Species
+

Clerodendrum trichotomum Thunb.

Chance Tree, Harlequin Glorybower, Harlequin glorybower, Glory tree, glorytree

Climate known 60 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

Clerodendrum trichotomum, the harlequin glorybower, glorytree or peanut butter tree, is a species of flowering plant in the family Lamiaceae. It is native to China, Korea, Taiwan, Japan, India, and the Philippines.

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

About the genus · Clerodendrum

Clerodendrum is a genus of flowering plants formerly placed in the family Verbenaceae, but now considered to belong to the Lamiaceae (mint) family. Its common names include glorybower, bagflower, pagoda flower and bleeding-heart. It is currently classified in the subfamily Ajugoideae, being one of several genera transferred from Verbenaceae to Lamiaceae in the 1990s, based on phylogenetic analysis of morphological and molecular data.

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

Family
Lamiaceae
Described by
Thunb.
Native to
China South-Central, Hainan, Manchuria +7
Wild records
1441 in range· 630 open

At a glance

Warmest month
28°C
Aug, mean day; nights 22 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1635mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jul 295 mm (CHELSA)
Light
15–35DLI
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 summer growing season, April to September in the northern hemisphere (April to September at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 1635 mm a year, wettest July at 295 mm, driest December at 41 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 15 to 35 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -4.1 °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 Clerodendron trichotomum Thunb., 1780; Clerodendrum fargesii Dode; Clerodendrum koshunense Hayata; Clerodendrum serotinum Carrière; Clerodendrum trichotomum f. albicarpum Satomi and 15 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, April to September in the northern hemisphere (April 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 (1234 mm of 1635 mm) falls in April to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 20.4 °C against a yearly mean of 14.1 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: October 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 1635 mm a year, wettest July at 295 mm, driest December at 41 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1635 mm a year at the habitat, 1234 mm of it April to September. Wettest month July at 295 mm, driest December at 41 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1205 mm to 3108 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: 15 to 35 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 15 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 13, the highest 90th-percentile month 37).

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 -4.1 °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 -4.1 °C, the absolute minimum -9.2 °C, about 64 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 34.6 °C. Monthly means: coldest night -1.4 °C in January (across the envelope cells -9.4 °C to 9.1 °C), warmest day 27.6 °C in August (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -4.1 °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: 57 to 67% 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 28 °C in Aug; mean night from -1 °C in Jan to 22 °C in Aug. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1635 mm of rain a year, most in Jul. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 1104 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -9.2 °C and the 99th-percentile day 34.6 °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°frost34.6° 99th-percentile day (undated)-9.2° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 15–35RH 57–67 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 1104 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 / 0–167 / 2–1711 / 7–1917 / 13–2221 / 17–2524 / 21–2827 / 24–3028 / 24–3024 / 21–2719 / 16–2314 / 9–208 / 3–17
Night °C-1 / -9–9-0 / -7–103 / -2–128 / 4–1613 / 9–1917 / 14–2221 / 17–2522 / 18–2518 / 14–2213 / 7–197 / 0–151 / -6–11
Rain mm46 / 20–13256 / 24–15488 / 45–191111 / 67–217143 / 93–296203 / 133–444295 / 169–448279 / 148–449203 / 130–437104 / 49–23866 / 38–16841 / 19–127
DLI17 / 14–2022 / 19–2428 / 24–3034 / 29–3635 / 31–3733 / 29–3632 / 27–3631 / 28–3527 / 23–2923 / 19–2617 / 15–2015 / 13–18
RH %57 / 54–6557 / 54–6558 / 55–6559 / 54–6661 / 56–6665 / 60–6967 / 64–7166 / 63–6963 / 61–6860 / 57–6758 / 56–6557 / 54–64

Each figure is the median across the 1104 grid cells holding the 1422 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 1088:6386 (35.575, 139.325). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -9.2 °C, 1st-percentile night -4.1 °C, 99th-percentile day 34.6 °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 1104 distinct grid cells holding the 1422 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1088:6386 (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_139.375, lapse-corrected -107 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 126 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.
NativeChina South-Central, Hainan, Manchuria, China North-Central, Qinghai, China Southeast, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Philippines· introduced: Great Britain, Italy, Jawa, New Zealand North, Alabama, Arkansas
Kew's description“shrub or tree” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker36.857, 127.243 · in the densest population, 691 records (48% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1441 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 630 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 908 km away. 185 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 19 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 1441 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Clerodendrum trichotomumClerodendrum trichotomumClerodendrum trichotomumClerodendrum trichotomumClerodendrum trichotomumClerodendrum trichotomumClerodendrum trichotomumClerodendrum trichotomum

Photographs: (c) jamie-aa, some rights reserved (CC BY) (7); (c) Sigourney Juneau, 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 Clerodendrum trichotomum, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Scientific validation of medicinal plants used by Yakkha community of Chanuwa VDC, Dhankuta, Nepal
Bimala Subba, Chitranjan Srivastav, Ram Chandra Kandel (2016) · SpringerPlus
Assessment of Potential Indigenous Plant Species for the Phytoremediation of Arsenic-Contaminated Areas of Bangladesh
Rezwanul Mahmud, Naoto Inoue, Shinya Kasajima, Riffat Shaheen (2008) · International Journal of Phytoremediation
Anti-Respiratory Syncytial Virus Activity of Plantago asiatica and Clerodendrum trichotomum Extracts In Vitro and In Vivo
Kiramage Chathuranga, Myun Soo Kim, Hyun‐Cheol Lee, Tae-Hwan Kim (2019) · Viruses
Abietane Diterpenoids from the Roots of Clerodendrum trichotomum and Their Nitric Oxide Inhibitory Activities
Hai-Jun Hu, Yue Zhou, Zhu‐Zhen Han, Yanhong Shi (2018) · Journal of Natural Products
Trichotomone, a new cytotoxic dimeric abietane-derived diterpene from Clerodendrum trichotomum
Wen‐Xuan Wang, Jing-Jing Zhu, Yike Zou, Zhilai Hong (2013) · Tetrahedron Letters
Green Synthesis of Gold Nanoparticles Using Clerodendrum trichotomum Thunberg for Antibacterial and Anticancer Applications
Adnan Shakoor, Umme Tamanna Ferdous, Shakeel Ahmad Khan, Muhammad Majid Gulzar (2025) · International Journal of Nanomedicine
Weed Control of Four Higher Plant Species in Paddy Rice Fields in Southeast Asia
Nguyen Huu Hong, Tran Dang Xuan, Eiji Tsuzuki, H. Terao (2004) · Journal of Agronomy and Crop Science
Overwintering ecology of two species of spider mites(Acari: Tetranychidae) on different host plants.
Akio Takafuji, Masahiko Morishita (2001) · Applied Entomology and Zoology
New cytotoxic steroids from the leaves of Clerodendrum trichotomum
Ruilan Xu, Rui Wang, Lan Ding, Yan‐Ping Shi (2013) · Steroids

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 Clerodendrum 7 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 131 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.