Species
+

Stephania delavayi Diels

Menispermaceae

Climate known 91 photographs Bulb, tuber or caudex
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.

About the genus · Stephania

Stephania is a genus of flowering plants in the family Menispermaceae. It includes 70 species native to tropical and southern Africa, eastern and southern Asia, Australia, and the tropical Pacific Islands. They are herbaceous perennial vines, growing to around four metres tall, with a large tuber. More on Wikipedia ›

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

Family
Menispermaceae
Described by
Diels
Native to
China South-Central, Myanmar
Wild records
89 in range· 40 open

At a glance

Warmest month
25°C
Jul, mean day; nights 18 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
991mm/yr
9 wet months · peak Jul 200 mm (CHELSA)
Light
21–39DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a bulb, tuber or caudex by the genus Stephania, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a summer growing season, May to September in the northern hemisphere (May to September at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 991 mm a year, wettest July at 200 mm, driest December at 13 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 21 to 39 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -2.7 °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 Stephania epigaea H.S.Lo; Stephania graciliflora Yamam.

Cultivation

Grouped as a bulb, tuber or caudex by the genus Stephania, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). The table holds no figure for this group, which spans too much for one minimum; the cold floor is the habitat's alone, and no prose comes from the table.

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, May to September in the northern hemisphere (May to September at the habitat, northern).

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 (755 mm of 991 mm) falls in May to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 21.8 °C against a yearly mean of 17.0 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to March.

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 991 mm a year, wettest July at 200 mm, driest December at 13 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

991 mm a year at the habitat, 755 mm of it May to September. Wettest month July at 200 mm, driest December at 13 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 721 mm to 1675 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: 21 to 39 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 21 to 39 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 15, the highest 90th-percentile month 41).

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 -2.7 °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 -2.7 °C, the absolute minimum -10.6 °C, about 16 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 33.9 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 3.8 °C in January (across the envelope cells -4.5 °C to 8.1 °C), warmest day 25.1 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -2.7 °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: 54 to 66% 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 14 °C in Jan to 25 °C in Jul; mean night from 4 °C in Jan to 18 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 991 mm of rain a year, most in Jul. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 78 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -10.6 °C and the 99th-percentile day 33.9 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-20°-10°10°20°30°40°frost33.9° 99th-percentile day (undated)-10.6° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250300mm rainDLI 21–39RH 54–66 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 78 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 °C14 / 5–1916 / 7–2120 / 10–2523 / 14–2825 / 18–2825 / 19–2925 / 19–3025 / 19–2923 / 18–2820 / 15–2417 / 11–2114 / 7–19
Night °C4 / -5–85 / -2–108 / 2–1312 / 5–1615 / 9–1918 / 12–2218 / 13–2317 / 12–2216 / 11–2113 / 8–169 / 3–125 / -2–8
Rain mm16 / 6–4918 / 6–7229 / 11–13242 / 21–16499 / 59–233171 / 114–274200 / 152–291169 / 135–246116 / 91–18080 / 53–11638 / 13–7313 / 4–33
DLI24 / 15–2730 / 16–3336 / 18–3839 / 23–4136 / 27–3932 / 27–3632 / 28–3632 / 29–3428 / 24–2923 / 18–2622 / 16–2521 / 15–24
RH %58 / 53–6755 / 50–6454 / 49–6555 / 50–6559 / 54–6464 / 60–6766 / 61–6965 / 61–6864 / 61–6863 / 59–6761 / 58–6560 / 57–65

Each figure is the median across the 78 grid cells holding the 87 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 1292:5887 (25.375, 114.375). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -10.6 °C, 1st-percentile night -2.7 °C, 99th-percentile day 33.9 °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 78 distinct grid cells holding the 87 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1292:5887 (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 25.50_114.375, lapse-corrected -202 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 232 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.
NativeChina South-Central, Myanmar
Kew's description“climbing perennial” · “subtropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker24.271, 102.24 · in the densest population, 57 records (64% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 89 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 40 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 154 km away. 4 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 2 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 2° block of the 89 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Stephania delavayiStephania delavayiStephania delavayiStephania delavayiStephania delavayiStephania delavayiStephania delavayiStephania delavayi

Photographs: Botanical Research Institute of Texas, CC0 via GBIF; Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, CC0 via GBIF (2); unknown, CC0 via GBIF (5).

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

FK-3000 isolated from Stephania delavayi Diels. inhibits MDA-MB-231 cell proliferation by decreasing NF-κB phosphorylation and COX-2 expression
Hong De Xu, Soon-Chang Cho, Mi‐Ae Bang, Chun‐Sik Bae (2015) · International Journal of Oncology
6,7-di-O-acetylsinococuline (FK-3000) induces G2/M phase arrest in breast carcinomas through p38 MAPK phosphorylation and CDC25B dephosphorylation
Yongchun Li, Bong-Hee Kim, Soon-Chang Cho, Mi‐Ae Bang (2014) · International Journal of Oncology
Alkaloids of Stephania delavayi IV. Isostephodeline
M. E. Perel'son, I. I. Fadeeva, T. N. Il'inskaya (1975) · Chemistry of Natural Compounds
Antioxidative Effects and Anti-proliferative Effects of MeOH, BuOH and Ethyl Acetate Fractionated from Stephania delavayi Diels
Yongchun Li, Kyoung-Hee Kim, Hongde Xu, Dae-Hun Park (2009) · Journal of the Korean Society of Food Science and Nutrition
Alkaloids of Stephania delavayi II. 16-Oxodelavayine
T. N. Il'inskaya, M. E. Perel'son, I. I. Fadeeva, D. A. Fesenko (1972) · Chemistry of Natural Compounds
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Stephania delavayi Diels
Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (2026) · DiSSCo

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.

Other Stephania 68 in the reference

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 nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: not asked: 91 wild photographs already from the GBIF download
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: api.gbif.org not asked: offline re-derivation
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 18 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.