Colubrina asiaticaBrongn.

Asian nakedwoodAsiatic snakewoodLatherleaf

WFO wfo-0000615212 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Colubrina asiatica, photographed by Ben Machado
fig. a Ben Machado, CC BY 4.0 / 2021-10-08 / obs. 163208983

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 57 botanical countries

Regions where Colubrina asiatica is native: Aldabra, Comoros, Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique, Mozambique Channel Is., Seychelles, Tanzania, China South-Central, China Southeast, Hainan, Kazan-retto, Nansei-shoto, Taiwan, Andaman Is., Bangladesh, Bismarck Archipelago, Borneo, Cambodia, India, Jawa, Laccadive Is., Laos, Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Maldives, Maluku, Myanmar, New Guinea, Nicobar Is., Philippines, Solomon Is., South China Sea, Sri Lanka, Sulawesi, Sumatera, Thailand, Vietnam, Queensland, Caroline Is., Cook Is., Fiji, Hawaii, Marianas, Marquesas, Marshall Is., Nauru, New Caledonia, Niue, Samoa, Society Is., Tokelau-Manihiki, Tonga, Tuamotu, Tubuai Is., Vanuatu, Wallis-Futuna Is. KenyaMadagascarMozambiqueTanzaniaChina South-CentralChina SoutheastHainanTaiwanBangladeshBismarck ArchipelagoBorneoCambodiaIndiaJawaLaosLesser Sunda Is.MalayaMalukuMyanmarNew GuineaPhilippinesSolomon Is.Sri LankaSulawesiSumateraThailandVietnamQueenslandFijiHawaiiNew Caledonia AldabraComorosMozambique Channel Is.SeychellesNansei-shotoAndaman Is.Laccadive Is.MaldivesNicobar Is.South China SeaCaroline Is.Cook Is.MarianasMarquesasMarshall Is.NauruNiueSamoaSociety Is.Tokelau-ManihikiTongaTuamotuTubuai Is.VanuatuWallis-Futuna Is.
Native distribution of Colubrina asiatica, 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
Andaman Is. AND ASIA-TROPICAL
Bangladesh BAN
Bismarck Archipelago BIS
Borneo BOR
Cambodia CBD
India IND
Jawa JAW
Laccadive Is. LDV
Laos LAO
Lesser Sunda Is. LSI
Malaya MLY
Maldives MDV
Maluku MOL
Myanmar MYA
New Guinea NWG
Nicobar Is. NCB
Philippines PHI
Solomon Is. SOL
South China Sea SCS
Sri Lanka SRL
Sulawesi SUL
Sumatera SUM
Thailand THA
Vietnam VIE
Caroline Is. CRL PACIFIC
Cook Is. COO
Fiji FIJ
Hawaii HAW
Marianas MRN
Marquesas MRQ
Marshall Is. MRS
Nauru NRU
New Caledonia NWC
Niue NUE
Samoa SAM
Society Is. SCI
Tokelau-Manihiki TOK
Tonga TON
Tuamotu TUA
Tubuai Is. TUB
Vanuatu VAN
Wallis-Futuna Is. WAL
Aldabra ALD AFRICA
Comoros COM
Kenya KEN
Madagascar MDG
Mozambique MOZ
Mozambique Channel Is. MCI
Seychelles SEY
Tanzania TAN
China South-Central CHC ASIA-TEMPERATE
China Southeast CHS
Hainan CHH
Kazan-retto KZN
Nansei-shoto NNS
Taiwan TAI
Queensland QLD AUSTRALASIA

Not drawn on the map: Kazan-retto. We hold no public-domain boundary for this region, so it is listed rather than guessed at.

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.

Flowering 40 in flower of 104 examined

Proportion of examined Colubrina asiatica in flower, by month
Month In flower Examined Share 95% interval
Jan 3 10 30% 11% to 60%
Feb 2 10 20% 6% to 51%
Mar 1 8 13% 2% to 47%
Apr 5 8 63% 31% to 86%
May 4 8 50% 22% to 78%
Jun 7 9 78% 45% to 94%
Jul 1 9 11% 2% to 44%
Aug 7 10 70% 40% to 89%
Sep 1 4 too few examined
Oct 2 4 too few examined
Nov 6 12 50% 25% to 75%
Dec 1 12 8% 1% to 35%

Peak flowering in Jun. Each bar is the share of Colubrina asiatica observations in which someone actually recorded the reproductive state and found the plant in flower, not the raw number of flowering records. That distinction matters: people observe plants far more in spring than in winter, so a bare count of flowering records partly measures when people go outside. Dividing by the number examined removes that. 40 of 104 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. 2 months have fewer than 5 examined observations, so no proportion is drawn for them. This is still a global aggregate and not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres. Where a species has fewer than 30 flowering records we do not draw this chart at all. Computed from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Where it actually grows measured, from 768 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 16.0 °C 19.0 °C 25.2 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 26.9 °C 29.3 °C 30.5 °C
Annual rainfall 1,069 mm 1,510 mm 2,660 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 53 mm 150 mm 419 mm

It is not found anywhere that gets close to freezing. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 768 research-grade observations of Colubrina asiatica 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. Climate from CHELSA V2.1 (Karger et al. 2017); occurrences from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Also published as 16 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.

  • Ceanothus asiaticus L.
  • Ceanothus capsularis G.Forst.
  • Colubrina asiatica var. pubescens (Kurz) M.C.Johnst.
  • Colubrina capsularis G.Forst.
  • Colubrina javanica Miq.
  • Colubrina longipes Backer
  • Colubrina pubescens Kurz
  • Colubrina pubescens var. subpubescens Pit.
  • Pomaderris capsularis G.Don ex Loudon
  • Rhamnus acuminata Colebr.
  • Rhamnus asiatica Lam.
  • Rhamnus splendens Blume
  • Sageretia splendens G.Don
  • Tralliana scandens Lour.
  • Trymalium capsulare G.Don
  • Tubanthera katapa Raf.

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. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. 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.