Species
+

Talinum fruticosum (L.) Juss.

Ceylon Spinach, Ceylon spinach; Madreselva, Ceylon-spinach, Efeafa

Climate known 70 photographs Cactus or succulent
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

Talinum fruticosum is a herbaceous perennial plant that is native to Mexico, the Caribbean, West Africa, Central America, and much of South America. Common names include Ceylon spinach, waterleaf, cariru, Gbure, Surinam purslane, Philippine spinach, Florida spinach, potherb fameflower, sweetheart, and Kutu bataw in Ghana from the Akan language. In Nigeria it is known as Mgbolodi in Igbo, Efo Gbure in Yoruba, Alenyruwa in Hausa, and Moin-moin Ikong in Efik It is widely grown in tropical regions as a leaf vegetable. In the Mithila region of the Indian subcontinent, it is locally known as Raja Rani Saag.

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

About the genus · Talinum

Talinum is a genus of herbaceous succulent plants in the family Talinaceae whose common names include fameflower. It includes 27 species native to tropical and subtropical regions of the Americas, sub-Saharan Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, Indian subcontinent, and Myanmar. Several species bear edible leaves, and Talinum fruticosum is widely grown in tropical regions as a leaf vegetable. More on Wikipedia ›

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

Family
Talinaceae
Described by
(L.) Juss.
Native to
Florida, Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast +36
Wild records
1094 in range· 661 open

At a glance

Warmest month
29°C
Mar, mean day; nights 22 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1080mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Sep 118 mm (CHELSA)
Light
31–37DLI
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 cactus or succulent by the genus Talinum, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (March and May to November at the habitat (not shifted)). Habitat rain 1080 mm a year, wettest September at 118 mm, driest January at 71 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 31 to 37 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 15.7 °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 ? andrewsii Sw.; Calandrinia andrewsii (Sw.) Sw.; Calandrinia andrewsii (Sw.) Sweet; Calandrinia lockhartii Sweet; Claytonia triangularis (Jacq.) Kuntze and 27 more.

Cultivation

Grouped as a cactus or succulent by the genus Talinum, 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: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (March and May to November at the habitat (not shifted)).

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

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (785 mm of 1080 mm) takes 8 months, March and May to November. Mean temperature moves 0.7 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; with a flat temperature curve 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 1080 mm a year, wettest September at 118 mm, driest January at 71 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1080 mm a year at the habitat, 785 mm of it March and May to November. Wettest month September at 118 mm, driest January at 71 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 693 mm to 1985 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 37 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 31 to 37 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 21, 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 15.7 °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 15.7 °C, the absolute minimum 13.8 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 38.9 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 21.3 °C in August (across the envelope cells 14.4 °C to 25.5 °C), warmest day 29.2 °C in March (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 15.7 °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: 61 to 63% 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 28 °C in Jul to 29 °C in Mar; mean night from 21 °C in Aug to 22 °C in Jan. The cold quarter, Jul to Sep, is the three months around the coldest night. 1080 mm of rain a year, most in Sep. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 863 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 13.8 °C and the 99th-percentile day 38.9 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°15°20°25°30°35°40°38.9° 99th-percentile day (undated)13.8° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250300mm rainDLI 31–37RH 61–63 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 863 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 °C29 / 24–3229 / 25–3229 / 25–3229 / 26–3328 / 23–3328 / 22–3228 / 22–3229 / 24–3228 / 24–3229 / 25–3228 / 25–3228 / 24–32
Night °C22 / 15–2422 / 15–2422 / 16–2422 / 16–2522 / 15–2522 / 14–2521 / 13–2521 / 14–2622 / 16–2522 / 17–2521 / 16–2522 / 15–24
Rain mm71 / 9–21771 / 8–18888 / 7–20977 / 14–19088 / 17–23691 / 17–25598 / 11–242106 / 8–248118 / 11–277106 / 16–24090 / 16–21176 / 12–209
DLI34 / 27–4036 / 30–4037 / 31–4235 / 27–4532 / 22–4331 / 21–4232 / 23–4134 / 27–4134 / 30–3934 / 29–4133 / 27–4132 / 25–41
RH %61 / 55–6761 / 55–6761 / 55–6762 / 55–6863 / 56–6963 / 57–6963 / 55–6863 / 53–6863 / 53–6963 / 55–6962 / 55–6962 / 55–68

Each figure is the median across the 863 grid cells holding the 1065 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 1959:2833 (-7.975, -38.325). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 13.8 °C, 1st-percentile night 15.7 °C, 99th-percentile day 38.9 °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 863 distinct grid cells holding the 1065 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1959:2833 (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 -8.00_-38.125, lapse-corrected -41 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 499 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.
NativeFlorida, Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Bahamas, Cayman Is., Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Netherlands Antilles, Puerto Rico, Turks-Caicos Is., Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuelan Antilles, Windward Is., Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil West-Central, Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast, Brazil North, Brazil South, Argentina Northeast, Argentina Northwest, Paraguay· introduced: Cape Verde, Benin, Burkina, Ghana, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Congo, Gabon, Gulf of Guinea Is., Rwanda, Zaïre, Sudan, Angola, Ogasawara-shoto, Assam, India, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Myanmar, Vietnam, Jawa, Hawaii, New Mexico
Kew's description“annual” · “seasonally dry tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker15.767, -96.132 · in the densest population, 188 records (17% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1094 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 661 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 4 km away. 647 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 29 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 1094 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Talinum fruticosumTalinum fruticosumTalinum fruticosumTalinum fruticosumTalinum fruticosumTalinum fruticosumTalinum fruticosumTalinum fruticosum

Photographs: (c) Helio Lourencini, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) parithi, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Morten Ross, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Eric Knight, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2).

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

Antioxidant, total phenols and proximate constituents of four tropical leafy vegetables
Eric Obeng, Fidelis M. Kpodo, Clement Okraku Tettey, Edward Ken Essuman (2019) · Scientific African
Urban gardening and neglected and underutilized species in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil
Manuela Alves da Cunha, Lídice Almeida Arlego PARAGUASSÚ, José Geraldo de Aquino Assis, Arthur Benjamin de Paula Carvalho Silva (2020) · Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine
Ethnobotanical use-pattern for indigenous fruits and vegetables among selected communities in Ondo State, Nigeria
Similoluwa Felicia Olowo, Abiodun Olusola Omotayo, Ibraheem Oduola Lawal, Peter Tshepiso Ndhlovu (2022) · South African Journal of Botany
Membrane Stabilization and Inhibition of Protein Denaturation as Mechanisms of the Anti-Inflammatory Activity of some Plant Species
Babatunde Akinyemi Esho, Babatunde B. Samuel, Kemi Feyisayo Akinwunmi, Wande M. Oluyemi (2021) · DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals)
Evaluation of antioxidant activity and vitamin E profile of some selected indigenous vegetables in Nigerian diet
Ibiyinka Ogunlade, Gregory A. Tucker, Ian D. Fisk, Adebayo O Ogunlade (2009) · Repository@Nottingham (University of Nottingham)
Green-Spinach, Red-Spinach, and Tree-Spinach (‘Three-Fold Spinach’ in Sri Lanka): An Insight into Phylogenetics and Consumer Preference
T. H. I. Gayathree, S. I. Karunarathne, L. T. Ranaweera, H. S. M. Jayarathne (2020) · Emirates Journal of Food and Agriculture
Determination of Iron Content in Indigenous Vegetables in South West Nigeria
O. G. Dawodu, J. O. Olanike, R. B. Akanbi (2020) · Annual Research & Review in Biology

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 Talinum 12 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 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: 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 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 211 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.