Cautleya spicata(Sm.) Baker

WFO wfo-0000353044 Accepted WFO 2026-06 4 photographs CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–d · 4 separate observations

Cautleya spicata, photographed by Ramnarayan K
fig. a Ramnarayan K, CC BY 4.0 / 2021-08-07 / obs. 149909021
Cautleya spicata, photographed by Ramnarayan K
fig. b Ramnarayan K, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 149909051
Cautleya spicata, photographed by Ramnarayan K
fig. c Ramnarayan K, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 149909401
Cautleya spicata, photographed by Ramnarayan K
fig. d Ramnarayan K, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 149908987

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.

Native range 7 botanical countries

Regions where Cautleya spicata is native: China South-Central, Tibet, Assam, East Himalaya, Myanmar, Nepal, West Himalaya China South-CentralTibetAssamEast HimalayaMyanmarNepalWest Himalaya
Native distribution of Cautleya spicata, 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.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Assam ASS ASIA-TROPICAL
East Himalaya EHM
Myanmar MYA
Nepal NEP
West Himalaya WHM
China South-Central CHC ASIA-TEMPERATE
Tibet CHT

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.

Also published as 3 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.

  • Cautleya petiolata Baker
  • Cautleya robusta Baker
  • Roscoea spicata Sm.

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. 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.