Species
+

Plumbago zeylanica L.

Blister Bush, Bright Eyes, Ceylon leadwort, Eyebright

Climate known 75 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

Plumbago zeylanica, commonly known as Ceylon leadwort, doctorbush or wild leadwort, is a species of plumbago with a pantropical distribution. Carl Linnaeus described the paleotropical P. zeylanica and Neotropical P. scandens as separate species, but they are currently considered synonymous.

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

About the genus · Plumbago

Plumbago is a genus of 23 species of flowering plants in the family Plumbaginaceae, native to warm temperate to tropical regions of the world. Common names include plumbago and leadwort.

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

Family
Plumbaginaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Benin, Burkina, Gambia, The +122
Wild records
1680 in range· 1002 open

At a glance

Warmest month
29°C
May, mean day; nights 21 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
828mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Sep 103 mm (CHELSA)
Light
32–37DLI
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: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (February to March and May to October at the habitat (not shifted)). Habitat rain 828 mm a year, wettest September at 103 mm, driest December at 41 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 32 to 37 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 11.8 °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 Findlaya alba Bowdich; Molubda scandens (L.) Raf.; Plumbagidium scandens (L.) Spach; Plumbago americana Weigel; Plumbago auriculata Blume and 20 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (February to March and May to October at the habitat (not shifted)).

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

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (633 mm of 828 mm) takes 8 months, February to March and May to October. Mean temperature moves 2.2 °C between the warmest and coldest month. 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 828 mm a year, wettest September at 103 mm, driest December at 41 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

828 mm a year at the habitat, 633 mm of it February to March and May to October. Wettest month September at 103 mm, driest December at 41 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 524 mm to 1996 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: 32 to 37 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 32 to 37 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 21, the highest 90th-percentile month 47).

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 11.8 °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 11.8 °C, the absolute minimum 8.1 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 41.6 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 18.2 °C in January (across the envelope cells 9.1 °C to 24.2 °C), warmest day 28.6 °C in May (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 11.8 °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: 59 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 27 °C in Dec to 29 °C in May; mean night from 18 °C in Jan to 21 °C in Jun. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 828 mm of rain a year, most in Sep. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 1360 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 8.1 °C and the 99th-percentile day 41.6 °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°41.6° 99th-percentile day (undated)8.1° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 32–37RH 59–63 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 1360 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 °C27 / 19–3228 / 20–3228 / 22–3329 / 24–3429 / 23–3328 / 22–3328 / 21–3228 / 23–3228 / 24–3228 / 24–3327 / 23–3327 / 20–33
Night °C18 / 9–2419 / 10–2419 / 12–2420 / 13–2421 / 13–2521 / 11–2521 / 10–2620 / 12–2621 / 14–2520 / 14–2419 / 12–2418 / 10–24
Rain mm51 / 8–20759 / 7–20965 / 5–19853 / 6–18261 / 8–22179 / 6–31299 / 3–346100 / 4–335103 / 5–28767 / 13–18350 / 11–14241 / 8–165
DLI33 / 22–4136 / 26–4137 / 31–4437 / 29–4735 / 26–4733 / 24–4333 / 24–4234 / 27–4135 / 29–4234 / 28–4532 / 24–4432 / 21–43
RH %59 / 50–6559 / 48–6659 / 45–6659 / 45–6660 / 46–6762 / 48–6863 / 49–6862 / 49–6863 / 48–6861 / 49–6759 / 49–6559 / 50–65

Each figure is the median across the 1360 grid cells holding the 1627 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 2084:6294 (-14.225, 134.725). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 8.1 °C, 1st-percentile night 11.8 °C, 99th-percentile day 41.6 °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 1360 distinct grid cells holding the 1627 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2084:6294 (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 -14.00_135.000, lapse-corrected +86 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 188 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.
NativeBenin, Burkina, Gambia, The, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Nigeria, Niger, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo, Burundi, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Congo, Gulf of Guinea Is., Rwanda, Zaïre, Chad, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Angola, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Cape Provinces, Namibia, KwaZulu-Natal, Free State, Swaziland, Northern Provinces, Comoros, Madagascar, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, China South-Central, Hainan, China Southeast, Taiwan, Assam, Bangladesh, East Himalaya, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, West Himalaya, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Jawa, Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Philippines, Sulawesi, Sumatera, Christmas I., New Guinea, Norfolk Is., New South Wales, Northern Territory, Queensland, Western Australia, Marquesas, Society Is., Tubuai Is., Marianas, Hawaii, Arizona, Texas, Florida, Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Aruba, Bahamas, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Netherlands Antilles, Puerto Rico, Southwest Caribbean, Turks-Caicos Is., Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuelan Antilles, Windward Is., French Guiana, Surinam, Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Galápagos, Peru, Brazil West-Central, Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast, Brazil North, Brazil South, Argentina Northwest, Paraguay· introduced: Italy, Cape Verde, Mauritius, Réunion, Rodrigues, Laccadive Is., Andaman Is., Fiji, New Caledonia, Samoa, Tonga, Vanuatu, Cook Is.
Kew's description“scrambling shrub” · “seasonally dry tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker22.7, 120.312 · in the densest population, 139 records (8% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1680 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 1002 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 17136 km away. 40 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 53 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 1680 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Plumbago zeylanicaPlumbago zeylanicaPlumbago zeylanicaPlumbago zeylanicaPlumbago zeylanicaPlumbago zeylanicaPlumbago zeylanicaPlumbago zeylanica

Photographs: no rights reserved · CC0 (3); (c) Santiago Ron, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Shaan Aroeste, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4).

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

Preferential fertilization in Plumbago : Ultrastructural evidence for gamete-level recognition in an angiosperm
Scott D. Russell (1985) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Antioxidant properties ofPlumbago zeylanica, an Indian medicinal plant and its active ingredient, plumbagin
Jai C. Tilak, Soumyakanti Adhikari, T.P.A. Devasagayam (2004) · Redox Report
Major Herbs of Ayurveda
Elizabeth M. Williamson (2002) · Medical Entomology and Zoology
Heneicosane—A novel microbicidal bioactive alkane identified from Plumbago zeylanica L
V. Vanitha, S. Vijayakumar, M. Nilavukkarasi, V.N. Punitha (2020) · Industrial Crops and Products
Ultrastructure of the sperm of Plumbago zeylanica
Scott D. Russell (1984) · Planta
Screening of anti-Helicobacter pyloriherbs deriving from Taiwanese folk medicinal plants
Yuan-Chuen Wang, Tung‐Liang Huang (2004) · FEMS Immunology & Medical Microbiology
Antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory and wound healing activity of polyherbal formulation
Suresh Kumar Dev, P. K. Choudhury, Rajnish Srivastava, Maya Sharma (2018) · Biomedicine & Pharmacotherapy
Cytotoxic naphthoquinones and plumbagic acid glucosides from Plumbago zeylanica
Lie‐Chwen Lin, Lingling Yang, Cheng‐Jen Chou (2003) · Phytochemistry
Use and management of traditional medicinal plants by Maale and Ari ethnic communities in southern Ethiopia
Berhane Kidane, Tinde van Andel, Laurentius Josephus Gerardus van der Maesen, Zemede Asfaw (2014) · Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine

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 Plumbago 1 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (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 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried 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 2026-09-19; 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 201 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.