Aeluropus littoralis(Gouan) Parl.

Indian walnut

WFO wfo-0000842034 Accepted WFO 2026-06 3 photographs CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–c · 1 observation

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 1 time, so some figures below are different views of the same plant, taken on the same day, rather than different individuals. They are usually different parts of it: the leaf, the flower, the bark.

Aeluropus littoralis, photographed by Юрий Данилевский (Yuriy Danilevsky)
fig. a Юрий Данилевский (Yuriy Danilevsky), CC BY 4.0 / 2015-08-22 / obs. 30918921
Aeluropus littoralis, photographed by Юрий Данилевский (Yuriy Danilevsky)
fig. b Юрий Данилевский (Yuriy Danilevsky), CC BY 4.0 / obs. 30918929
Aeluropus littoralis, photographed by Юрий Данилевский (Yuriy Danilevsky)
fig. c Юрий Данилевский (Yuriy Danilevsky), CC BY 4.0 / obs. 30918922

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

The specimen a real sheet, in a real collection

Herbarium
Smithsonian, US National Herbarium
Accession
US 3717035
Filed as
Aeluropus littoralis (Gouan) Parl.
Det. by
Soreng, Robert J., Research Associate (BOT), Smithsonian Institution - National Museum of Natural History (UNITED STATES)
Collected
L. J. Gillespie, E. Cabi, R. J. Soreng & K. Boudko 2011-06-19
Origin
TR
The sheet
View the digitised specimen (CC0 1.0)

A real pressed plant, in a real collection, under the accession number above. Not an illustration of one. The holding institution does not serve this sheet’s image to third parties, so there is no photograph here. The record is real and the link goes to it. Where we hold no openly licensed sheet for a species this section is simply absent, and where a sheet never recorded who determined it, that field stays empty rather than being filled in. Roughly half of all herbarium sheets never recorded a determiner, which is ordinary.

Native range 53 botanical countries

Regions where Aeluropus littoralis is native: Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Tunisia, Western Sahara, Afghanistan, Altay, China North-Central, China Southeast, Cyprus, East Aegean Is., Gulf States, Inner Mongolia, Iran, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Kirgizstan, Kuwait, Lebanon-Syria, Manchuria, Mongolia, North Caucasus, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Sinai, Tadzhikistan, Transcaucasus, Türkiye, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, West Siberia, Xinjiang, Pakistan, Vietnam, Albania, Baleares, Bulgaria, Corse, East European Russia, France, Greece, Italy, Kriti, Krym, NW. Balkan Pen., Romania, Sicilia, South European Russia, Spain, Türkiye-in-Europe, Ukraine AlgeriaEgyptLibyaMauritaniaMoroccoTunisiaWestern SaharaAfghanistanAltayChina North-CentralChina SoutheastCyprusEast Aegean Is.Gulf StatesInner MongoliaIranIraqKazakhstanKirgizstanKuwaitLebanon-SyriaManchuriaMongoliaNorth CaucasusPalestineSaudi ArabiaSinaiTadzhikistanTranscaucasusTürkiyeTurkmenistanUzbekistanWest SiberiaXinjiangPakistanVietnamAlbaniaBulgariaCorseEast European RussiaFranceGreeceItalyKritiKrymNW. Balkan Pen.RomaniaSiciliaSouth European RussiaSpainTürkiye-in-EuropeUkraine Baleares
Native distribution of Aeluropus littoralis, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Afghanistan AFG ASIA-TEMPERATE
Altay ALT
China North-Central CHN
China Southeast CHS
Cyprus CYP
East Aegean Is. EAI
Gulf States GST
Inner Mongolia CHI
Iran IRN
Iraq IRQ
Kazakhstan KAZ
Kirgizstan KGZ
Kuwait KUW
Lebanon-Syria LBS
Manchuria CHM
Mongolia MON
North Caucasus NCS
Palestine PAL
Saudi Arabia SAU
Sinai SIN
Tadzhikistan TZK
Transcaucasus TCS
Türkiye TUR
Turkmenistan TKM
Uzbekistan UZB
West Siberia WSB
Xinjiang CHX
Albania ALB EUROPE
Baleares BAL
Bulgaria BUL
Corse COR
East European Russia RUE
France FRA
Greece GRC
Italy ITA
Kriti KRI
Krym KRY
NW. Balkan Pen. YUG
Romania ROM
Sicilia SIC
South European Russia RUS
Spain SPA
Türkiye-in-Europe TUE
Ukraine UKR
Algeria ALG AFRICA
Egypt EGY
Libya LBY
Mauritania MTN
Morocco MOR
Tunisia TUN
Western Sahara WSA
Pakistan PAK ASIA-TROPICAL
Vietnam VIE

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Where it actually grows measured, from 118 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -11.3 °C -0.4 °C 10.6 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 25.4 °C 28.3 °C 36.2 °C
Annual rainfall 135 mm 415 mm 645 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 2 mm 65 mm 131 mm

It is found where winters bring hard frost. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 118 research-grade observations of Aeluropus littoralis that carry a coordinate, and this is the range those places actually span. The 5th and 95th percentiles are used rather than the minimum and maximum, because a single cultivated specimen in a heated conservatory should not widen a tropical plant's range to the Arctic.

This is not a hardiness zone. A USDA zone is the average annual extreme minimum temperature. The figure above is the mean daily minimum of the coldest month, which is a different quantity and is typically far warmer. Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one.

Also published as 36 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Aeluropus hirsutus Munro
  • Aeluropus hirtulus (S.L.Chen & X.L.Yang) Tzvelev
  • Aeluropus intermedius Regel
  • Aeluropus korshinskyi Tzvelev
  • Aeluropus laevis var. dasyphyllus Trautv.
  • Aeluropus littoralis subsp. intermedius (Regel) Tzvelev
  • Aeluropus littoralis subsp. korshinskyi (Tzvelev) Tzvelev
  • Aeluropus littoralis subsp. kuschkensis Tzvelev
  • Aeluropus littoralis subsp. micrantherus (Tzvelev) Tzvelev
  • Aeluropus littoralis subsp. pungens (K.Koch) Tzvelev
  • Aeluropus littoralis subsp. sinensis (Debeaux) Tzvelev
  • Aeluropus littoralis var. chevalieri Sennen
  • Aeluropus littoralis var. dasyphyllus (Trautv.) Roshev.
  • Aeluropus littoralis var. hispidula Halácsy
  • Aeluropus littoralis var. hispidulus Halácsy
  • Aeluropus littoralis var. intermedius Coss. & Durieu
  • Aeluropus littoralis var. micrantherus (Tzvelev) K.L.Chang
  • Aeluropus littoralis var. sinensis Debeaux
  • Aeluropus littoralis var. sinkiangensis G.L.Zhang
  • Aeluropus micrantherus Tzvelev
  • Aeluropus pungens K.Koch
  • Aeluropus pungens var. hirtulus S.L.Chen & X.L.Yang
  • Aeluropus pungens var. sinkiangensis (G.L.Zhang) G.L.Zhang
  • Aeluropus sinensis (Debeaux) Tzvelev

and 12 more.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. USDA PLANTS Database. common name, checklist symbol AELI2. public domain. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.