Microstachys chamaelea(L.) Müll.Arg.

WFO wfo-0000243692 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Microstachys chamaelea, photographed by S.MORE
fig. a S.MORE, CC0 1.0 / 2020-10-12 / obs. 104104676
Microstachys chamaelea, photographed by Siddarth Machado
fig. b Siddarth Machado, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 92934233
Microstachys chamaelea, photographed by Ong Jyh Seng
fig. c Ong Jyh Seng, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 77920889
Microstachys chamaelea, photographed by Ong Jyh Seng
fig. d Ong Jyh Seng, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 62334717
Microstachys chamaelea, photographed by Siddarth Machado
fig. e Siddarth Machado, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 45226148
Microstachys chamaelea, photographed by Ajit Ampalakkad
fig. f Ajit Ampalakkad, CC0 1.0 / obs. 48374228
Microstachys chamaelea, photographed by pbsg
fig. g pbsg, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 176560180
Microstachys chamaelea, photographed by Pranav Chandra Bose
fig. h Pranav Chandra Bose, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 153065991

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 28 botanical countries

Regions where Microstachys chamaelea is native: Benin, Burkina, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Togo, China Southeast, Hainan, Andaman Is., Bangladesh, Borneo, Cambodia, India, Jawa, Malaya, Myanmar, Solomon Is., South China Sea, Sri Lanka, Sumatera, Thailand, Vietnam, Northern Territory, Queensland, Western Australia BeninBurkinaCameroonCentral African RepublicChadGhanaIvory CoastNigeriaTogoChina SoutheastHainanBangladeshBorneoCambodiaIndiaJawaMalayaMyanmarSolomon Is.Sri LankaSumateraThailandVietnamNorthern TerritoryQueenslandWestern Australia Andaman Is.South China Sea
Native distribution of Microstachys chamaelea, 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
Borneo BOR
Cambodia CBD
India IND
Jawa JAW
Malaya MLY
Myanmar MYA
Solomon Is. SOL
South China Sea SCS
Sri Lanka SRL
Sumatera SUM
Thailand THA
Vietnam VIE
Benin BEN AFRICA
Burkina BKN
Cameroon CMN
Central African Republic CAF
Chad CHA
Ghana GHA
Ivory Coast IVO
Nigeria NGA
Togo TOG
Northern Territory NTA AUSTRALASIA
Queensland QLD
Western Australia WAU
China Southeast CHS ASIA-TEMPERATE
Hainan CHH

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 75 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 14.2 °C 17.9 °C 24.4 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 28.7 °C 32.3 °C 37.7 °C
Annual rainfall 792 mm 1,316 mm 3,051 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 4 mm 33 mm 518 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 75 research-grade observations of Microstachys chamaelea 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 11 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.

  • Cnemidostachys chamaelaea (L.) Spreng.
  • Cnemidostachys linearifolia Miq.
  • Elachocroton asperococcum F.Muell.
  • Excoecaria chamelaea (L.) Baill.
  • Sebastiania chamaelea (L.) Müll.Arg.
  • Sebastiania chamaelea var. africana Pax & K.Hoffm.
  • Sebastiania chamaelea var. asperococca (F.Muell.) Pax
  • Sebastiania chamaelea var. chariensis Beille
  • Stillingia asperococca (F.Muell.) Baill.
  • Stillingia chamaelea (L.) Müll.Arg.
  • Tragia chamaelea L.

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.