Tribulus cistoidesL.

Jamaican feverplantPuncture vineSpiny-fruited caltop

WFO wfo-0000457802 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Tribulus cistoides, photographed by Casey H. Richart
fig. a Casey H. Richart, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-04-24 / obs. 194512109
Tribulus cistoides, photographed by Casey H. Richart
fig. b Casey H. Richart, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 194512682
Tribulus cistoides, photographed by Casey H. Richart
fig. c Casey H. Richart, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 194502520
Tribulus cistoides, photographed by Casey H. Richart
fig. d Casey H. Richart, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 194520515
Tribulus cistoides, photographed by Josiah Londerée
fig. e Josiah Londerée, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 188734917
Tribulus cistoides, photographed by Josiah Londerée
fig. f Josiah Londerée, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 182015708
Tribulus cistoides, photographed by Brian White
fig. g Brian White, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 173219734
Tribulus cistoides, photographed by Neli Kanonerova
fig. h Neli Kanonerova, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 167310932

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 36 botanical countries

Regions where Tribulus cistoides is native: Cape Verde, Comoros, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique, Mozambique Channel Is., Somalia, Sudan-South Sudan, Tanzania, China South-Central, Hainan, Taiwan, India, Jawa, Lesser Sunda Is., Maluku, New Guinea, South China Sea, Sulawesi, Thailand, Vietnam, Queensland, Western Australia, Gilbert Is., Hawaii, Howland-Baker Is., Line Is., Marianas, Marquesas, Marshall Is., New Caledonia, Phoenix Is., Tokelau-Manihiki, Wake I. EritreaEthiopiaKenyaMadagascarMozambiqueSomaliaSudan-South SudanTanzaniaChina South-CentralHainanTaiwanIndiaJawaLesser Sunda Is.MalukuNew GuineaSulawesiThailandVietnamQueenslandWestern AustraliaHawaiiNew Caledonia Cape VerdeComorosMozambique Channel Is.South China SeaHowland-Baker Is.Line Is.MarianasMarquesasMarshall Is.Tokelau-ManihikiWake I.
Native distribution of Tribulus cistoides, 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
Cape Verde CVI AFRICA
Comoros COM
Eritrea ERI
Ethiopia ETH
Kenya KEN
Madagascar MDG
Mozambique MOZ
Mozambique Channel Is. MCI
Somalia SOM
Sudan-South Sudan SUD
Tanzania TAN
Gilbert Is. GIL PACIFIC
Hawaii HAW
Howland-Baker Is. HBI
Line Is. LIN
Marianas MRN
Marquesas MRQ
Marshall Is. MRS
New Caledonia NWC
Phoenix Is. PHX
Tokelau-Manihiki TOK
Wake I. WAK
India IND ASIA-TROPICAL
Jawa JAW
Lesser Sunda Is. LSI
Maluku MOL
New Guinea NWG
South China Sea SCS
Sulawesi SUL
Thailand THA
Vietnam VIE
China South-Central CHC ASIA-TEMPERATE
Hainan CHH
Taiwan TAI
Queensland QLD AUSTRALASIA
Western Australia WAU

Not drawn on the map: Gilbert Is., Phoenix Is.. We hold no public-domain boundary for these regions, so they are 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 306 in flower of 322 examined

Peak flowering in Apr. Each bar is the share of Tribulus cistoides 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. 306 of 322 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. 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 17 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.

  • Kallstroemia cistoides Endl.
  • Tribulus alacranensis Millsp.
  • Tribulus cistoides f. anacanthus (B.L.Rob.) Svenson
  • Tribulus cistoides var. anacanthus B.L.Rob.
  • Tribulus cistoides var. arenicola Kitan.
  • Tribulus cistoides var. galapagensis Svenson
  • Tribulus cistoides var. medius (Engl.) Cufod.
  • Tribulus lanuginosus Blanco
  • Tribulus moluccanus Decne.
  • Tribulus sericeus Andersson
  • Tribulus sericeus var. erectus Andersson
  • Tribulus sericeus var. humifusus Andersson
  • Tribulus taiwanense T.C.Huang & T.H.Hsieh
  • Tribulus terrestris var. cistoides (L.) Oliv.
  • Tribulus terrestris var. cistoides (L.) C.Moore & Betche
  • Tribulus terrestris var. medius Engl.
  • Tribulus terrestris var. moluccensis Blume

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.