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Telosma cordata; photograph (c) Apichart Songsangchun, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Apichart Songsangchun, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2023-08-12

Telosma cordata (Burm.f.) Merr.

Chinese-violet; Fragrant telosma; Tonkin Jasmine

Apocynaceae · China Southeast, Bangladesh +8

Cited as Kew's World Checklist cites it, Telosma cordata (Burm.f.) Merr.: GBIF's backbone key for this page carries the name with another author, (Burm.fil.) Merr.

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Telosma cordata, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedTelosma cordata, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedTelosma cordata, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedTelosma cordata, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedTelosma cordata, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedTelosma cordata, photograph author not stated, no rights reserved 21 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
19.0°C
Record low 17.2 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
35°C
Apr at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,310mm
9 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
30–40DLI
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 May and July 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.

Summary

Telosma cordata is a species of flowering plant in the family Apocynaceae (tribe Marsdenieae), native to China and Indo-China. It is cultivated elsewhere and may occur wild as an introduced species. Common names include Chinese violet, cowslip creeper, Pakalana vine, Tonkin jasmine and Tonkinese creeper. The plant bears clusters of golden yellow blooms along the vining stems during summer months. More on Wikipedia ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Telosma cordata", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (912 mm of 1,252 mm) falls in May and July to October, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 28.1 °C against a yearly mean of 27.5 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: January to April and November.

Rain

1,252 mm in the median year at the habitat, 912 mm of it May and July to October. Wettest month September at 245 mm, driest month December at 6 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,103 mm to 2,176 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,310 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,252 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: 30 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 27, the highest 90th-percentile month 42).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 19.0 °C, the absolute minimum 17.2 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 40.3 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 20.1 °C in January and December (across the grid cells of the range 16.5 °C to 22.6 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 34.6 °C in April (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 19.0 °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: 54 to 64% 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 -7 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 Telosma cordata through the yearWarmest month April, mean daily high 35 °C; coldest months January and December, mean nightly low 20.1 °C; 1,252 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.15°20°25°30°35°40°45°40.3° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER17.2° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 30–40RH 54–64%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 19 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 °C29 / 28–3231 / 30–3333 / 31–3535 / 31–3733 / 31–3532 / 30–3432 / 29–3331 / 29–3331 / 29–3229 / 29–3129 / 28–3128 / 27–31
Night °C20 / 17–2321 / 19–2423 / 22–2625 / 24–2725 / 24–2725 / 25–2725 / 24–2625 / 24–2624 / 23–2623 / 22–2422 / 19–2320 / 16–23
Rain mm8 / 5–3617 / 11–2442 / 23–6382 / 54–115165 / 121–269146 / 107–335148 / 110–385183 / 123–403245 / 173–323171 / 105–27039 / 16–3006 / 4–159
DLI33 / 31–3436 / 35–3840 / 38–4239 / 39–4236 / 33–3833 / 31–3532 / 29–3430 / 28–3330 / 29–3330 / 29–3130 / 27–3131 / 28–32
RH %55 / 53–6256 / 52–6156 / 52–6257 / 55–6262 / 59–6661 / 58–6561 / 60–6563 / 61–6764 / 63–6763 / 61–6657 / 56–6754 / 53–64
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 19 grid cells holding the 19 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 1543:5200 (12.825, 80.025). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 17.2 °C, 1st-percentile night 19.0 °C, 99th-percentile day 40.3 °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 19 distinct grid cells holding 19 of the 19 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1543:5200 (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 13.00_80.000, lapse-corrected -7 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 42 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.
NativeChina Southeast, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, West Himalaya, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam · introduced: Jawa, Philippines, Marianas · 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 marker13.79, 100.321 · in the densest population, 24 records (41% of those in range)
Kew's description“climbing shrub” · “subtropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 58 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 19 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 24 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 715 km away. 14 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 39 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 58 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Telosma cordata, photograph 1did not loadTelosma cordata, photograph 2did not loadTelosma cordata, photograph 3did not loadTelosma cordata, photograph 4did not loadTelosma cordata, photograph 5did not loadTelosma cordata, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0 (6).

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

Millingtonia hortensis Millingtonia hortensis Indian Cork Tree Photo: CC BY, Karthik ThrikkadeeriDialium cochinchinense Dialium cochinchinense Velvet tamarind Photo: CC BY, Utain PummarinCombretum quadrangulare Combretum quadrangulare Combretaceae Photo: Public domain, New Moon at vi.wikipediaCurcuma roscoeana Curcuma roscoeana Jewel of Burma Photo: CC BY-SA, Meneerke bloemPhyllanthus mirabilis Phyllanthus mirabilis Phyllanthaceae Photo: CC BY, Utain PummarinTiliacora triandra Tiliacora triandra Menispermaceae Photo: CC BY, Eugene Popov

Other Telosma 1 in the reference

Telosma procumbens Telosma procumbens Latok Photo: CC BY, Gabriel

Names & registers

Also known as Apocynum odoratissimum; Asclepias cordata; Asclepias odoratissima; Cynanchum odoratissimum; Oxystelma ovatum and 6 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Apocynaceae
Described by
(Burm.f.) Merr.
Native to
China Southeast, Bangladesh, India +7
Wild records
58 in range · 24 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 3570803 is Telosma cordata (Burm.fil.) Merr.; the page links Kew's Telosma cordata (Burm.f.) Merr., 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; 3 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (1 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 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 13.00_80.000, lapse-corrected -7 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 2026-10-22
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 22 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

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