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Stachytarpheta indica; photograph (c) Philippe Hornus, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Philippe Hornus, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2011-03-06

Stachytarpheta indica (L.) Vahl

Verbenaceae · Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf +22

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Stachytarpheta indica, photograph (c) Gustavo Heleno Ferreira, some rights reserved (CC BY)Stachytarpheta indica, photograph (c) Gustavo Heleno Ferreira, some rights reserved (CC BY)Stachytarpheta indica, photograph (c) Philippe Hornus, some rights reserved (CC BY)Stachytarpheta indica, photograph (c) Philippe Hornus, some rights reserved (CC BY)Stachytarpheta indica, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedStachytarpheta indica, photograph author not stated, no rights reserved 38 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
14.4°C
Record low 10.6 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
31°C
Apr at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,399mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
27–40DLI
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 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

Stachytarpheta indica is a species of plant in the family Verbenaceae, native to the tropical Americas. It has often been included in the species S. jamaicensis.

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

About the genus · Stachytarpheta

Stachytarpheta is a plant genus in the verbena family (Verbenaceae). The flowers are rich in nectar and popular with many butterflies, such as the South Asian crimson rose, Malabar banded swallowtail, and grass yellow. Hummingbirds, especially small species like Lophornis coquettes, Chlorostilbon emeralds, and Discosura thorntails, are especially attracted for nectar. More on Wikipedia ›

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

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a sharp season: 70% of the median year's rain (921 mm of 1,286 mm) falls in May to October. The temperature curve is flat, 3.4 °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, southern hemisphere. The habitat lies within 10° of the equator, where the shift rule does not apply, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

Rain

1,286 mm in the median year at the habitat, 921 mm of it May to October. Wettest month June at 205 mm, driest month December at 51 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 860 mm to 2,891 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,399 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,286 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 40 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 24, 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 14.4 °C, the absolute minimum 10.6 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 42.4 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 20.3 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 18.2 °C to 24.4 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 30.6 °C in April (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 14.4 °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: 60 to 65% 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 -19 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 Stachytarpheta indica through the yearWarmest month April, mean daily high 31 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 20.3 °C; 1,286 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.0°10°20°30°40°50°42.4° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER10.6° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 27–40RH 60–65%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 141 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 °C28 / 25–3029 / 27–3130 / 27–3331 / 28–3530 / 28–3529 / 27–3329 / 26–3430 / 26–3330 / 27–3229 / 27–3129 / 27–3128 / 26–30
Night °C20 / 18–2421 / 19–2522 / 20–2523 / 21–2524 / 21–2524 / 20–2524 / 19–2524 / 19–2524 / 19–2523 / 21–2522 / 20–2521 / 19–24
Rain mm73 / 24–33368 / 22–22953 / 13–28560 / 19–356112 / 52–457205 / 86–377186 / 59–294146 / 26–277162 / 16–333110 / 14–25560 / 14–15251 / 24–299
DLI28 / 25–3932 / 30–3937 / 33–3940 / 32–4339 / 29–4436 / 26–4036 / 27–4237 / 31–4135 / 32–4032 / 29–4229 / 26–4227 / 24–39
RH %62 / 57–6761 / 56–6560 / 55–6561 / 54–6662 / 55–6964 / 60–6963 / 60–6863 / 60–6865 / 61–6863 / 61–6762 / 59–6762 / 58–68
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 141 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (183 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 1439:1756 (18.025, -92.175). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 10.6 °C, 1st-percentile night 14.4 °C, 99th-percentile day 42.4 °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 141 distinct grid cells holding 183 of the 184 in-range records (1 further cell with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1439:1756 (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 18.00_-91.875, lapse-corrected -19 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 4 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 Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Cuba, Jamaica, French Guiana, Guyana, Surinam, Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Brazil West-Central, Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast, Brazil North, Paraguay · introduced: Burkina, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, Togo, Burundi, Central African Republic, Congo, Gabon, Zaïre, Chad, Ethiopia, Sudan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Phoenix Is. · 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-7.817, -34.96 · in the densest population, 261 records (44% of those in range)
Kew's description“subshrub or shrub” · “seasonally dry tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 597 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 183 of them in the land cells it reads, of 184 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 509 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 33 km away. 682 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 413 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 597 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Stachytarpheta indica, photograph 1did not loadStachytarpheta indica, photograph 2did not loadStachytarpheta indica, photograph 3did not loadStachytarpheta indica, photograph 4did not loadStachytarpheta indica, photograph 5did not loadStachytarpheta indica, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Gustavo Heleno Ferreira, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Philippe Hornus, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0 (2).

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

Cleome aculeata Cleomaceae Pilocarpus racemosus Pilocarpus racemosus Aceitillo Photo: CC BY-SA, Kurt MillerCanavalia brasiliensis Canavalia brasiliensis Brazilian jackbean Photo: CC BY, Breno FigueiredoTalinum fruticosum Talinum fruticosum Verdolaga-francesa Photo: CC BY, Kevin FaccendaCoutarea hexandra Coutarea hexandra Rubiaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, vitordematos12Furcraea hexapetala Furcraea hexapetala Cuban hemp Photo: CC BY, John G. Phillips

Other Stachytarpheta 8 in the reference

Stachytarpheta cayennensis Stachytarpheta cayennensis Blue snakeweed Photo: CC BY, Victor Farjalla PontesStachytarpheta frantzii Stachytarpheta frantzii Purple porterweed Photo: CC BY, johnyochumStachytarpheta jamaicensis Stachytarpheta jamaicensis Jamaica vervain Photo: CC BY, Dayron Breto Stachytarpheta microphylla Dwarf Red Porterweed Stachytarpheta miniacea Stachytarpheta miniacea Red Porterweed Photo: CC BY, Mauricio Soto DavidStachytarpheta mutabilis Stachytarpheta mutabilis Changeable velvetberry Photo: CC BY-SA, Norman Salazar ArguedasStachytarpheta orubica Stachytarpheta orubica Verbenaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedStachytarpheta urticifolia Stachytarpheta urticifolia Nettleleaf velvetberry Photo: CC BY, teresa lo

Names & registers

Also known as Stachytarpha elatior; Stachytarpheta angustifolia; Stachytarpheta angustifolia f. elatior; Stachytarpheta angustifolia f. jenmanii; Stachytarpheta angustifolia f. rionegrensis and 16 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Verbenaceae
Described by
(L.) Vahl
Native to
Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northwest +21
Wild records
597 in range · 509 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; 30 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (20 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 10 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 18.00_-91.875, lapse-corrected -19 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 169 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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