Species
+

Amsonia ciliata Walter

Fringed bluestar, Texas slimpod, ciliate blue star, fringe slimpod

Climate known 79 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Amsonia ciliata, the fringed bluestar, is a North American species of flowering plant in the dogbane family, first described in 1788.

Text from Wikipedia, “Amsonia ciliata”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Amsonia

Amsonia is a genus of flowering plants in the dogbane family, Apocynaceae, first described as a genus in 1788. It is native primarily to North America with one species in East Asia and another in the eastern Mediterranean. It was named in honor of the American physician John Amson. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Amsonia”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Apocynaceae
Described by
Walter
Native to
Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas +6
Wild records
1394 in range· 581 open

At a glance

Warmest month
33°C
Jul, mean day; nights 23 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1082mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jun 119 mm (CHELSA)
Light
17–41DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (February to March and May to October in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 1082 mm a year, wettest June at 119 mm, driest December at 71 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 17 to 41 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -6.5 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Amsonia angustifolia (Aiton) Michx.; Tabernaemontana angustifolia Aiton.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (February to March and May to October in the northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (783 mm of 1082 mm) takes 8 months, February to March and May to October. Mean temperature moves 19.3 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to April and August to September.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 1082 mm a year, wettest June at 119 mm, driest December at 71 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1082 mm a year at the habitat, 783 mm of it February to March and May to October. Wettest month June at 119 mm, driest December at 71 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 823 mm to 1482 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 17 to 41 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 17 to 41 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 15, the highest 90th-percentile month 44).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor -6.5 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -6.5 °C, the absolute minimum -17.5 °C, about 40 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 41.9 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 4.0 °C in January (across the envelope cells 1.0 °C to 8.7 °C), warmest day 32.7 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -6.5 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 55 to 59% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 15 °C in Jan to 33 °C in Jul; mean night from 4 °C in Jan to 23 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1082 mm of rain a year, most in Jun. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 654 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -17.5 °C and the 99th-percentile day 41.9 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-20°-10°10°20°30°40°50°frost41.9° 99th-percentile day (undated)-17.5° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200mm rainDLI 17–41RH 55–59 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 654 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C15 / 11–1817 / 14–2021 / 18–2325 / 23–2629 / 27–3031 / 30–3233 / 32–3432 / 31–3530 / 28–3125 / 23–2720 / 17–2315 / 12–19
Night °C4 / 1–96 / 3–109 / 7–1313 / 11–1518 / 16–1922 / 20–2323 / 22–2523 / 22–2520 / 18–2215 / 13–1810 / 7–145 / 2–10
Rain mm77 / 35–12181 / 48–131101 / 66–14778 / 60–11296 / 69–132119 / 100–181113 / 51–19192 / 52–18891 / 74–15590 / 72–11973 / 48–11471 / 44–119
DLI19 / 17–2124 / 22–2630 / 29–3337 / 35–4040 / 37–4240 / 39–4341 / 37–4437 / 34–4132 / 30–3426 / 24–2720 / 18–2217 / 15–19
RH %57 / 55–5957 / 55–5856 / 54–5855 / 53–5758 / 55–6059 / 57–6259 / 53–6358 / 52–6458 / 54–6257 / 55–5957 / 56–5958 / 56–59

Each figure is the median across the 654 grid cells holding the 1226 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1154:1648 (32.275, -97.575). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -17.5 °C, 1st-percentile night -6.5 °C, 99th-percentile day 41.9 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 654 distinct grid cells holding the 1226 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1154:1648 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 32.50_-97.500, lapse-corrected +26 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 272 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeMissouri, Oklahoma, Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina
Kew's description“perennial” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker32.78, -97.458 · in the densest population, 489 records (35% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1394 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 581 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 61 km away. 13 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 168 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 1394 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Amsonia ciliataAmsonia ciliataAmsonia ciliataAmsonia ciliataAmsonia ciliataAmsonia ciliataAmsonia ciliataAmsonia ciliata

Photographs: (c) Michelle W. (鍾偉瑋), some rights reserved (CC BY) (8).

Photographs: iNaturalist and Wikimedia Commons did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Amsonia ciliata, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

A Study in Physiographic Ecology in Northern Florida
Laura Gano (1917) · Botanical Gazette
Savannah River Plant site
Du Pont de Nemours (E.I.) and Co., Aiken, S.C. (United States). Atomic Energy Div., T Langley, W Marter (1973)
Performance of 67 Native Midwestern U.S. Perennials in a Low-maintenance Landscape
Andrew L. Thomas, Denny Schrock (2004) · HortTechnology
Studies in the Apocynaceae. III. A Monograph of the Genus Amsonia
Robert E. Woodson (1928) · Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden
Flavonol glycosides of Amsonia ciliata
Lowell E. Urbatsch, Tom J. Mabry (1974) · Phytochemistry
Flora of the Savannah River Plant
Wade T. Batson, Jeanne Jones, J. S. Angerman (1985)
Native Plants: An Overview
Jeffrey G. Norcini (2007) · EDIS
Noteworthy Arkansas Plants
Delzie Demaree (1941) · Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science
New Species and Relationships in the Genus Coleosporium
George G. Hedgcock, Nyssa Hunt, Glenn Gardner Hahn (1920) · Mycologia

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Amsonia 2 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 69 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.