Deeringia polysperma(Roxb.) Moq.

WFO wfo-0000639179 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Deeringia polysperma, photographed by Licheng Shih
fig. a Licheng Shih, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-02-25 / obs. 182319066
Deeringia polysperma, photographed by 雲一百香果
fig. b 雲一百香果, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 170572197
Deeringia polysperma, photographed by 葉子
fig. c 葉子, CC0 1.0 / obs. 113280319
Deeringia polysperma, photographed by Jacy Chen
fig. d Jacy Chen, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 104603914
Deeringia polysperma, photographed by Jacy Chen
fig. e Jacy Chen, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 104572683
Deeringia polysperma, photographed by Heng Chian Li
fig. f Heng Chian Li, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 95363445
Deeringia polysperma, photographed by Cheng-Te Hsu
fig. g Cheng-Te Hsu, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 60527790
Deeringia polysperma, photographed by 國立臺灣博物館
fig. h 國立臺灣博物館, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 59510708

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 14 botanical countries

Regions where Deeringia polysperma is native: China Southeast, Hainan, Nansei-shoto, Taiwan, Borneo, Jawa, Malaya, Maluku, New Guinea, Philippines, Sulawesi, Sumatera, Thailand, Vietnam China SoutheastHainanTaiwanBorneoJawaMalayaMalukuNew GuineaPhilippinesSulawesiSumateraThailandVietnam Nansei-shoto
Native distribution of Deeringia polysperma, 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
Borneo BOR ASIA-TROPICAL
Jawa JAW
Malaya MLY
Maluku MOL
New Guinea NWG
Philippines PHI
Sulawesi SUL
Sumatera SUM
Thailand THA
Vietnam VIE
China Southeast CHS ASIA-TEMPERATE
Hainan CHH
Nansei-shoto NNS
Taiwan TAI

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 486 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 10.0 °C 13.6 °C 19.6 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 26.7 °C 29.0 °C 30.3 °C
Annual rainfall 1,965 mm 2,856 mm 3,960 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 62 mm 111 mm 445 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 486 research-grade observations of Deeringia polysperma 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 6 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.

  • Celosia polysperma Roxb.
  • Cladostachys polysperma (Roxb.) K.C.Kuan
  • Deeringia indica Zoll. ex Moq.
  • Deeringia indica var. pubescens Schinz
  • Deeringia polysperma var. pubescens (Schinz) Merr.
  • Deeringia salicifolia Schinz

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.