Geophila herbacea(Jacq.) K.Schum.

WFO wfo-0000972390 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Geophila herbacea, photographed by Ong Jyh Seng
fig. a Ong Jyh Seng, CC BY-SA 4.0 / 2022-05-27 / obs. 200923645
Geophila herbacea, photographed by Ong Jyh Seng
fig. b Ong Jyh Seng, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 200923958
Geophila herbacea, photographed by Jon Sullivan
fig. c Jon Sullivan, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 198808968
Geophila herbacea, photographed by Иван Ковтун Ivan Kovtun
fig. d Иван Ковтун Ivan Kovtun, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 180066894
Geophila herbacea, photographed by Jacy Chen
fig. e Jacy Chen, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 177121639
Geophila herbacea, photographed by chiuluan
fig. f chiuluan, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 172170308
Geophila herbacea, photographed by Paulmathi Vinod
fig. g Paulmathi Vinod, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 170975197
Geophila herbacea, photographed by Agnes Trekker
fig. h Agnes Trekker, CC0 1.0 / obs. 169432661

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 62 botanical countries

Regions where Geophila herbacea is native: Angola, Benin, Burkina, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, DR Congo, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Gulf of Guinea Is., Ivory Coast, Kenya, KwaZulu-Natal, Liberia, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Sudan-South Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zimbabwe, China South-Central, China Southeast, Hainan, Taiwan, Andaman Is., Assam, Bangladesh, Bismarck Archipelago, Borneo, Cambodia, India, Jawa, Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Myanmar, Nepal, New Guinea, Nicobar Is., Philippines, Solomon Is., Sri Lanka, Sulawesi, Sumatera, Thailand, Vietnam, Caroline Is., Cook Is., Fiji, Niue, Samoa, Santa Cruz Is., Society Is., Tonga, Vanuatu, Wallis-Futuna Is. AngolaBeninBurkinaCameroonCentral African RepublicChadCongoDR CongoEthiopiaGabonGhanaGuineaGuinea-BissauGulf of Guinea Is.Ivory CoastKenyaKwaZulu-NatalLiberiaMalawiMozambiqueNigeriaSierra LeoneSudan-South SudanTanzaniaTogoUgandaZimbabweChina South-CentralChina SoutheastHainanTaiwanAssamBangladeshBismarck ArchipelagoBorneoCambodiaIndiaJawaLesser Sunda Is.MalayaMyanmarNepalNew GuineaPhilippinesSolomon Is.Sri LankaSulawesiSumateraThailandVietnamFiji Andaman Is.Nicobar Is.Caroline Is.Cook Is.NiueSamoaSociety Is.TongaVanuatuWallis-Futuna Is.
Native distribution of Geophila herbacea, 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
Angola ANG AFRICA
Benin BEN
Burkina BKN
Cameroon CMN
Central African Republic CAF
Chad CHA
Congo CON
DR Congo ZAI
Ethiopia ETH
Gabon GAB
Ghana GHA
Guinea GUI
Guinea-Bissau GNB
Gulf of Guinea Is. GGI
Ivory Coast IVO
Kenya KEN
KwaZulu-Natal NAT
Liberia LBR
Malawi MLW
Mozambique MOZ
Nigeria NGA
Sierra Leone SIE
Sudan-South Sudan SUD
Tanzania TAN
Togo TOG
Uganda UGA
Zimbabwe ZIM
Andaman Is. AND ASIA-TROPICAL
Assam ASS
Bangladesh BAN
Bismarck Archipelago BIS
Borneo BOR
Cambodia CBD
India IND
Jawa JAW
Lesser Sunda Is. LSI
Malaya MLY
Myanmar MYA
Nepal NEP
New Guinea NWG
Nicobar Is. NCB
Philippines PHI
Solomon Is. SOL
Sri Lanka SRL
Sulawesi SUL
Sumatera SUM
Thailand THA
Vietnam VIE
Caroline Is. CRL PACIFIC
Cook Is. COO
Fiji FIJ
Niue NUE
Samoa SAM
Santa Cruz Is. SCZ
Society Is. SCI
Tonga TON
Vanuatu VAN
Wallis-Futuna Is. WAL
China South-Central CHC ASIA-TEMPERATE
China Southeast CHS
Hainan CHH
Taiwan TAI

Not drawn on the map: Santa Cruz Is.. 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 104 in flower of 261 examined

Peak flowering in Jun. Each bar is the share of Geophila herbacea 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. 104 of 261 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. 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 775 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 8.7 °C 13.4 °C 23.1 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 26.3 °C 29.2 °C 33.2 °C
Annual rainfall 1,530 mm 3,241 mm 4,715 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 45 mm 383 mm 810 mm

It is barely found anywhere that freezes. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 775 research-grade observations of Geophila herbacea 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 22 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.

  • Carinta herbacea (Jacq.) W.Wight
  • Carinta repens var. comorensis Bremek.
  • Cephaelis diversifolia Blume
  • Cephaelis herbacea (Jacq.) Kurz
  • Geocardia cordata (Miq.) Standl.
  • Geocardia herbacea (Jacq.) Standl.
  • Geophila cordata Miq.
  • Geophila diversifolia (Blume) DC.
  • Geophila hydrocotyloides Zipp. ex Span.
  • Geophila reniformis D.Don
  • Geophila reniformis var. asiatica Rheede ex Cham. & Schltdl.
  • Geophila repens subsp. reniformis (D.Don) M.R.Almeida
  • Geophila repens var. asiatica (Cham. & Schltdl.) Fosberg
  • Geophila uniflora Span.
  • Mapouria cordata (Miq.) Müll.Arg.
  • Mapouria herbacea (Jacq.) Müll.Arg.
  • Mapouria herbacea var. minor Müll.Arg.
  • Psychotria herbacea Jacq.
  • Psychotria sylvana Pers.
  • Psychotrophum herbaceum (Jacq.) Crantz
  • Uragoga herbacea (Jacq.) Kuntze
  • Uragoga reniformis (D.Don) M.Gómez

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.