Species
+

Collinsia heterophylla Buist ex Graham

Chinese houses, Chinese-houses, Purple Chinese Houses, Purple Chinese houses (EN)

Climate known 52 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

Collinsia heterophylla, known as purple Chinese houses or innocence, is a flowering plant native to California and the Peninsular Ranges in northern Baja California.

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

About the genus · Collinsia

Collinsia is a genus of about 20 species of annual flowering plants, consisting of the blue eyed Marys and the Chinese houses. It was traditionally placed in the snapdragon family Scrophulariaceae, but following recent research in molecular genetics, it has now been placed in a much enlarged family Plantaginaceae.

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

Family
Plantaginaceae
Described by
Buist ex Graham
Native to
California, Mexico Southwest
Wild records
1572 in range· 284 open

At a glance

Warmest month
30°C
Jul, mean day; nights 16 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
557mm/yr
7 wet months · peak Feb 112 mm (CHELSA)
Light
16–52DLI
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 winter growing season, December to March in the northern hemisphere (December to March at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 557 mm a year, wettest February at 112 mm, driest July at 1 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 16 to 52 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -2.7 °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 Collinsia bicolor Benth.; Collinsia bicolor var. atrorubens T.Moore; Collinsia bicolor var. marginata W.Melville; Collinsia bicolor var. marginata W.Melville ex J.Dix; Collinsia hernandezii Elmer and 2 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a winter growing season, December to March in the northern hemisphere (December to March at the habitat, northern).

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

The rain rule reads a winter growing season: 70% of the year's rain (401 mm of 557 mm) falls in December to March, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 9.7 °C against a yearly mean of 15.0 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: June to September.

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 557 mm a year, wettest February at 112 mm, driest July at 1 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

557 mm a year at the habitat, 401 mm of it December to March. Wettest month February at 112 mm, driest July at 1 mm; 3 months under 5 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 344 mm to 1060 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: 16 to 52 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 16 to 52 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 54).

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 -2.7 °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 -2.7 °C, the absolute minimum -7.8 °C, about 16 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 38.6 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 4.0 °C in January (across the envelope cells 2.0 °C to 7.1 °C), warmest day 30.0 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -2.7 °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: 50 to 58% 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 14 °C in Dec to 30 °C in Jul; mean night from 4 °C in Jan to 16 °C in Aug. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 557 mm of rain a year, most in Feb. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 704 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -7.8 °C and the 99th-percentile day 38.6 °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°frost38.6° 99th-percentile day (undated)-7.8° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250mm rainDLI 16–52RH 50–58 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 704 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 °C14 / 12–1715 / 13–1717 / 14–1920 / 17–2223 / 19–2627 / 22–3030 / 23–3430 / 24–3328 / 23–3123 / 20–2517 / 15–2014 / 12–17
Night °C4 / 2–75 / 3–86 / 4–98 / 5–1010 / 8–1313 / 11–1516 / 13–1816 / 13–1814 / 12–1711 / 9–147 / 5–104 / 2–7
Rain mm109 / 66–201112 / 75–18686 / 55–14840 / 24–7514 / 7–374 / 2–101 / 0–42 / 1–56 / 5–1328 / 17–5661 / 34–13094 / 53–205
DLI17 / 14–2123 / 20–2632 / 29–3641 / 39–4548 / 47–5152 / 51–5452 / 50–5347 / 46–4839 / 37–4129 / 27–3220 / 17–2416 / 13–20
RH %57 / 51–6358 / 54–6258 / 54–6256 / 51–6055 / 49–6252 / 45–6150 / 44–6151 / 44–6251 / 45–6152 / 48–6055 / 49–6056 / 50–61

Each figure is the median across the 704 grid cells holding the 1527 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 1041:1161 (37.925, -121.925). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -7.8 °C, 1st-percentile night -2.7 °C, 99th-percentile day 38.6 °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 704 distinct grid cells holding the 1527 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1041:1161 (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 38.00_-121.875, lapse-corrected +166 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 271 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.
NativeCalifornia, Mexico Southwest· introduced: Great Britain, Germany, Illinois
Kew's description“annual” · “subtropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker37.845, -121.924 · in the densest population, 892 records (57% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1572 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 284 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 3 km away. 73 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 45 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 1572 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Collinsia heterophyllaCollinsia heterophyllaCollinsia heterophyllaCollinsia heterophyllaCollinsia heterophyllaCollinsia heterophyllaCollinsia heterophyllaCollinsia heterophylla

Photographs: (c) Steve Matson, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Ken-ichi Ueda, some rights reserved (CC BY); no rights reserved · CC0 (5).

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

INBREEDING DEPRESSION IN FOUR POPULATIONS OFCOLLINSIA HETEROPHYLLANUTT (SCROPHULARIACEAE)
Stephanie S. Mayer, Deborah Charlesworth, Blake C. Meyers (1996) · Evolution
Pollen competition reduces inbreeding depression in Collinsia heterophylla (Plantaginaceae)
Åsa Lankinen, W. Scott Armbruster (2006) · Journal of Evolutionary Biology
Genetic variability of plant characters in the partial inbreeder Collinsia heterophylla (Scrophulariaceae)
Deborah Charlesworth, Stephanie S. Mayer (1995) · American Journal of Botany
Selection on pollen and pistil traits during pollen competition is affected by both sexual conflict and mixed mating in a self‐compatible herb
Åsa Lankinen, Henrik G. Smith, Stefan Andersson, Josefin A. Madjidian (2015) · American Journal of Botany
Sexual Conflict and Sexually Antagonistic Coevolution in an Annual Plant
Josefin A. Madjidian, Åsa Lankinen (2009) · PLoS ONE

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