / 13–2419 / 11–2318 / 10–22
Rain mm34 / 6–10626 / 6–8025 / 5–6342 / 7–89111 / 35–286239 / 144–396220 / 136–393236 / 148–442271 / 180–511168 / 89–40968 / 18–21841 / 7–150
DLI29 / 24–3535 / 29–3939 / 34–4442 / 38–4740 / 36–4635 / 31–3836 / 32–4036 / 32–3932 / 29–3430 / 27–3328 / 25–3428 / 23–33
RH %60 / 53–6859 / 52–6658 / 51–6459 / 50–6462 / 54–6666 / 62–7065 / 61–7166 / 62–7168 / 64–7266 / 62–7164 / 58–6962 / 55–69

The daily extremes were not used: the correction for elevation, -1086 m, is beyond the 1,000 m either way that a lapse rate is applied over, so the weather cell's ground is other terrain than the typical spot's. So no cold floor is read for this species, and the coldest month's mean nightly low is not taken as one. What that cell gave, so corrected, over 44 years: absolute minimum 12.5 °C, 1st-percentile night 16.0 °C.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 499 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (650 records in those cells; 1 more cell holds records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cell is 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 1500:1756 (14.975, -92.175). 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 499 distinct grid cells holding 650 of the 652 in-range records (1 further cell with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1500:1756 (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 15.00_-91.875, lapse-corrected -1086 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 422 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.
NativeMexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Cuba, French Guiana, Colombia · 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 marker10.88, -85.47 · in the densest population, 1005 records (70% of those in range)
Kew's description“wet tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 1442 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 650 of them in the land cells it reads, of 652 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 1221 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 1 km away. 11 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 790 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 1442 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Russelia sarmentosa, photograph 1did not loadRusselia sarmentosa, photograph 2did not loadRusselia sarmentosa, photograph 3did not loadRusselia sarmentosa, photograph 4did not loadRusselia sarmentosa, photograph 5did not loadRusselia sarmentosa, photograph 6did not load

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

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

Diphysa americana Diphysa americana Fabaceae Photo: CC BY, Alexis López HernándezNotylia orbicularis Notylia orbicularis Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Matteo CassellaFicus pertusa Ficus pertusa Moraceae Photo: CC BY, Alexis López HernándezIpomoea alba Ipomoea alba Moonflower Photo: CC BY, Brandon CorderDioscorea mexicana Dioscorea mexicana Mexican yam Photo: CC BY, Alexis López HernándezJacquemontia sphaerostigma Jacquemontia sphaerostigma Convolvulaceae Photo: CC BY, Arturo Benavides Mendoza

Other Russelia 1 in the reference

Russelia equisetiformis Russelia equisetiformis Fountainbush Photo: CC BY, Sandy Rae

Names & registers

Also known as Russelia americana; Russelia colombiana; Russelia flammea; Russelia flavoviridis; Russelia oxyphylla and 9 more. (GBIF Backbone)

Kew accepts as species of their own Russelia chiapensis: older names in GBIF's record of this species that Kew's World Checklist accepts as other species. (WCVP, RBG Kew, file of 2026-06-04)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataiNaturalist

The record

Family
Plantaginaceae
Described by
Jacq.
Native to
Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf +13
Wild records
1442 in range · 1221 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; 18 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (7 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 1 at a herbarium, 10 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 15.00_-91.875, lapse-corrected -1086 m at 6.5 °C/km; read, and set aside: the correction for elevation, -1086 m, is beyond the 1,000 m either way that a lapse rate is applied over, so the weather cell's ground is other terrain than the typical spot's, so no cold floor is shown
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
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 79 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…