Torenia asiaticaL.

wishbone flower

WFO wfo-0000459117 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Torenia asiatica, photographed by Lexi Amico
fig. a Lexi Amico, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-05-28 / obs. 205038183
Torenia asiatica, photographed by kbkash
fig. b kbkash, CC0 1.0 / obs. 172953217
Torenia asiatica, photographed by Rejoice Gassah
fig. c Rejoice Gassah, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 102857855
Torenia asiatica, photographed by Rejoice Gassah
fig. d Rejoice Gassah, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 92075863
Torenia asiatica, photographed by Eric Knight
fig. e Eric Knight, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 55314605
Torenia asiatica, photographed by cwarneke
fig. f cwarneke, CC0 1.0 / obs. 44184139
Torenia asiatica, photographed by Aaron Liston
fig. g Aaron Liston, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 9554271
Torenia asiatica, photographed by Rejoice Gassah
fig. h Rejoice Gassah, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 129799257

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 13 botanical countries

Regions where Torenia asiatica is native: China South-Central, China Southeast, Hainan, Japan, Tibet, Assam, Bangladesh, East Himalaya, Jawa, Maluku, Myanmar, Nepal, Vietnam China South-CentralChina SoutheastHainanJapanTibetAssamBangladeshEast HimalayaJawaMalukuMyanmarNepalVietnam
Native distribution of Torenia asiatica, 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.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Assam ASS ASIA-TROPICAL
Bangladesh BAN
East Himalaya EHM
Jawa JAW
Maluku MOL
Myanmar MYA
Nepal NEP
Vietnam VIE
China South-Central CHC ASIA-TEMPERATE
China Southeast CHS
Hainan CHH
Japan JAP
Tibet CHT

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 442 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 1.4 °C 12.8 °C 20.0 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 20.5 °C 26.0 °C 32.9 °C
Annual rainfall 1,105 mm 2,730 mm 4,976 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 98 mm 321 mm 1,014 mm

It is found where winters are cool but frost is light or absent. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 442 research-grade observations of Torenia asiatica 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 8 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.

  • Bonnaya alata (Roxb.) Spreng.
  • Gratiola alata Roxb.
  • Henckelia alata (Roxb.) A.Dietr.
  • Torenia alata (Roxb.) Benth.
  • Torenia glabra Osbeck
  • Torenia intermedia Pradelle
  • Torenia kiusiana Ohwi
  • Torenia obtusifolia Sm.

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.