Species
+

Ceratostigma plumbaginoides Bunge

Blue Leadwood, Blue leadwood (EN), Kriechende Hornnarbe (DE), blue leadwort

Climate known 68 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

Ceratostigma plumbaginoides, the hardy blue-flowered leadwort, is a species of flowering plant in the plumbago family, native to China, where it is known as 蓝雪花.

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

About the genus · Ceratostigma

Ceratostigma (;), or leadwort, plumbago, is a genus of eight species of flowering plants in the family Plumbaginaceae, native to warm temperate to tropical regions of Africa and Asia. Common names are shared with the genus Plumbago.

Text from Wikipedia, “Ceratostigma”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Plumbaginaceae
Described by
Bunge
Native to
China North-Central, China Southeast
Wild records
3 in range· 0 open

At a glance

Warmest month
31°C
Jul, mean day; nights 23 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
627mm/yr
8 wet months · peak Jul 154 mm (CHELSA)
Light
17–38DLI
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 September in the northern hemisphere (May to September at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 627 mm a year, wettest July at 154 mm, driest December at 8 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 17 to 38 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -8.3 °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 Ceratostigma plantaginoides J.W.C.Kirk; Plumbago larpentae Lindl.; Plumbago larpentiae Lindl.; Valoradia plumbaginoides (Bunge) Boiss.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, May to September in the northern hemisphere (May to September 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 (481 mm of 627 mm) falls in May to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 24.4 °C against a yearly mean of 14.7 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to March.

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 627 mm a year, wettest July at 154 mm, driest December at 8 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

627 mm a year at the habitat, 481 mm of it May to September. Wettest month July at 154 mm, driest December at 8 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 568 mm to 1624 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 38 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 17 to 38 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 16, the highest 90th-percentile month 39).

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 -8.3 °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 -8.3 °C, the absolute minimum -18.2 °C, about 82 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 40.3 °C. Monthly means: coldest night -4.6 °C in January (across the envelope cells -5.6 °C to 7.3 °C), warmest day 30.9 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -8.3 °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: 51 to 63% 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 6 °C in Jan to 31 °C in Jul; mean night from -5 °C in Jan to 23 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 627 mm of rain a year, most in Jul. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 3 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -18.2 °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.-20°-10°10°20°30°40°50°frost40.3° 99th-percentile day (undated)-18.2° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 17–38RH 51–63 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 3 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 °C6 / 5–169 / 8–1715 / 14–2122 / 21–2627 / 26–2931 / 30–3131 / 30–3129 / 28–3126 / 25–2921 / 20–2714 / 13–228 / 7–18
Night °C-5 / -6–7-2 / -3–92 / 2–1310 / 9–1815 / 15–2121 / 20–2423 / 22–2522 / 21–2417 / 16–2210 / 9–183 / 2–13-3 / -4–9
Rain mm9 / 6–4813 / 9–6125 / 21–7230 / 27–11155 / 52–19266 / 63–280154 / 130–332124 / 104–24682 / 65–14541 / 33–7020 / 17–528 / 6–27
DLI18 / 16–1922 / 17–2328 / 21–2934 / 27–3637 / 30–3838 / 31–3932 / 32–3330 / 29–3128 / 25–2924 / 22–2719 / 18–2217 / 16–19
RH %51 / 51–5852 / 51–6152 / 51–6151 / 50–6153 / 52–6354 / 53–6462 / 60–6663 / 61–6660 / 58–6356 / 54–5954 / 53–5652 / 51–55

Each figure is the median across the 3 grid cells holding the 3 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 1090:5876 (35.475, 113.825). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -18.2 °C, 1st-percentile night -8.3 °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 3 distinct grid cells holding the 3 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1090:5876 (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 35.50_113.750, lapse-corrected -194 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 137 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP.
No openly licensed record to show inside the range.
NativeChina North-Central, China Southeast· introduced: Austria, Germany, France, Italy, Argentina Northeast
Kew's description“perennial or rhizomatous geophyte” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 3 georeferenced records inside the native range; none carries a licence permitting republication, so the map shows no points. 1759 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. Under a dozen records: treat the map and the climate as indicative.

Photographs

Ceratostigma plumbaginoidesCeratostigma plumbaginoidesCeratostigma plumbaginoidesCeratostigma plumbaginoidesCeratostigma plumbaginoidesCeratostigma plumbaginoidesCeratostigma plumbaginoidesCeratostigma plumbaginoides

Photographs: (c) calvingilbert, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA); (c) My-Lan Le, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Marco Mussita, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); no rights reserved · CC0; (c) Léo Souillard, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Susan Marley, some rights reserved (CC BY).

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

In vitro Antioxidant and Antimicrobial Effects of Ceratostigma plumbaginoides
Hosam O. Elansary, Kowiyou Yessoufou, Eman A. Mahmoud, Krystyna Skalicka‐Woźniak (2016) · Natural Product Communications
Effect of Overwintering Environment on the Survival of 30 Species of Herbaceous Perennials
Kelley C. Dimke, S.K. Still, David S. Gardner (2008) · Journal of Environmental Horticulture
Controlled Freezing of Twenty-three Container-grown Herbaceous Perennials
Todd A. Herrick, Leonard P. Perry (1995) · Journal of Environmental Horticulture
Ceratostigma plumbaginoides
CABI (2019) · CABI Compendium
Nuovo Contributo All'Embriologia Delle Plumbaginaceae
Francesco D’Amato (1943) · Giornale botanico italiano
Ceratostigma plumbaginoides Bunge
Gordon C. Tucker (1999) · Journal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy
Plumbaginaceae
Robert Hegnauer (1990) · Birkhäuser Basel eBooks
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility

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