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Strobilanthes attenuata; photograph (c) Dinesh Valke, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) CC BY-SA(c) Dinesh Valke, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) · observed growing wild · 2012-08-01

Strobilanthes attenuata (Wall. ex Nees) Jacq. ex Nees

Acanthaceae · Afghanistan, Bangladesh +5

Cited as Kew's World Checklist cites it, Strobilanthes attenuata (Wall. ex Nees) Jacq. ex Nees: GBIF's backbone key for this page carries the name with another author, (Jacq. ex Nees) Nees.

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Strobilanthes attenuata, photograph (c) Dinesh Valke, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Strobilanthes attenuata, photograph (c) Dinesh Valke, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Strobilanthes attenuata, photograph Woudloper, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons 4 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
-9.2°C
Record low -17.3 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
25°C
Jun at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,609mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
20–45DLI
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 February to April and July to September, 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 · Strobilanthes

Strobilanthes is a genus of about 350 species of flowering plants in the family Acanthaceae, mostly native to tropical Asia and Madagascar, but with a few species extending north into temperate regions of Asia. Many species are cultivated for their two-lipped, hooded flowers in shades of blue, pink, white and purple. Most are frost-tender and require protection in frost-prone areas. More on Wikipedia ›

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

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,120 mm of 1,588 mm) falls in February to April and July to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 13.6 °C against a yearly mean of 12.0 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: January to March and August to October.

Rain

1,588 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,120 mm of it February to April and July to September. Wettest month July at 285 mm, driest month November at 38 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,034 mm to 1,990 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,609 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,588 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: 20 to 45 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 17, the highest 90th-percentile month 48).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is -9.2 °C, the absolute minimum -17.3 °C, 3,011 frost nights in 44 years, 68.4 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 36.3 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low -6.3 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range -11.6 °C to 1.8 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 25.3 °C in June (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -9.2 °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: 48 to 67% 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 -642 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 Strobilanthes attenuata through the yearWarmest month June, mean daily high 25 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low -6.3 °C; 1,588 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.-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°frost36.3° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-17.3° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 20–45RH 48–67%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 30 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 °C6 / -3–137 / -1–1512 / 3–2018 / 9–2522 / 14–3125 / 18–3424 / 19–3223 / 18–3022 / 17–2919 / 12–2614 / 6–219 / 0–16
Night °C-6 / -12–2-5 / -10–30 / -6–74 / -1–119 / 3–1513 / 6–2015 / 10–2215 / 10–2211 / 6–185 / 0–110 / -5–7-4 / -9–3
Rain mm107 / 56–142153 / 77–184189 / 98–221142 / 73–16487 / 57–122110 / 48–155285 / 114–403240 / 120–358111 / 57–20559 / 35–7738 / 17–4667 / 32–87
DLI21 / 19–2726 / 23–3332 / 29–3940 / 38–4545 / 44–4745 / 42–4836 / 29–4134 / 27–3734 / 33–3630 / 28–3524 / 21–2920 / 17–26
RH %50 / 46–5451 / 49–5552 / 50–5650 / 48–5548 / 45–5851 / 47–6265 / 57–6967 / 60–7058 / 55–6349 / 47–5648 / 44–5249 / 44–53
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 30 grid cells holding the 34 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 1104:5017 (34.775, 70.875). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -17.3 °C, 1st-percentile night -9.2 °C, 99th-percentile day 36.3 °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 30 distinct grid cells holding 34 of the 34 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1104:5017 (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 35.00_70.625, lapse-corrected -642 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1780 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.
NativeAfghanistan, Bangladesh, East Himalaya, India, Nepal, Pakistan, West Himalaya · 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 marker34.069, 73.391 · in the densest population, 29 records (52% of those in range)
Kew's description“perennial” · “temperate” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 56 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 34 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 30 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 1 km away. 4 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 22 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 of the 56 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Strobilanthes attenuata, photograph 1did not loadStrobilanthes attenuata, photograph 2did not loadStrobilanthes attenuata, photograph 3did not load

Photographs: (c) Dinesh Valke, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (2); Woudloper, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

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

Indigofera heterantha Indigofera heterantha Himalayan indigo Photo: CC0, author not statedLonicera quinquelocularis Lonicera quinquelocularis Translucent honeysuckle Photo: CC BY, Siddarth MachadoBerberis lycium Berberis lycium Indian barberry Photo: CC BY-SA, LazaregagnidzeChrysojasminum humile Chrysojasminum humile Yellow Jasmine Photo: CC BY, Alice ShanksImpatiens bicolor Impatiens bicolor Balsaminaceae Photo: CC BY, Jeffrey Lee (he/him/his)Buddleja crispa Buddleja crispa Himalayan butterfly bush Photo: CC BY, Sagnik Dutta Roy

Other Strobilanthes 32 in the reference

Strobilanthes alternata Strobilanthes alternata Red ivy Photo: CC BY, kumarkvStrobilanthes anisophylla Strobilanthes anisophylla Goldfussia Photo: CC BY, Todd HuangStrobilanthes atropurpurea Strobilanthes atropurpurea Acanthaceae Photo: CC BY, Ramnarayan KStrobilanthes auriculata Strobilanthes auriculata Acanthaceae Photo: CC BY, Ricci MaseroStrobilanthes callosa Strobilanthes callosa Acanthaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Dinesh ValkeStrobilanthes crispa Strobilanthes crispa Acanthaceae Photo: CC BY, Franz AnthonyStrobilanthes cusia Strobilanthes cusia Acanthaceae Photo: CC BY, 如此甚好Strobilanthes cystolithigera Strobilanthes cystolithigera Acanthaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Krzysztof Ziarnek, Kenraiz Strobilanthes dimorphotricha Acanthaceae Strobilanthes flexicaulis Strobilanthes flexicaulis Acanthaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedStrobilanthes formosana Strobilanthes formosana Acanthaceae Photo: CC BY, 如此甚好 Strobilanthes glaucescens Acanthaceae all 33 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Pteracanthus attenuatus; Pteracanthus reflexus; Pteracanthus urticifolius; Ruellia attenuata; Ruellia reflexa and 4 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataiNaturalist

The record

Family
Acanthaceae
Described by
(Wall. ex Nees) Jacq. ex Nees
Native to
Afghanistan, Bangladesh, East Himalaya +4
Wild records
56 in range · 30 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 2026-10-22GBIF's key 7263208 is Strobilanthes attenuata (Jacq. ex Nees) Nees; the page links Kew's Strobilanthes attenuata (Wall. ex Nees) Jacq. ex Nees, and the name is cited as Kew cites it
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; 2 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (2 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 35.00_70.625, lapse-corrected -642 m at 6.5 °C/km
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 nothing to reportasked 2026-10-22
Wikimedia Commons commons 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 12 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…