Species
+

Tacca chantrieri André

Black bat flower, Fleedermausbleamé, batflower, batflower

Climate known 52 photographs Bulb, tuber or caudex
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

Tacca chantrieri is a species of flowering plant in the yam family Dioscoreaceae. It was first described in 1901 by Édouard André. T. chantrieri is native to southeastern Asia. It is commonly known as the black bat flower due to its shape and coloring. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Tacca chantrieri”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Tacca

The genus Tacca, which includes the batflowers and arrowroot, consists of flowering plants in the order Dioscoreales, native to tropical regions of South America, Africa, Australia, Southeast Asia, and various Oceanic islands. In older texts, the genus was treated in its own family Taccaceae, but the 2003 APG II system incorporates it into the family Dioscoreaceae. The APG III and APG IV systems continue to include Tacca in Dioscoreaceae.

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

Family
Dioscoreaceae
Described by
André
Native to
China South-Central, Hainan, China Southeast +9
Wild records
298 in range· 129 open

At a glance

Warmest month
30°C
Apr, mean day; nights 21 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1801mm/yr
11 wet months · peak Sep 273 mm (CHELSA)
Light
26–37DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a bulb, tuber or caudex by Dioscoreaceae, which is usually but not always one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a summer growing season, May to September in the northern hemisphere (May to September at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 1801 mm a year, wettest September at 273 mm, driest December at 24 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 26 to 37 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 10.3 °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 Clerodendrum esquirolii H.Lév.; Schizocapsa breviscapa (Ostenf.) H.Limpr.; Schizocapsa itagakii Yamam.; Tacca chantrieri f. macrantha (H.Limpr.) H.Limpr.; Tacca esquirolii (H.Lév.) Rehder and 8 more.

Cultivation

Grouped as a bulb, tuber or caudex by Dioscoreaceae, which is usually but not always one kind of plant (archetype table). The table holds no figure for this group, which spans too much for one minimum; the cold floor is the habitat's alone, and no prose comes from the table.

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 (1268 mm of 1801 mm) falls in May to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 26.3 °C against a yearly mean of 23.8 °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 1801 mm a year, wettest September at 273 mm, driest December at 24 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1801 mm a year at the habitat, 1268 mm of it May to September. Wettest month September at 273 mm, driest December at 24 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1337 mm to 3012 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: 26 to 37 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 26 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 14, the highest 90th-percentile month 41).

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 10.3 °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 10.3 °C, the absolute minimum 5.6 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 37.8 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 14.2 °C in January (across the envelope cells 7.5 °C to 21.9 °C), warmest day 29.8 °C in April (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 10.3 °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: 61 to 68% 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 23 °C in Dec to 30 °C in Apr; mean night from 14 °C in Jan to 23 °C in Jun. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1801 mm of rain a year, most in Sep. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 194 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 5.6 °C and the 99th-percentile day 37.8 °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°37.8° 99th-percentile day (undated)5.6° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 26–37RH 61–68 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 194 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 / 16–3027 / 18–3229 / 21–3330 / 25–3329 / 26–3129 / 26–3129 / 26–3129 / 25–3128 / 25–3027 / 23–3025 / 20–2923 / 17–29
Night °C14 / 8–2216 / 9–2218 / 12–2421 / 16–2522 / 18–2523 / 20–2523 / 20–2523 / 20–2522 / 19–2420 / 16–2417 / 12–2314 / 8–22
Rain mm28 / 7–12032 / 14–10363 / 29–165115 / 68–250229 / 165–322226 / 141–440270 / 158–485270 / 181–486273 / 138–428202 / 85–38969 / 34–35324 / 9–269
DLI29 / 14–3434 / 16–3837 / 21–4037 / 26–4133 / 29–3631 / 25–3531 / 24–3530 / 23–3428 / 25–3427 / 22–3026 / 19–3126 / 17–32
RH %61 / 55–6962 / 52–6962 / 50–6863 / 54–6865 / 61–7067 / 63–7367 / 63–7368 / 64–7468 / 63–7366 / 61–7263 / 59–7161 / 56–70

Each figure is the median across the 194 grid cells holding the 285 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 1448:5706 (17.575, 105.325). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 5.6 °C, 1st-percentile night 10.3 °C, 99th-percentile day 37.8 °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 194 distinct grid cells holding the 285 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1448:5706 (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 17.50_105.625, lapse-corrected -83 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 375 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, China Southeast, Tibet, Assam, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaya
Kew's description“rhizomatous geophyte” · “wet tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker21.92, 101.27 · in the densest population, 154 records (52% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 298 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 129 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 548 km away. 62 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 13 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 298 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Tacca chantrieriTacca chantrieriTacca chantrieriTacca chantrieriTacca chantrieriTacca chantrieriTacca chantrieriTacca chantrieri

Photographs: (c) Eugene Popov, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4); no rights reserved · CC0 (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 Tacca chantrieri, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Taccalonolides E and A: Plant-derived steroids with microtubule-stabilizing activity.
Tina L. Tinley, Deborah A. Randall‐Hlubek, Rachel M. Leal, Evelyn M. Jackson (2003) · PubMed
The Taccalonolides: Microtubule Stabilizers That Circumvent Clinically Relevant Taxane Resistance Mechanisms
April L. Risinger, Evelyn M. Jackson, Lisa Polin, Gregory L. Helms (2008) · Cancer Research
New Diarylheptanoids and Diarylheptanoid Glucosides from the Rhizomes of Tacca chantrieri and Their Cytotoxic Activity
Akihito Yokosuka, Yoshihiro Mimaki, Hiroshi Sakagami, Yutaka Sashida (2002) · Journal of Natural Products
Predicting mating patterns from pollination syndromes: the case of “sapromyiophily” in Tacca chantrieri (Taccaceae)
Ling Zhang, Spencer C. H. Barrett, Jiang‐Yun Gao, Jin Chen (2005) · American Journal of Botany
Spirostanol saponins from the rhizomes of Tacca chantrieri and their cytotoxic activity
Akihito Yokosuka, Yoshihiro Mimaki, Yutaka Sashida (2002) · Phytochemistry
Steroidal and Pregnane Glycosides from the Rhizomes of Tacca chantrieri
Akihito Yokosuka, Yoshihiro Mimaki, Yutaka Sashida (2002) · Journal of Natural Products
Identification and Biological Activities of New Taccalonolide Microtubule Stabilizers
Jiangnan Peng, April L. Risinger, Gary A. Fest, Evelyn M. Jackson (2011) · Journal of Medicinal Chemistry
Drastic reduction of plastome size in the mycoheterotrophic Thismia tentaculata relative to that of its autotrophic relative Tacca chantrieri
Gwynne S. Lim, Craig F. Barrett, Chun‐Chiu Pang, Jerrold I. Davis (2016) · American Journal of Botany
Chantriolides A and B, Two New Withanolide Glucosides from the Rhizomes of Tacca chantrieri
Akihito Yokosuka, Yoshihiro Mimaki, Yutaka Sashida (2003) · Journal of Natural Products
Evelynin, a Cytotoxic Benzoquinone-Type retro-Dihydrochalcone from Tacca chantrieri
Jiangnan Peng, Evelyn M. Jackson, David J. Babinski, April L. Risinger (2010) · Journal of Natural Products
New glycosides of the campesterol derivative from the rhizomes of Tacca chantrieri
Akihito Yokosuka, Yoshihiro Mimaki, Chiseko Sakuma, Yutaka Sashida (2005) · 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.

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