Osbeckia chinensisL.

WFO wfo-0001083278 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Osbeckia chinensis, photographed by Agnes Trekker
fig. a Agnes Trekker, CC0 1.0 / 2021-09-22 / obs. 159015059
Osbeckia chinensis, photographed by Carl Ramirez
fig. b Carl Ramirez, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 59036183
Osbeckia chinensis, photographed by 葉子
fig. c 葉子, CC0 1.0 / obs. 67170229
Osbeckia chinensis, photographed by portioid
fig. d portioid, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 11609444
Osbeckia chinensis, photographed by portioid
fig. e portioid, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 10526024
Osbeckia chinensis, photographed by portioid
fig. f portioid, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 10627566
Osbeckia chinensis, photographed by coenobita
fig. g coenobita, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 30842443
Osbeckia chinensis, photographed by portioid
fig. h portioid, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 157062977

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.

The specimen a real sheet, in a real collection

Herbarium
The New York Botanical Garden
Accession
512857
Filed as
Osbeckia chinensis L.
Det. by
C. Hansen 1973-05-25
Collected
C. Wright
Origin
CN
The sheet
View the digitised specimen (CC BY 4.0)

A real pressed plant, in a real collection, under the accession number above. Not an illustration of one. The holding institution does not serve this sheet’s image to third parties, so there is no photograph here. The record is real and the link goes to it. Where we hold no openly licensed sheet for a species this section is simply absent, and where a sheet never recorded who determined it, that field stays empty rather than being filled in. Roughly half of all herbarium sheets never recorded a determiner, which is ordinary.

Native range 26 botanical countries

Regions where Osbeckia chinensis is native: China South-Central, China Southeast, Hainan, Japan, Nansei-shoto, Taiwan, Andaman Is., Assam, Cambodia, East Himalaya, India, Jawa, Laos, Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Maluku, Myanmar, Nepal, New Guinea, Philippines, Sumatera, Thailand, Vietnam, West Himalaya, Northern Territory, Queensland China South-CentralChina SoutheastHainanJapanTaiwanAssamCambodiaEast HimalayaIndiaJawaLaosLesser Sunda Is.MalayaMalukuMyanmarNepalNew GuineaPhilippinesSumateraThailandVietnamWest HimalayaNorthern TerritoryQueensland Nansei-shotoAndaman Is.
Native distribution of Osbeckia chinensis, 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
Assam ASS
Cambodia CBD
East Himalaya EHM
India IND
Jawa JAW
Laos LAO
Lesser Sunda Is. LSI
Malaya MLY
Maluku MOL
Myanmar MYA
Nepal NEP
New Guinea NWG
Philippines PHI
Sumatera SUM
Thailand THA
Vietnam VIE
West Himalaya WHM
China South-Central CHC ASIA-TEMPERATE
China Southeast CHS
Hainan CHH
Japan JAP
Nansei-shoto NNS
Taiwan TAI
Northern Territory NTA AUSTRALASIA
Queensland QLD

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 10.7 °C 11.8 °C 20.5 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 27.8 °C 29.5 °C 33.0 °C
Annual rainfall 1,826 mm 2,253 mm 2,794 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 35 mm 95 mm 158 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 63 research-grade observations of Osbeckia chinensis 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 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.

  • Melastoma lineare Reinw. ex Blume
  • Osbeckia angustifolia D.Don
  • Osbeckia boissieuana Guillaumin
  • Osbeckia chinensis var. angustifolia (D.Don) C.Y.Wu & C.Chen
  • Osbeckia chinensis var. attenuata Bakh.f.
  • Osbeckia chinensis var. linearifolia Kuntze
  • Osbeckia chinensis var. linearis (Blume) Kurz
  • Osbeckia chinensis var. parasnathensis Haines
  • Osbeckia ciliaris Ser. ex DC.
  • Osbeckia decora Wall.
  • Osbeckia glabrata Benth.
  • Osbeckia japonica Naudin
  • Osbeckia kainantensis Masam.
  • Osbeckia linearis Blume
  • Osbeckia linearis var. moluccana Blume
  • Osbeckia multiflora Blanco
  • Osbeckia myrtifolia Blume
  • Osbeckia parva E.T.Geddes
  • Osbeckia perrottetii DC. ex Naudin
  • Osbeckia pusilla Zoll. & Moritzi
  • Osbeckia ridleyana Hosseus
  • Osbeckia sessilifolia Stokes
  • Osbeckia tenuis Buch.-Ham. ex G.Don
  • Osbeckia truncata var. strigosa Kuntze

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.