Lindenbergia indica(L.) Vatke

WFO wfo-0001137336 Accepted WFO 2026-06 5 photographs CC0 / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–e · 2 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 2 times, 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.

Lindenbergia indica, photographed by Dinesh Valke
fig. a Dinesh Valke, CC BY-SA 4.0 / 2021-10-30 / obs. 166927297
Lindenbergia indica, photographed by Dinesh Valke
fig. b Dinesh Valke, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 166927302
Lindenbergia indica, photographed by Dinesh Valke
fig. c Dinesh Valke, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 166927306
Lindenbergia indica, photographed by Dinesh Valke
fig. d Dinesh Valke, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 166927307
Lindenbergia indica, photographed by S.MORE
fig. e S.MORE, CC0 1.0 / obs. 144955846

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 20 botanical countries

Regions where Lindenbergia indica is native: Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan-South Sudan, Gulf States, Iran, Oman, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Sinai, Yemen, Assam, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, West Himalaya DjiboutiEgyptEritreaEthiopiaKenyaSomaliaSudan-South SudanGulf StatesIranOmanPalestineSaudi ArabiaSinaiYemenAssamBangladeshIndiaNepalPakistanWest Himalaya
Native distribution of Lindenbergia indica, 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
Djibouti DJI AFRICA
Egypt EGY
Eritrea ERI
Ethiopia ETH
Kenya KEN
Somalia SOM
Sudan-South Sudan SUD
Gulf States GST ASIA-TEMPERATE
Iran IRN
Oman OMA
Palestine PAL
Saudi Arabia SAU
Sinai SIN
Yemen YEM
Assam ASS ASIA-TROPICAL
Bangladesh BAN
India IND
Nepal NEP
Pakistan PAK
West Himalaya WHM

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 63 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 6.9 °C 10.5 °C 18.4 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 28.5 °C 38.8 °C 42.0 °C
Annual rainfall 148 mm 752 mm 2,177 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 3 mm 16 mm 27 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 63 research-grade observations of Lindenbergia indica 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 14 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.

  • Bovea sinaica Decne.
  • Dodartia indica L.
  • Hemiorchis habessenica Ehrenb. ex Schweinf.
  • Lindenbergia abyssinica Hochst. ex Benth.
  • Lindenbergia nigrescens Vatke
  • Lindenbergia pirottae Almagia
  • Lindenbergia pirottae var. incana Almagia
  • Lindenbergia polyantha Royle ex Benth.
  • Lindenbergia ruderalis (Retz.) Voigt
  • Lindenbergia scutellarioides Asch.
  • Lindenbergia sinaica (Decne.) Benth.
  • Lindenbergia sinaica var. abyssinica (Hochst. ex Benth.) Almagia
  • Lindenbergia virens Vatke
  • Stemodia ruderalis Retz.

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.