Species
+

Ardisia elliptica Thunb.

Inkberry, Shoebutton, Shoebutton, Shoebutton ardisia

Climate known 71 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

Ardisia elliptica is an evergreen tree, also known as the shoebutton ardisia, duck's eye and coralberry, native to the west coast of India, Sri Lanka, Indochina, Malaysia, Indonesia and New Guinea. It is a prolific reproducer which has made it a successful invasive species in other locations in the tropics where it has been introduced as a garden ornamental.

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

About the genus · Ardisia

Ardisia is a genus of flowering plants in the family Primulaceae. It was in the former Myrsinaceae family now recognised as the myrsine sub-family Myrsinoideae. They are distributed in the Americas, Asia, Australia, and the Pacific Islands, mainly in the tropics. More on Wikipedia ›

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

Family
Primulaceae
Described by
Thunb.
Native to
Nansei-shoto, Taiwan, Bangladesh +16
Wild records
507 in range· 240 open

At a glance

Warmest month
29°C
Jun, mean day; nights 24 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
2482mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Aug 310 mm (CHELSA)
Light
26–35DLI
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 sharp rainy season, May to November at the habitat (not shifted); the temperature curve is flat (3.9 °C of range), so no growing season is inferred. Habitat rain 2482 mm a year, wettest August at 310 mm, driest January at 80 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 26 to 35 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 17.9 °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 Ardisia kotoensis Hayata; Ardisia littoralis Andrews; Ardisia pirifolia Mez; Ardisia polycephala Wight; Ardisia sorsogonensis Elmer and 15 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a sharp rainy season, May to November at the habitat (not shifted); the temperature curve is flat (3.9 °C of range), so no growing season is inferred.

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

The rain rule reads a sharp season: 70% of the year's rain (1859 mm of 2482 mm) falls in May to November. The temperature curve is flat, 3.9 °C between the warmest and coldest month, so the growing-season rule does not infer a growing season from it. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; with a flat temperature curve there is no season to reverse, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

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 2482 mm a year, wettest August at 310 mm, driest January at 80 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

2482 mm a year at the habitat, 1859 mm of it May to November. Wettest month August at 310 mm, driest January at 80 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1854 mm to 3959 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: 26 to 35 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 26 to 35 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 41).

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 17.9 °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 17.9 °C, the absolute minimum 13.6 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 40.3 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 20.0 °C in January (across the envelope cells 12.1 °C to 24.5 °C), warmest day 28.9 °C in June (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 17.9 °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: 64 to 66% 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 26 °C in Jan to 29 °C in Jun; mean night from 20 °C in Jan to 25 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 2482 mm of rain a year, most in Aug. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 312 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 13.6 °C and the 99th-percentile day 40.3 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°15°20°25°30°35°40°45°40.3° 99th-percentile day (undated)13.6° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500600mm rainDLI 26–35RH 64–66 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 312 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 °C26 / 18–2927 / 18–3028 / 21–3128 / 24–3129 / 26–3129 / 27–3029 / 27–3029 / 27–3028 / 27–3028 / 25–2927 / 22–2926 / 19–29
Night °C20 / 12–2521 / 13–2522 / 15–2523 / 18–2624 / 21–2624 / 22–2625 / 22–2625 / 22–2624 / 21–2623 / 20–2522 / 17–2521 / 14–25
Rain mm80 / 18–340118 / 22–270136 / 37–261163 / 64–243235 / 147–356304 / 157–520287 / 164–551310 / 143–558286 / 163–524244 / 50–398193 / 29–387126 / 19–354
DLI28 / 16–3431 / 19–3834 / 25–4035 / 29–4134 / 31–3833 / 29–3635 / 29–3933 / 29–3631 / 29–3630 / 24–3427 / 18–3226 / 15–32
RH %64 / 59–6964 / 60–6964 / 61–6965 / 62–6965 / 63–7066 / 63–7166 / 63–7166 / 63–7166 / 64–7166 / 63–7065 / 61–7065 / 59–70

Each figure is the median across the 312 grid cells holding the 426 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 1491:6014 (15.425, 120.725). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 13.6 °C, 1st-percentile night 17.9 °C, 99th-percentile day 40.3 °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 312 distinct grid cells holding the 426 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1491:6014 (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 15.50_120.625, lapse-corrected -92 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 16 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.
NativeNansei-shoto, Taiwan, Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Nicobar Is., Thailand, Vietnam, Borneo, Jawa, Malaya, Philippines, Sulawesi, Sumatera, New Guinea· introduced: Mauritius, Seychelles, Northern Territory, Queensland, Samoa, Cook Is., Society Is., Hawaii, Florida, El Salvador, Bermuda, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Trinidad-Tobago, Windward Is., Guyana, Venezuela
Kew's description“shrub or tree” · “wet tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker22.145, 121.527 · in the densest population, 254 records (50% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 507 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 240 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 2 km away. 1082 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 81 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 507 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Ardisia ellipticaArdisia ellipticaArdisia ellipticaArdisia ellipticaArdisia ellipticaArdisia ellipticaArdisia ellipticaArdisia elliptica

Photographs: (c) Douglas Goldman, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (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 Ardisia elliptica, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

A comprehensive review on tyrosinase inhibitors
Samaneh Zolghadri, Asieh Bahrami, Mahmud Tareq Hassan Khan, José Muñoz-Muñoz (2019) · Journal of Enzyme Inhibition and Medicinal Chemistry
LONGEVITY CAN BUFFER PLANT AND ANIMAL POPULATIONS AGAINST CHANGING CLIMATIC VARIABILITY
William F. Morris, Catherine A. Pfister, Shripad Tuljapurkar, Chirrakal V. Haridas (2008) · Ecology
A functional trait perspective on plant invasion
Rebecca E. Drenovsky, Brenda J. Grewell, Carla M. D’Antonio, Jennifer L. Funk (2012) · Annals of Botany
Faster returns on ‘leaf economics’ and different biogeochemical niche in invasive compared with native plant species
Josep Peñuelas, Jordi Sardans, Joan Llusià, Susan M. Owen (2009) · Global Change Biology
General guidelines for invasive plant management based on comparative demography of invasive and native plant populations
Satu Ramula, Tiffany M. Knight, Jean H. Burns, Yvonne M. Buckley (2008) · Journal of Applied Ecology
A critical look at challenges and future scopes of bioactive compounds and their incorporations in the food, energy, and pharmaceutical sector
Sanidhya Pai, Akshatha Hebbar, Subbalaxmi Selvaraj (2022) · Environmental Science and Pollution Research
Thai plants with high antioxidant levels, free radical scavenging activity, anti-tyrosinase and anti-collagenase activity
Moragot Chatatikun, Anchalee Chiabchalard (2017) · BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine
Limited native plant regeneration in novel, exotic-dominated forests on Hawai’i
Joseph Mascaro, Kristen K. Becklund, R. Flint Hughes, Stefan A. Schnitzer (2008) · Forest Ecology and Management

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 Ardisia 1 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 65 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.