Species
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Tetragonia tetragonoides (Pall.) Kuntze

Common tetragonia, Espinaca de Nueva Zelandia (ES), Kōkihi, Native Spinach

Climate known 57 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

Tetragonia tetragonioides, commonly called New Zealand spinach, warrigal greens or by its Māori name of Kōkihi, is a flowering plant in the fig-marigold family (Aizoaceae). It is often cultivated as a leafy vegetable.

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

About the genus · Tetragonia

Tetragonia is a genus of 51 species of flowering plants in the family Aizoaceae, native to temperate and subtropical regions mostly of the Southern Hemisphere, in New Zealand, Australia, southern and eastern Africa, and western South America, and eastern Asia.

Text from Wikipedia, “Tetragonia”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Aizoaceae
Described by
(Pall.) Kuntze
Native to
China South-Central, China Southeast, Japan +17
Wild records
1258 in range· 924 open

At a glance

Warmest month
27°C
Jan, mean day; nights 19 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
705mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Apr 71 mm (CHELSA)
Light
18–45DLI
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 Aizoaceae, which is usually but not always one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (August to January and May to June in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 705 mm a year, wettest April at 71 mm, driest August at 47 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 18 to 45 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 5.7 °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 Demidovia tetragonoides Pall.; Tetragonia borealis Batt. & Trab.; Tetragonia cornuta Gaertn.; Tetragonia expansa Murray; Tetragonia expansa var. cornuta (Gaertn.) Endl. and 8 more.

Cultivation

Grouped as a cactus or succulent by Aizoaceae, which is usually but not always 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 (August to January and May to June in the northern hemisphere).

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

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (499 mm of 705 mm) takes 8 months, February to July and November to December. Mean temperature moves 12.0 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: August to January and May to June.

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 705 mm a year, wettest April at 71 mm, driest August at 47 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

705 mm a year at the habitat, 499 mm of it February to July and November to December. Wettest month April at 71 mm, driest August at 47 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 248 mm to 1707 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, southern 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: 18 to 45 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 18 to 45 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 13, the highest 90th-percentile month 51).

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 5.7 °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 5.7 °C, the absolute minimum 3.3 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 34.4 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 7.5 °C in July (across the envelope cells 5.4 °C to 23.9 °C), warmest day 26.7 °C in January (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 5.7 °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: 55 to 59% 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 16 °C in Jul to 27 °C in Jan; mean night from 8 °C in Jul to 19 °C in Jan. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest night. 705 mm of rain a year, most in Apr. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 927 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 3.3 °C and the 99th-percentile day 34.4 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°20°30°40°34.4° 99th-percentile day (undated)3.3° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250mm rainDLI 18–45RH 55–59 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 927 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 °C27 / 10–3426 / 10–3325 / 13–3023 / 16–2619 / 16–2317 / 14–2416 / 13–2718 / 14–2821 / 15–2623 / 17–2725 / 16–3026 / 12–33
Night °C19 / 5–2319 / 6–2217 / 8–2014 / 11–1911 / 9–189 / 7–208 / 5–248 / 6–2511 / 9–2214 / 11–1916 / 12–2018 / 8–21
Rain mm54 / 20–12358 / 21–16056 / 17–15571 / 12–15468 / 22–16770 / 22–23356 / 23–22447 / 16–23050 / 18–20055 / 21–12064 / 23–12456 / 23–126
DLI45 / 17–5139 / 22–4732 / 28–4029 / 22–3422 / 16–3518 / 13–3420 / 14–3426 / 19–3432 / 26–3638 / 25–4342 / 18–4844 / 16–51
RH %55 / 44–6356 / 45–6357 / 46–6358 / 49–6359 / 54–6459 / 57–6758 / 55–6855 / 51–6756 / 48–6457 / 46–6256 / 45–6255 / 44–62

Each figure is the median across the 927 grid cells holding the 1234 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 2496:6610 (-34.825, 150.525). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 3.3 °C, 1st-percentile night 5.7 °C, 99th-percentile day 34.4 °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 927 distinct grid cells holding the 1234 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2496:6610 (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 -35.00_150.625, lapse-corrected +36 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 155 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, China Southeast, Japan, Korea, Nansei-shoto, Ogasawara-shoto, Taiwan, Vietnam, Norfolk Is., New South Wales, Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, Western Australia, Kermadec Is., New Zealand North, New Zealand South, New Caledonia· introduced: Denmark, Finland, Great Britain, Sweden, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Baleares, Portugal, Sardegna, Spain, Greece, Italy, Algeria, Libya, Morocco, Azores, Canary Is., Cape Verde, Madeira, Rwanda, Somalia, Kenya, Uganda, Angola, Mozambique, KwaZulu-Natal, Ascension, St.Helena, Mauritius, Réunion, Rodrigues, Uzbekistan, Palestine, Myanmar, Jawa, Sumatera, Tonga, Easter Is., Tubuai Is., Hawaii, Oregon, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, California, Florida, Louisiana, North Carolina, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northwest, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Bermuda, Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast, Brazil South, Argentina Northeast, Argentina Northwest, Chile Central, Chile North, Chile South, Uruguay
Kew's description“annual or perennial” · “seasonally dry tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-33.832, 151.043 · in the densest population, 698 records (55% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1258 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 924 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 256 km away. 600 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 24 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 1258 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Tetragonia tetragonoidesTetragonia tetragonoidesTetragonia tetragonoidesTetragonia tetragonoidesTetragonia tetragonoidesTetragonia tetragonoidesTetragonia tetragonoidesTetragonia tetragonoides

Photographs: (c) Greg Tasney, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA); (c) Margaret Burger, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA); (c) Annika Lindqvist, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) zebedeugalinha, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3).

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

Effect of salt stress on growth, electrolyte leakage, Na+ and K+ content in selected plant species
Helena Hniličková, František Hnilička, Matyáš Orsák, Václav Hejnák (2019) · Plant Soil and Environment
Development of a new piosphere in arid chenopod shrubland grazed by sheep. 2. Changes to the vegetation
M. H. Andrew, Robert Tjarko Lange (1986) · Australian Journal of Ecology
Photodamage on Staphylococcus aureus by natural extract from Tetragonia tetragonoides (Pall.) Kuntze: Clean method of extraction, characterization and photophysical studies
Katieli da Silva Souza Campanholi, Jonas Marcelo Jaski, Ranulfo C. da S. Júnior, Ana Beatriz Zanqui (2019) · Journal of Photochemistry and Photobiology B Biology
Two naturally occurring acyclic diterpene and norditerpene aldehydes from Tetragonia tetragonoides
Tadashi Aoki, Koji Takagi, Toshifumi Hirata, Takayuki Suga (1982) · Phytochemistry
Studies on the structure of polysaccharide from Tetragonia tetragonoides. I.
Masami Kato, Tadahiro Takeda, Yukio Ogihara, Masaki Shimizu (1985) · Chemical and Pharmaceutical Bulletin
Effect of three diets on the gametogenic development and fatty acid profile of Paracentrotus lividus (Lamarck, 1816) gonads
Andreia Raposo, Susana M. F. Ferreira, Rodolfo Ramos, Pedro M. Santos (2019) · Aquaculture Research
6-Methoxyflavonols from the aerial parts of Tetragonia tetragonoides (Pall.) Kuntze and their anti-inflammatory activity
Yeong‐Geun Lee, Hwan Lee, Jin Ah Ryuk, Joo Tae Hwang (2019) · Bioorganic Chemistry

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.

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 110 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.