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Vitex glabrata; photograph (c) Thomas Mesaglio, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Thomas Mesaglio, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2024-12-11

Vitex glabrata R.Br.

Smooth chastetree; Black-plum

Lamiaceae · Assam, Bangladesh +23

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Vitex glabrata, photograph (c) Ruth Palsson, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Vitex glabrata, photograph (c) Ruth Palsson, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Vitex glabrata, photograph (c) Ruth Palsson, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Vitex glabrata, photograph (c) Ruth Palsson, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Vitex glabrata, photograph (c) Ruth Palsson, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Vitex glabrata, photograph (c) Ruth Palsson, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) 22 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
12.5°C
Record low 7.4 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
36°C
Oct at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,395mm
7 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
33–45DLI
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 June to September (December to March at the habitat), 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

Vitex glabrata, commonly known as smooth chastetree, bush currant, black plum, black fruit, and black grape, is a species medium-sized deciduous tree in the family Lamiaceae. It is native to Australia (Northern Territory, Western Australia, and Queensland), Bangladesh, Brunei, Cambodia, India (including both the mainland and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands), Indonesia (most regions of Indonesia except Sumatra), Laos, Malaysia, Marianas, Myanmar, New Caledonia, Papua New Guinea (including Bismarck Archipelago), Philippines, Solomon Islands, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Vitex glabrata", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Vitex

Vitex is a genus of flowering plants in the family Lamiaceae containing about 210 species. Common names include chaste tree or chastetree, traditionally referring to V. agnus-castus, but often applied to other species, as well, and pūriri for the New Zealand species V. lucens. Species of Vitex are native throughout the tropics and subtropics, with a few species in warm-temperate Eurasia and one in New Zealand.

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

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,112 mm of 1,364 mm) falls in December to March, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 28.0 °C against a yearly mean of 26.9 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: June to September.

Rain

1,364 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,112 mm of it December to March. Wettest month January at 324 mm, driest months (3 at 2 mm); 3 months under 5 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 838 mm to 1,814 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,395 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,364 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, southern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 33 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 29, the highest 90th-percentile month 46).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 12.5 °C, the absolute minimum 7.4 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 41.7 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 18.2 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range 14.3 °C to 22.4 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 35.7 °C in October (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 12.5 °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 65% 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 -9 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, southern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Vitex glabrata through the yearWarmest month October, mean daily high 36 °C; coldest month July, mean nightly low 18.2 °C; 1,364 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, southern hemisphere.0°10°20°30°40°50°41.7° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER7.4° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 33–45RH 48–65%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 765 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 °C32 / 29–3431 / 29–3332 / 29–3332 / 29–3431 / 28–3329 / 26–3129 / 26–3131 / 26–3334 / 28–3636 / 29–3735 / 30–3733 / 30–36
Night °C25 / 24–2625 / 24–2624 / 23–2623 / 21–2621 / 18–2519 / 15–2318 / 14–2219 / 16–2322 / 19–2424 / 22–2625 / 23–2725 / 24–27
Rain mm324 / 210–420297 / 207–399251 / 124–32186 / 26–16513 / 6–472 / 1–132 / 1–92 / 0–67 / 3–2032 / 17–67108 / 54–158240 / 139–308
DLI35 / 33–4034 / 32–3736 / 34–3837 / 33–3835 / 31–3633 / 29–3434 / 30–3538 / 36–3942 / 41–4345 / 43–4643 / 42–4639 / 36–43
RH %64 / 60–6765 / 61–6862 / 56–6556 / 49–6251 / 46–6049 / 45–5948 / 44–6049 / 42–6152 / 43–6254 / 46–6257 / 51–6262 / 56–64
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 765 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (1090 records in those cells; 10 more cells hold records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cells are left out), 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 2063:6231 (-13.175, 131.575). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 7.4 °C, 1st-percentile night 12.5 °C, 99th-percentile day 41.7 °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 765 distinct grid cells holding 1090 of the 1101 in-range records (10 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2063:6231 (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_131.875, lapse-corrected -9 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 44 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.
NativeAssam, Bangladesh, East Himalaya, India, Andaman Is., Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Borneo, Jawa, Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Maluku, Philippines, Sulawesi, Bismarck Archipelago, New Guinea, Solomon Is., Northern Territory, Queensland, Western Australia, New Caledonia, 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 marker-12.775, 131.518 · in the densest population, 542 records (42% of those in range)
Kew's description“tree” · “wet tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 1304 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 1090 of them in the land cells it reads, of 1101 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 1291 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 1 km away. 7 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 203 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 1304 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Vitex glabrata, photograph 1did not loadVitex glabrata, photograph 2did not loadVitex glabrata, photograph 3did not loadVitex glabrata, photograph 4did not loadVitex glabrata, photograph 5did not loadVitex glabrata, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Ruth Palsson, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (6).

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

Antidesma ghaesembilla Antidesma ghaesembilla Black currant-tree Photo: CC BY-SA, Vikas D PrasadXyris indica Xyris indica Xyridaceae Photo: CC BY, 曾昱承 Yu-Cheng ZengNymphaea violacea Nymphaea violacea Blue Waterlily Photo: CC BY, Martin RadyBridelia tomentosa Bridelia tomentosa Pikpoktai Photo: CC BY, Yu-Huang WangChlorophytum laxum Chlorophytum laxum Pongol Sword Photo: CC BY, Ravuri Krishna ChaitanyaLimnophila fragrans Limnophila fragrans Limnophila Photo: CC BY, Thomas Mesaglio

Other Vitex 23 in the reference

Vitex agnus-castus Vitex agnus-castus Chaste tree Photo: CC BY, Alexis López HernándezVitex altissima Vitex altissima Lamiaceae Photo: CC BY, Zheng-An WangVitex bicolor Vitex bicolor Lamiaceae Photo: CC BY, Fabian BrambachVitex cooperi Vitex cooperi Lamiaceae Photo: CC BY, Eduardo Chacón MadrigalVitex cymosa Vitex cymosa Guayacán Photo: CC0, author not statedVitex doniana Vitex doniana Black Plum Photo: CC BY, Tom Field Vitex fischeri Lamiaceae Vitex gaumeri Vitex gaumeri Fiddlewood Photo: CC BY, Ricard Busquets ReverteVitex gigantea Vitex gigantea Lamiaceae Photo: CC BY, Raúl A. Ruiz M.Vitex leucoxylon Vitex leucoxylon Lamiaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Dinesh ValkeVitex lignum-vitae Vitex lignum-vitae Satinwood Photo: CC BY-SA, Greg TasneyVitex lucens Vitex lucens Lamiaceae Photo: CC0, author not stated all 24 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Vitex bombacifolia; Vitex cunninghamii; Vitex elegans; Vitex glabrata f. bombacifolia; Vitex glabrata f. pallida and 7 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Lamiaceae
Described by
R.Br.
Native to
Assam, Bangladesh, East Himalaya +22
Wild records
1304 in range · 1291 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 2026-10-22
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; 5 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (5 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_131.875, lapse-corrected -9 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 2026-10-22none of the photographs on this page is credited to GBIF: those shown are other sources', and GBIF's were the same photographs or were set aside by the photograph rules
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 35 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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