Species
+

Anisacanthus quadrifidus (Vahl) Standl.

Flame acanthus, Wright's Desert Honeysuckle

Climate known 66 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

Anisacanthus quadrifidus is a species of flowering plant native to west and south-central Texas in the United States and adjacent northern Mexico down through the state of Oaxaca. It is an increasingly common ornamental shrub in Texas and is cultivated in other parts of the Southwestern United States.

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

About the genus · Anisacanthus

Anisacanthus is a genus of flowering plants in the bear's breeches family, Acanthaceae. The generic name is derived from the Greek words ἄνισος (ánisos), meaning "unequal," and ἄκανθος (ákanthos), meaning "spine, thorn." Members of the genus are native to tropical and subtropical regions of the Americas. More on Wikipedia ›

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

Family
Acanthaceae
Described by
(Vahl) Standl.
Native to
Texas, Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast +3
Wild records
855 in range· 349 open

At a glance

Warmest month
31°C
Aug, mean day; nights 21 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
655mm/yr
8 wet months · peak Jun 108 mm (CHELSA)
Light
22–43DLI
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: a summer growing season, May to October in the northern hemisphere (May to October at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 655 mm a year, wettest June at 108 mm, driest February at 21 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 22 to 43 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 0.7 °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 Anisacanthus quadrifidus (Vahl) Nees; Anisacanthus quadrifidus var. brevilobus (S.H.Hagen) Henrickson; Anisacanthus quadrifidus var. quadrifidus; Anisacanthus virgularis (Salisb.) Nees; Anisacanthus wrightii var. brevilobus S.H.Hagen and 12 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, May to October in the northern hemisphere (May to October at the habitat, northern).

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

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (485 mm of 655 mm) falls in May to October, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 24.2 °C against a yearly mean of 19.4 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to April.

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 655 mm a year, wettest June at 108 mm, driest February at 21 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

655 mm a year at the habitat, 485 mm of it May to October. Wettest month June at 108 mm, driest February at 21 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 456 mm to 997 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: 22 to 43 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 22 to 43 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 17, the highest 90th-percentile month 47).

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 0.7 °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 0.7 °C, the absolute minimum -5.5 °C, about 3 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 33.7 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 6.5 °C in January (across the envelope cells 3.6 °C to 10.5 °C), warmest day 31.1 °C in August (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 0.7 °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 18 °C in Jan to 31 °C in Aug; mean night from 7 °C in Jan to 21 °C in Aug. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 655 mm of rain a year, most in Jun. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 472 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -5.5 °C and the 99th-percentile day 33.7 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-10°10°20°30°40°frost33.7° 99th-percentile day (undated)-5.5° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200mm rainDLI 22–43RH 55–59 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 472 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 °C18 / 14–2320 / 16–2523 / 20–2827 / 24–3029 / 25–3131 / 24–3331 / 22–3431 / 23–3529 / 21–3225 / 21–2721 / 19–2518 / 14–23
Night °C7 / 4–118 / 5–1211 / 8–1414 / 11–1718 / 12–2021 / 13–2321 / 12–2521 / 12–2520 / 13–2215 / 11–1711 / 8–137 / 5–11
Rain mm31 / 9–5821 / 9–6723 / 7–8849 / 18–8182 / 38–128108 / 63–14279 / 54–13064 / 50–12483 / 71–15469 / 34–11724 / 9–7722 / 6–66
DLI23 / 19–3228 / 23–3835 / 29–4440 / 35–4741 / 37–4641 / 39–4343 / 39–4441 / 38–4234 / 33–3630 / 26–3425 / 19–3322 / 17–31
RH %57 / 52–5957 / 50–5856 / 48–5855 / 49–5758 / 52–6159 / 56–6358 / 55–6457 / 53–6459 / 55–6658 / 56–6458 / 54–6057 / 52–59

Each figure is the median across the 472 grid cells holding the 802 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 1388:1617 (20.575, -99.125). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -5.5 °C, 1st-percentile night 0.7 °C, 99th-percentile day 33.7 °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 472 distinct grid cells holding the 802 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1388:1617 (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 20.50_-99.375, lapse-corrected -11 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1974 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.
NativeTexas, Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast
Kew's description“shrub” · “seasonally dry tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker29.603, -98.48 · in the densest population, 362 records (42% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 855 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 349 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 1230 km away. 25 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 53 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 855 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Anisacanthus quadrifidusAnisacanthus quadrifidusAnisacanthus quadrifidusAnisacanthus quadrifidusAnisacanthus quadrifidusAnisacanthus quadrifidusAnisacanthus quadrifidusAnisacanthus quadrifidus

Photographs: no rights reserved · CC0; (c) Redes campesinas “La yunta", some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Luc Wyn, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Joseph Aubert, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Leticia Jiménez Hernández, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA).

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 Anisacanthus quadrifidus, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Clasificación, estructura y diversidad del matorral submontanoadyacente a la planicie costera del GolfoNorte en el Noreste de México
Eduardo Estrada‐Castillón, José ́Ángel Villarreal-Quintanilla, Enrique Jurado, César Cantú-Ayala (2015) · Botanical Sciences
Flórula vascular de la Sierra de Catorce y territorios adyacentes, San Luis Potosí, México
Onésimo González Costilla, Joaquín Giménez de Azcárate, José Garcı́a Pérez, Juan Rogelio Aguirre‐Rivera (2007) · Acta Botanica Mexicana
Análisis Florístico de la Cañada, Querétaro, México
José Alejandro Cabrera-Luna, Maricela Gómez-Sánchez (2005) · Botanical Sciences
Flora riparia de los ríos Sabinas y San Rodrigo, Coahuila, México
José Á. Villarreal Q., Miguel Á. Carranza P., Eduardo Estrada‐Castillón, Andrés Rodríguez G. (2006) · Acta Botanica Mexicana
Datos para la conservación florística en función de la amplitud geográfica de las especies en el Semidesierto Queretano, México
Rafael Hernández-Magaña, José Guadalupe Hernández-Oria, Ruth Chávez (2012) · Acta Botanica Mexicana
A Revision of the North American Species of the Genus Anisacanthus
Stanley Harlan Hagen (1941) · Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden
Morfología de los granos de polen de las familias Acanthaceae, Vitaceae y Violaceae del Valle de México
Rodolfo Palacios-Chavez, María de la Luz Arreguín-Sánchez, David Leonor Quiroz-García (1996) · Acta Botanica Mexicana
Situación actual de la vegetación de la Sierra de Zapalinamé, Coahuila, México
Juan Antonio Encina-Domínguez, José ́Ángel Villarreal-Quintanilla, Eduardo Estrada‐Castillón, Omar Rueda-Moreno (2019) · Botanical Sciences

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.

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 63 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.