Poikilospermum suaveolens(Blume) Merr.

WFO wfo-0001143694 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs 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.

Poikilospermum suaveolens, photographed by Samuel Lee
fig. a Samuel Lee, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-03-19 / obs. 183537332
Poikilospermum suaveolens, photographed by Ong Jyh Seng
fig. b Ong Jyh Seng, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 31036914
Poikilospermum suaveolens, photographed by Paul Prior
fig. c Paul Prior, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 12269612
Poikilospermum suaveolens, photographed by Samuel Lee
fig. d Samuel Lee, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 183537361
Poikilospermum suaveolens, photographed by Paul Prior
fig. e Paul Prior, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 12275054
Poikilospermum suaveolens, photographed by Cheng-Te Hsu
fig. f Cheng-Te Hsu, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 54931669
Poikilospermum suaveolens, photographed by Cheng-Te Hsu
fig. g Cheng-Te Hsu, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 54931675
Poikilospermum suaveolens, photographed by Greg III Espera
fig. h Greg III Espera, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 13670254

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 18 botanical countries

Regions where Poikilospermum suaveolens is native: China South-Central, Andaman Is., Assam, Bangladesh, Borneo, Cambodia, East Himalaya, Jawa, Laos, Malaya, Maluku, Myanmar, Nicobar Is., Philippines, Sulawesi, Sumatera, Thailand, Vietnam China South-CentralAssamBangladeshBorneoCambodiaEast HimalayaJawaLaosMalayaMalukuMyanmarPhilippinesSulawesiSumateraThailandVietnam Andaman Is.Nicobar Is.
Native distribution of Poikilospermum suaveolens, 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
Bangladesh BAN
Borneo BOR
Cambodia CBD
East Himalaya EHM
Jawa JAW
Laos LAO
Malaya MLY
Maluku MOL
Myanmar MYA
Nicobar Is. NCB
Philippines PHI
Sulawesi SUL
Sumatera SUM
Thailand THA
Vietnam VIE
China South-Central CHC ASIA-TEMPERATE

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 84 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 14.9 °C 21.7 °C 24.3 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 24.6 °C 28.8 °C 31.2 °C
Annual rainfall 1,956 mm 2,952 mm 4,354 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 132 mm 517 mm 806 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 84 research-grade observations of Poikilospermum suaveolens 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 24 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.

  • Balansaephytum tonkinense Drake
  • Conocephalus ellipticus Trécul
  • Conocephalus gratus Miq.
  • Conocephalus mollis Gagnep.
  • Conocephalus mollis Merr.
  • Conocephalus naucleiformis Lindl.
  • Conocephalus oblanceolatus Ridl.
  • Conocephalus ovatus Trécul
  • Conocephalus piperi Elmer
  • Conocephalus pubescens Trécul
  • Conocephalus roxburghii Trécul
  • Conocephalus sinensis C.H.Wright
  • Conocephalus suaveolens Blume
  • Conocephalus tonkinensis (Drake) Renner
  • Conocephalus violaceus (Blanco) Merr.
  • Covellia composita Miq.
  • Covellia grandifolia Miq.
  • Poikilospermum gagnepainii Merr.
  • Poikilospermum molle (Merr.) Merr.
  • Poikilospermum oblanceolatum (Ridl.) Merr.
  • Poikilospermum piperi (Elmer) Merr.
  • Poikilospermum sinense (C.H.Wright) Merr.
  • Poikilospermum tonkinense (Drake) Merr.
  • Procris violacea Blanco

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.