Species
+

Vitex trifolia L.

Boungasera, Indian Three-leaf Vitax, Indian privet, Indian three-leaf vitex

Climate known 97 photographs
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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

Vitex trifolia, commonly known as the simpleleaf chastetree or blue Vitex, is a species of plant in the mint family Lamiaceae. It is a shrub or small tree native to coastal areas of the Indo-Pacific region.

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

About the genus · Vitex

Vitex is a genus of flowering plants in the family Lamiaceae containing about 210 species. Common names include chaste tree or chastetree, traditionally referring to V. agnus-castus, but often applied to other species, as well, and pūriri for the New Zealand species V. lucens. Species of Vitex are native throughout the tropics and subtropics, with a few species in warm-temperate Eurasia and one in New Zealand.

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

Family
Lamiaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania +58
Wild records
1206 in range· 888 open

At a glance

Warmest month
28°C
Feb, mean day; nights 24 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1435mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Feb 177 mm (CHELSA)
Light
27–40DLI
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 sharp rainy season, November to May at the habitat (not shifted); the temperature curve is flat (3.2 °C of range), so no growing season is inferred. Habitat rain 1435 mm a year, wettest February at 177 mm, driest September at 70 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 27 to 40 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 18.5 °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 Vitex agnus-castus var. trifolia (L.) Kurz; Vitex indica Mill.; Vitex integerrima Mill.; Vitex rotundifolia var. heterophylla Makino; Vitex trifolia subsp. trifolia and 3 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a sharp rainy season, November to May at the habitat (not shifted); the temperature curve is flat (3.2 °C of range), so no growing season is inferred.

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

The rain rule reads a sharp season: 70% of the year's rain (1033 mm of 1435 mm) falls in November to May. The temperature curve is flat, 3.2 °C between the warmest and coldest month, so the growing-season rule does not infer a growing season from it. Months are the habitat's, southern 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 1435 mm a year, wettest February at 177 mm, driest September at 70 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1435 mm a year at the habitat, 1033 mm of it November to May. Wettest month February at 177 mm, driest September at 70 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 778 mm to 3173 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, southern 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: 27 to 40 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 27 to 40 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 20, the highest 90th-percentile month 46).

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 18.5 °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 18.5 °C, the absolute minimum 17.0 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 30.0 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 20.8 °C in July (across the envelope cells 12.0 °C to 25.8 °C), warmest day 27.8 °C in February (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 18.5 °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 64% 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 25 °C in Jul to 28 °C in Feb; mean night from 21 °C in Jul to 24 °C in Feb. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest night. 1435 mm of rain a year, most in Feb. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 868 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 17.0 °C and the 99th-percentile day 30.0 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°15°20°25°30°35°30.0° 99th-percentile day (undated)17.0° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 27–40RH 61–64 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 868 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 °C28 / 19–3028 / 21–3128 / 23–3127 / 23–3126 / 22–3026 / 20–3025 / 19–3026 / 20–3026 / 22–3027 / 22–3127 / 23–3027 / 21–30
Night °C24 / 14–2624 / 15–2623 / 16–2623 / 17–2622 / 16–2621 / 13–2621 / 12–2621 / 13–2621 / 15–2522 / 16–2523 / 15–2623 / 15–26
Rain mm175 / 16–412177 / 19–407162 / 31–354134 / 33–282130 / 24–280105 / 10–32177 / 7–33571 / 5–31270 / 5–29779 / 21–267108 / 39–265147 / 18–306
DLI37 / 22–4336 / 25–4035 / 30–4032 / 27–3929 / 22–3627 / 20–3528 / 22–3631 / 26–3835 / 30–4239 / 28–4540 / 24–4639 / 22–45
RH %63 / 55–6864 / 54–6864 / 52–6863 / 54–6862 / 55–6862 / 55–6961 / 55–6961 / 54–6862 / 55–6861 / 56–6762 / 55–6862 / 54–68

Each figure is the median across the 868 grid cells holding the 1089 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 2236:6916 (-21.825, 165.825). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 17.0 °C, 1st-percentile night 18.5 °C, 99th-percentile day 30.0 °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 868 distinct grid cells holding the 1089 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2236:6916 (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 -22.00_165.625, lapse-corrected -32 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 12 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.
NativeSomalia, Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, KwaZulu-Natal, Comoros, Mauritius, Madagascar, Afghanistan, Iran, China South-Central, Hainan, China North-Central, China Southeast, Nansei-shoto, Taiwan, Assam, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Andaman Is., Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Borneo, Jawa, Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Maluku, Philippines, Sulawesi, Sumatera, Bismarck Archipelago, New Guinea, Solomon Is., New South Wales, Northern Territory, Queensland, Western Australia, Fiji, Gilbert Is., Nauru, Niue, New Caledonia, Samoa, Tonga, Vanuatu, Wallis-Futuna Is., Cook Is., Line Is., Marquesas, Society Is., Tuamotu, Tubuai Is., Caroline Is., Marianas, Marshall Is., Wake I.· introduced: Tunisia, Ascension, Seychelles, Cocos (Keeling) I., Christmas I., Hawaii, Florida, Mexico Southeast, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Bahamas, Puerto Rico, Trinidad-Tobago
Kew's description“shrub or tree” · “wet tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-23.183, 150.933 · in the densest population, 293 records (24% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1206 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 888 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 101 km away. 401 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 117 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 1206 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Vitex trifoliaVitex trifoliaVitex trifoliaVitex trifoliaVitex trifoliaVitex trifoliaVitex trifoliaVitex trifolia

Photographs: (c) sneha_forestry, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (3); no rights reserved · CC0 (5).

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

Flavonoids from Vitex trifolia L. inhibit cell cycle progression at G 2 /M phase and induce apoptosis in mammalian cancer cells
Wenxin Li, Cheng‐Bin Cui, Bing Cai, Haiyan Wang (2005) · Journal of Asian Natural Products Research
A review on hepatoprotective activity of medicinal plants
Rachna Verma (2018) · Journal of Medicinal Plants Studies
Biological activities of crude plant extracts from Vitex trifolia L. (Verbenaceae)
Ma. Ma. Laura Ortiz Hernández, C. Heraso, Marı́a Luisa Villarreal, Irasema Vargas‐Arispuro (1999) · Journal of Ethnopharmacology
Medicinal plants of Tamil Nadu (Southern India) are a rich source of antiviral activities
Selvarani Vimalanathan, S. Ignacimuthu, J. B. Hudson (2009) · Pharmaceutical Biology
Acetylcholinesterase Inhibitory Activities of Essential Oils from Vietnamese Traditional Medicinal Plants
Nguyễn Huy Hùng, Phạm Minh Quân, Prabodh Satyal, Đỗ Ngọc Đài (2022) · Molecules
Seedling growth and metal accumulation of selected woody species in copper and lead/zinc mine tailings
■ Xiang, Shi Shi, Xiaolei, Zhang (2011) · Acta Scientiarum Naturalium Universitatis Sunyatseni
Mosquito larvicidal activity of methyl-p-hydroxybenzoate isolated from the leaves of Vitex trifolia Linn.
K. Kannathasan, A. Senthilkumar, V. Venkatesalu (2011) · Acta Tropica
Evaluation of antibacterial activity of Morinda citrifolia, Vitex trifolia and Chromolaena odorata
S. Esath Natheer (2012) · African Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmacology
EFFECTS OF DRYING ON THE ANTIOXIDANT PROPERTIES OF HERBAL TEA FROM SELECTED VITEX SPECIES
Kok Leong Chong, Yau Yan Lim (2011) · Journal of Food Quality

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 Vitex 4 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)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
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)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (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 120 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.