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Waltheria indica; photograph author not stated, no rights reserved CC0author not stated, no rights reserved · observed growing wild · 2026-09-25

Waltheria indica L.

Sleepy morning; Marsh Mallow; Mash Mellow; Uhaloa

Malvaceae · Arizona, Texas +44

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Waltheria indica, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedWaltheria indica, photograph (c) Rohit Naniwadekar, some rights reserved (CC BY)Waltheria indica, photograph (c) Harrison Cole, some rights reserved (CC BY)Waltheria indica, photograph (c) José Javier Barrios Flores, some rights reserved (CC BY)Waltheria indica, photograph (c) José Javier Barrios Flores, some rights reserved (CC BY)Waltheria indica, photograph (c) Dutza K., some rights reserved (CC BY) 69 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
14.5°C
Record low 9.5 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
30°C
May, Jun, Jul, Aug and Sep at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,150mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
27–42DLI
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 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

Waltheria indica is a species of flowering plant in the mallow family, Malvaceae, that has a pantropical distribution. It is believed to have originated in the Neotropics. Common names include sleepy morning, basora prieta, hierba de soldado, guimauve, mauve-gris, moto-branco, fulutafu, kafaki, and ʻuhaloa (Hawaii)(and in South Africa - "meidebossie"). W. indica is a short-lived subshrub or shrub, reaching a height of 2 m (6.6 ft) and a stem diameter of 2 cm (0.79 in). More on Wikipedia ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Waltheria indica", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (798 mm of 1,064 mm) falls in June to October, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 27.0 °C against a yearly mean of 25.0 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December to April.

Rain

1,064 mm in the median year at the habitat, 798 mm of it June to October. Wettest month September at 191 mm, driest month March at 25 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 566 mm to 1,664 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,150 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,064 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: 27 to 42 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 21, the highest 90th-percentile month 50).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 14.5 °C, the absolute minimum 9.5 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 39.0 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 18.2 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 10.4 °C to 23.2 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 30.0 °C in May (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 14.5 °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: 58 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 +98 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 Waltheria indica through the yearWarmest months May, June, July, August and September, mean daily high 30 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 18.2 °C; 1,064 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.5°10°15°20°25°30°35°40°39.0° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER9.5° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250300mm rainDLI 27–42RH 58–64%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 387 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 °C26 / 22–2927 / 23–3128 / 24–3229 / 25–3430 / 26–3530 / 26–3430 / 26–3430 / 26–3430 / 26–3329 / 26–3127 / 24–3026 / 22–29
Night °C18 / 10–2318 / 12–2319 / 13–2421 / 15–2422 / 16–2524 / 18–2624 / 17–2624 / 17–2624 / 17–2623 / 16–2521 / 14–2419 / 11–24
Rain mm33 / 10–11828 / 7–11225 / 3–14132 / 1–10468 / 2–140163 / 15–256165 / 35–250176 / 41–256191 / 56–272103 / 45–19044 / 13–16436 / 6–144
DLI29 / 23–3534 / 28–3938 / 33–4442 / 32–4842 / 31–5039 / 31–4539 / 32–4338 / 33–4234 / 31–3932 / 29–3730 / 24–3527 / 21–33
RH %59 / 51–6559 / 50–6458 / 47–6458 / 47–6460 / 50–6562 / 56–6662 / 56–6663 / 56–6764 / 58–6862 / 57–6660 / 53–6559 / 52–65
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 387 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (459 records in those cells; 17 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 1431:1566 (18.425, -101.675). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 9.5 °C, 1st-percentile night 14.5 °C, 99th-percentile day 39.0 °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 387 distinct grid cells holding 459 of the 480 in-range records (17 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1431:1566 (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 18.50_-101.875, lapse-corrected +98 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 594 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.
NativeArizona, Texas, Florida, Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexican Pacific Is., Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Belize, Costa Rica, C. American Pacific Is., El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, Bahamas, Bermuda, Cayman Is., Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Netherlands Antilles, Puerto Rico, Turks-Caicos Is., Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuelan Antilles, Windward Is., French Guiana, Guyana, Surinam, Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Peru, Brazil West-Central, Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast, Brazil North, Brazil South, Argentina Northeast, Argentina Northwest, Paraguay · introduced: Canary Is., Cape Verde, Benin, Burkina, Gambia, The, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Nigeria, Niger, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo, Burundi, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Congo, Gabon, Gulf of Guinea Is., Rwanda, Zaïre, Chad, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Socotra, Somalia, Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Angola, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Cape Provinces, Namibia, KwaZulu-Natal, Swaziland, Northern Provinces, Ascension, Chagos Archipelago, Comoros, Mauritius, Madagascar, Réunion, Seychelles, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, China South-Central, Hainan, China Southeast, Kazan-retto, Taiwan, Assam, Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, South China Sea, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaya, Fiji, Nauru, Niue, New Caledonia, Samoa, Tonga, Cook Is., Easter Is., Line Is., Marquesas, Society Is., Tuamotu, Tubuai Is., Marianas, Hawaii, Alabama · 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 marker20.821, -89.65 · in the densest population, 197 records (22% of those in range)
Kew's description“subshrub or shrub” · “seasonally dry tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 900 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 459 of them in the land cells it reads, of 480 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 648 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 30 km away. 991 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 420 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 900 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Waltheria indica, photograph 1did not loadWaltheria indica, photograph 2did not loadWaltheria indica, photograph 3did not loadWaltheria indica, photograph 4did not loadWaltheria indica, photograph 5did not loadWaltheria indica, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0; (c) Rohit Naniwadekar, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Harrison Cole, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) José Javier Barrios Flores, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Dutza K., some rights reserved (CC BY).

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

Kallstroemia maxima Kallstroemia maxima Big caltrop Photo: CC BY, Scott Allen DavisFunastrum clausum Funastrum clausum White twinevine Photo: CC BY, Brian Oakes Haiti HunterMyriopus volubilis Myriopus volubilis Twining soldierbush Photo: CC0, Sam DroegeDesmodium scorpiurus Desmodium scorpiurus Fabaceae Photo: CC BY, Alexis López HernándezSavia sessiliflora Savia sessiliflora Amansa guapo Photo: CC BY-SA, Kurt MillerEsenbeckia berlandieri Esenbeckia berlandieri Berlandier's jopoy Photo: CC BY, johnyochum

Other Waltheria 1 in the reference

Waltheria ovata Waltheria ovata Royal lucraco Photo: CC BY, Kristof Zyskowski

Names & registers

Also known as Waltheria africana; Waltheria americana; Waltheria americana var. densiflora; Waltheria americana var. elliptica; Waltheria americana var. glandulosa and 22 more. (GBIF Backbone)

Under another author Melochia corchorifolia Wall. is an older name of this species, not Melochia corchorifolia, a species of the reference. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Malvaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Arizona, Texas, Florida +43
Wild records
900 in range · 648 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; 16 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (11 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 1 at a herbarium, 4 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 18.50_-101.875, lapse-corrected +98 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
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 244 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…