Mosla dianthera(Buch.-Ham. ex Roxb.) Maxim.

miniature beefsteakplant

WFO wfo-0000246347 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 5 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 5 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.

Mosla dianthera, photographed by Jacy Chen
fig. a Jacy Chen, CC BY 4.0 / 2021-08-12 / obs. 150876300
Mosla dianthera, photographed by higa4
fig. b higa4, CC0 1.0 / obs. 53632388
Mosla dianthera, photographed by harum.koh
fig. c harum.koh, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 2536169
Mosla dianthera, photographed by Jacy Chen
fig. d Jacy Chen, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 150876249
Mosla dianthera, photographed by Repina Tatyana
fig. e Repina Tatyana, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 93527357
Mosla dianthera, photographed by Repina Tatyana
fig. f Repina Tatyana, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 93526838
Mosla dianthera, photographed by Cheng-Te Hsu
fig. g Cheng-Te Hsu, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 55681729
Mosla dianthera, photographed by Cheng-Te Hsu
fig. h Cheng-Te Hsu, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 55681734

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 23 botanical countries

Regions where Mosla dianthera is native: Amur, China North-Central, China South-Central, China Southeast, Japan, Khabarovsk, Korea, Kuril Is., Manchuria, Nansei-shoto, Primorye, Taiwan, Transcaucasus, Assam, Bangladesh, East Himalaya, Malaya, Myanmar, Nepal, Philippines, Sumatera, Vietnam, West Himalaya AmurChina North-CentralChina South-CentralChina SoutheastJapanKhabarovskManchuriaPrimoryeTaiwanTranscaucasusAssamBangladeshEast HimalayaMalayaMyanmarNepalPhilippinesSumateraVietnamWest Himalaya KoreaNansei-shoto
Native distribution of Mosla dianthera, 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
Amur AMU ASIA-TEMPERATE
China North-Central CHN
China South-Central CHC
China Southeast CHS
Japan JAP
Khabarovsk KHA
Korea KOR
Kuril Is. KUR
Manchuria CHM
Nansei-shoto NNS
Primorye PRM
Taiwan TAI
Transcaucasus TCS
Assam ASS ASIA-TROPICAL
Bangladesh BAN
East Himalaya EHM
Malaya MLY
Myanmar MYA
Nepal NEP
Philippines PHI
Sumatera SUM
Vietnam VIE
West Himalaya WHM

Not drawn on the map: Kuril 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.

Where it actually grows measured, from 83 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low -21.7 °C 1.0 °C 13.8 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 21.9 °C 27.9 °C 30.2 °C
Annual rainfall 651 mm 1,462 mm 4,434 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 37 mm 180 mm 834 mm

It is found where winters are severely cold. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 83 research-grade observations of Mosla dianthera 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 28 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.

  • Calamintha clinopodium var. nepalensis (D.Don) Dunn
  • Cunila buchananii Spreng.
  • Cunila nepalensis D.Don
  • Hedeoma napalensis (D.Don) Benth.
  • Lumnitzera ocimoides Jacq. ex Spreng.
  • Lumnitzera ocymoides Jacq. ex Spreng.
  • Lycopus diantherus Buch.-Ham. ex Roxb.
  • Melissa nepalensis (D.Don) Benth.
  • Moschosma ocymoides Benth. ex G.Don
  • Mosla dianthera var. nana (H.Hara) Ohwi ex Huang & Cheng
  • Mosla formosana Maxim.
  • Mosla grosseserrata Maxim.
  • Mosla hirta (H.Hara) H.Hara
  • Mosla lysimachiiflora Hayata
  • Mosla ocymoides Buch.-Ham. ex Benth.
  • Mosla remotiflora Y.Z.Sun
  • Ocimum congestum Spreng. ex Steud.
  • Ocimum polycladum Link
  • Orthodon diantherus (Buch.-Ham. ex Roxb.) Hand.-Mazz.
  • Orthodon fomosanus (Maxim.) Kudô
  • Orthodon grosseserratus (Maxim.) Kudô
  • Orthodon grosseserratus var. nanus H.Hara
  • Orthodon hirtus H.Hara
  • Orthodon hirtus f. nanus (H.Hara) H.Hara

and 4 more.

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.