Oldenlandia herbacea(L.) Roxb.

WFO wfo-0000254950 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Oldenlandia herbacea, photographed by Matthew Fainman
fig. a Matthew Fainman, CC BY 4.0 / 2021-10-23 / obs. 165378011
Oldenlandia herbacea, photographed by Matthew Fainman
fig. b Matthew Fainman, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 118717418
Oldenlandia herbacea, photographed by Matthew Fainman
fig. c Matthew Fainman, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 109728224
Oldenlandia herbacea, photographed by Matthew Fainman
fig. d Matthew Fainman, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 109307989
Oldenlandia herbacea, photographed by Matthew Fainman
fig. e Matthew Fainman, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 108795492
Oldenlandia herbacea, photographed by Tony Rebelo
fig. f Tony Rebelo, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 25138753
Oldenlandia herbacea, photographed by Shaun Swanepoel
fig. g Shaun Swanepoel, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 12548990
Oldenlandia herbacea, photographed by Siddarth Machado
fig. h Siddarth Machado, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 56899608

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 55 botanical countries

Regions where Oldenlandia herbacea is native: Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Provinces, Cape Verde, Caprivi Strip, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Djibouti, DR Congo, Eritrea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Free State, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Gulf of Guinea Is., Ivory Coast, Kenya, KwaZulu-Natal, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Northern Provinces, Réunion, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Socotra, Somalia, Sudan-South Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Andaman Is., Assam, Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka AngolaBeninBotswanaBurkinaBurundiCameroonCape ProvincesCaprivi StripCentral African RepublicChadCongoDjiboutiDR CongoEritreaEswatiniEthiopiaFree StateGabonGambiaGhanaGuineaGuinea-BissauGulf of Guinea Is.Ivory CoastKenyaKwaZulu-NatalLesothoLiberiaMadagascarMalawiMaliMozambiqueNamibiaNigeriaNorthern ProvincesRwandaSenegalSierra LeoneSomaliaSudan-South SudanTanzaniaTogoUgandaZambiaZimbabweAssamBangladeshIndiaMyanmarSri Lanka Cape VerdeMauritiusRéunionAndaman Is.
Native distribution of Oldenlandia 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
Botswana BOT
Burkina BKN
Burundi BUR
Cameroon CMN
Cape Provinces CPP
Cape Verde CVI
Caprivi Strip CPV
Central African Republic CAF
Chad CHA
Congo CON
Djibouti DJI
DR Congo ZAI
Eritrea ERI
Eswatini SWZ
Ethiopia ETH
Free State OFS
Gabon GAB
Gambia GAM
Ghana GHA
Guinea GUI
Guinea-Bissau GNB
Gulf of Guinea Is. GGI
Ivory Coast IVO
Kenya KEN
KwaZulu-Natal NAT
Lesotho LES
Liberia LBR
Madagascar MDG
Malawi MLW
Mali MLI
Mauritius MAU
Mozambique MOZ
Namibia NAM
Nigeria NGA
Northern Provinces TVL
Réunion REU
Rwanda RWA
Senegal SEN
Sierra Leone SIE
Socotra SOC
Somalia SOM
Sudan-South Sudan SUD
Tanzania TAN
Togo TOG
Uganda UGA
Zambia ZAM
Zimbabwe ZIM
Andaman Is. AND ASIA-TROPICAL
Assam ASS
Bangladesh BAN
India IND
Myanmar MYA
Sri Lanka SRL

Not drawn on the map: Socotra. 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 173 in flower of 177 examined

Peak flowering in Jan. Each bar is the share of Oldenlandia 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. 173 of 177 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. 4 months have fewer than 5 examined observations, so no proportion is drawn for them. 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.

Also published as 27 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.

  • Hedyotis dichotoma (Roxb. ex Wight & Arn.) A.Rich.
  • Hedyotis diffusa Spreng.
  • Hedyotis herbacea L.
  • Hedyotis heynei R.Br. ex Wall.
  • Hedyotis heynii R.Br.
  • Hedyotis linearis Steud.
  • Hedyotis micrantha Hochst. ex Hiern
  • Hedyotis stricta Sm.
  • Hedyotis trichopoda A.Rich.
  • Hedyotis triflora Wall.
  • Kohautia stricta DC.
  • Oldenlandia asperula DC.
  • Oldenlandia dichotoma Roxb. ex Wight & Arn.
  • Oldenlandia dichotoma var. papillosa Chiov.
  • Oldenlandia herbacea var. dolichantha Bremek.
  • Oldenlandia herbacea var. dolichocarpa Bremek.
  • Oldenlandia herbacea var. dolichosepala Bremek.
  • Oldenlandia herbacea var. flaccida Bremek.
  • Oldenlandia herbacea var. papillosa (Chiov.) Bremek.
  • Oldenlandia herbacea var. suffruticosa Bremek.
  • Oldenlandia heynei Oliv.
  • Oldenlandia heynei (R.Br. ex Wall.) G.Don
  • Oldenlandia heynei var. djalonis A.Chev.
  • Oldenlandia holstii K.Schum.

and 3 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. 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.