Species
+

Callisia fragrans (Lindl.) Woodson

Basketplant, False Bromeliad Plant

Climate known 77 photographs Tropical foliage plant
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

Callisia fragrans, the false bromeliad, false bromeliad plant or golden tendril, is a flowering plant species of the genus Callisia, in the spiderwort family, Commelinaceae that is native to Mexico.

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

About the genus · Callisia

Callisia is a genus of flowering plants in the spiderwort family, Commelinaceae. Members of the genus are commonly known as roselings. It is native to the Western Hemisphere from the southern United States to Argentina. More on Wikipedia ›

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

Family
Commelinaceae
Described by
(Lindl.) Woodson
Native to
Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf +2
Wild records
364 in range· 146 open

At a glance

Warmest month
30°C
May, mean day; nights 20 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1162mm/yr
11 wet months · peak Sep 211 mm (CHELSA)
Light
25–41DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a tropical foliage plant by Commelinaceae, which is usually but not always one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a summer growing season, June to October in the northern hemisphere (June to October at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 1162 mm a year, wettest September at 211 mm, driest March at 24 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 25 to 41 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 12 °C (archetype minimum for a tropical foliage plant, above the 11.0 °C habitat night).
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 Rectanthera fragrans (Lindl.) O.Deg.; Spironema fragrans Lindl.; Spironema orthandrum Lindb.

Cultivation

Grouped as a tropical foliage plant by Commelinaceae, which is usually but not always one kind of plant (archetype table). The table supplies one figure for this group, a conventional minimum for the cold floor, and no prose.

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, June to October in the northern hemisphere (June 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 (884 mm of 1162 mm) falls in June to October, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 25.0 °C against a yearly mean of 23.2 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December 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 1162 mm a year, wettest September at 211 mm, driest March at 24 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1162 mm a year at the habitat, 884 mm of it June to October. Wettest month September at 211 mm, driest March at 24 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 618 mm to 1922 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: 25 to 41 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 25 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 23, the highest 90th-percentile month 48).

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 12 °C (archetype minimum for a tropical foliage plant, above the 11.0 °C habitat night).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 11.0 °C, the absolute minimum 2.2 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 41.3 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 14.8 °C in January (across the envelope cells 7.7 °C to 21.2 °C), warmest day 29.7 °C in May (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 12 °C. The habitat figure, the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER), is 11.0 °C; the archetype table's conventional minimum for a tropical foliage plant (grouped by Commelinaceae, which is usually but not always one kind of plant) is 12 °C, which is higher, and the floor rule takes the higher.

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, and the archetype table's group minimum where that is higher. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 58 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 24 °C in Jan to 30 °C in May; mean night from 15 °C in Jan to 21 °C in Jun. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1162 mm of rain a year, most in Sep. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 236 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 2.2 °C and the 99th-percentile day 41.3 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°20°30°40°50°41.3° 99th-percentile day (undated)2.2° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 25–41RH 58–66 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 236 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 °C24 / 20–2826 / 21–3027 / 23–3229 / 26–3430 / 26–3529 / 24–3328 / 23–3329 / 23–3428 / 23–3227 / 22–3026 / 21–2924 / 20–28
Night °C15 / 8–2115 / 8–2217 / 10–2219 / 12–2420 / 14–2521 / 15–2521 / 15–2521 / 15–2521 / 14–2519 / 12–2417 / 10–2316 / 8–22
Rain mm31 / 11–7326 / 8–5724 / 4–5934 / 4–7082 / 21–127182 / 92–324185 / 106–329189 / 98–315211 / 104–347117 / 47–20945 / 10–10736 / 6–78
DLI26 / 24–3331 / 28–3837 / 34–4541 / 38–4841 / 38–4838 / 35–4239 / 34–4238 / 34–4133 / 30–3630 / 28–3528 / 25–3325 / 23–32
RH %60 / 51–6759 / 49–6658 / 46–6458 / 46–6460 / 50–6564 / 57–6864 / 59–6864 / 60–6966 / 61–7064 / 58–6862 / 54–6761 / 52–67

Each figure is the median across the 236 grid cells holding the 358 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 1422:1665 (18.875, -96.725). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 2.2 °C, 1st-percentile night 11.0 °C, 99th-percentile day 41.3 °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 236 distinct grid cells holding the 358 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1422:1665 (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 19.00_-96.875, lapse-corrected -774 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 399 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.
NativeMexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast· introduced: Morocco, Taiwan, Norfolk Is., Hawaii, Florida, Louisiana, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Netherlands Antilles, Puerto Rico, Venezuelan Antilles, Windward Is.
Kew's description“semisucculent subshrub” · “seasonally dry tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker19.366, -96.801 · in the densest population, 241 records (66% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 364 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 146 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 5 km away. 881 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 6 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 inside the densest 4° block of the 364 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Callisia fragransCallisia fragransCallisia fragransCallisia fragransCallisia fragransCallisia fragransCallisia fragransCallisia fragrans

Photographs: no rights reserved · CC0 (2); (c) Sebastián de Jesús Herrera Buenfil, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Greg Tasney, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA); (c) ritirene, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Cenoteando, 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 Callisia fragrans, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Green synthesis of silver nanoparticles using Callisia fragrans leaf extract and its anticancer activity against MCF-7, HepG2, KB, LU-1, and MKN-7 cell lines
Lan Anh Nguyen, Bay Doan Van, Din Van Nguyen, Ngoc Quyen Thi Nguyen (2023) · Green Processing and Synthesis
Plant species first recognised as naturalised for New South Wales over the period 2000-2001
John R. Hosking, Barry J. Conn, Brendan J. Lepschi (2003) · Publication Server of Goethe University Frankfurt am Main (Goethe University Frankfurt)
Supercritical Fluid Extraction of Polyphenols from Vietnamese Callisia fragrans Leaves and Antioxidant Activity of the Extract
Le Thao My Phan, Kim Thien Phuc Nguyen, Hoai‐Thanh Vuong, Do Dat Tran (2020) · Journal of Chemistry
Accumulation of cadmium in potential hyperaccumulators Chlorophytum comosum and Callisia fragrans and role of organic acids under stress conditions
Jiří Šimek, Zuzana Kovalikova, Vlastimil Dohnal, Jiří Tůma (2018) · Environmental Science and Pollution Research
MECHANOCHEMICAL ACTIVATION OF PHARMACEUTICAL SUBSTANCES AS A FACTOR FOR MODIFICATION OF THEIR PHYSICAL, CHEMICAL AND BIOLOGICAL PROPERTIES
А. В. Сыроешкин, E. V. Uspenskaya, Т. В. Плетенева, М. А. Морозова (2019) · International Journal of Applied Pharmaceutics
Morphological, Cytological, and Molecular Comparison between Diploid and Induced Autotetraploids of Callisia fragrans (Lindl.) Woodson
Kateřina Beranová, Rohit Bharati, Jana Žiarovská, Jana Bilčí­ková (2022) · Agronomy
A Karyological Study of Six Commelinaceae Species from Thailand
Surapon Saensouk, Piyaporn Saensouk (2020) · CYTOLOGIA
Dependence of Biocatalysis on D/H Ratio: Possible Fundamental Differences for High-Level Biological Taxons
I. A. Zlatskiy, Т. В. Плетенева, Alexander Skripnikov, Т. В. Гребенникова (2020) · Molecules
Chemical composition of Callisia fragrans juice 1. Phenolic compounds
Д. Н. Оленников, Т. А. Ибрагимов, И. Н. Зилфикаров, В. А. Челомбитько (2008) · Chemistry of Natural Compounds
Crassulacean Acid Metabolism in Three Species of Commelinaceae
Charles E. Martin (1994) · Annals of Botany
Chemical investigation of Callisia fragrans
T. V. Chernenko, N. T. Ul’chenko, Anna I. Glushenkova, D. Redzhepov (2007) · Chemistry of Natural Compounds
1H and 13C NMR assignments of new ecdysteroids from Callisia fragrans
Đan Thị Thúy Hằng, Nguyễn Thị Minh Hằng, Hoang Le Tuan Anh, Nguyễn Xuân Nhiệm (2015) · Magnetic Resonance in Chemistry

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 Callisia 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 59 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.