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Agathis atropurpurea; photograph (c) Steve Fitzgerald, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) CC BY-SA(c) Steve Fitzgerald, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) · observed growing wild · 2026-09-03

Agathis atropurpurea B.Hyland

Blue Kauri; Black Kauri; Black Kauri Pine; Blue Kauri Pine

Araucariaceae · Queensland

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Agathis atropurpurea, photograph (c) Steve Fitzgerald, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Agathis atropurpurea, photograph (c) Steve Fitzgerald, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Agathis atropurpurea, photograph (c) Steve Fitzgerald, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Agathis atropurpurea, photograph (c) Steve Fitzgerald, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Agathis atropurpurea, photograph (c) Evert Materman, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Agathis atropurpurea, photograph (c) Evert Materman, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) 38 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
5.5°C
Record low 0.5 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
26°C
Jan, Nov and Dec at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
2,103mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
25–43DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Wet summers: the rain comes June to October (December to April at the habitat), read as a summer growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Agathis atropurpurea, commonly known as the blue kauri, and occasionally as the black kauri or purple kauri, is a species of conifer in the family Araucariaceae. The family was distributed almost worldwide during the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods, and is now mostly confined to the Southern Hemisphere. This species is endemic to a small part of northeastern Queensland, Australia.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Agathis atropurpurea", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Agathis

Agathis, known by the common names kauri and dammara, is a genus of coniferous trees native to Australasia and Southeast Asia. It is one of three extant genera in the family Araucariaceae, alongside Wollemia and Araucaria. Its leaves are much broader than most conifers. More on Wikipedia ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Agathis", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,576 mm of 2,091 mm) falls in December to April, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 21.9 °C against a yearly mean of 19.7 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: June to October.

Rain

2,091 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,576 mm of it December to April. Wettest month February at 415 mm, driest month August at 46 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,587 mm to 3,787 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 2,103 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 2,091 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, southern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 25 to 43 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 23, the highest 90th-percentile month 44).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 5.5 °C, the absolute minimum 0.5 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 32.6 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 12.3 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range 10.9 °C to 14.6 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 26.2 °C in December (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 5.5 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 62 to 71% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: 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 moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. 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.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected +509 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, southern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Agathis atropurpurea through the yearWarmest months January, November and December, mean daily high 26 °C; coldest month July, mean nightly low 12.3 °C; 2,091 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, southern hemisphere.-10°0°10°20°30°40°frost32.6° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER0.5° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0200400600800mm rainDLI 25–43RH 62–71%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 31 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C26 / 24–2725 / 24–2724 / 23–2623 / 22–2421 / 20–2220 / 18–2119 / 18–2020 / 19–2123 / 21–2425 / 23–2626 / 24–2726 / 25–28
Night °C19 / 18–2119 / 18–2218 / 17–2117 / 16–1915 / 14–1813 / 12–1612 / 11–1513 / 11–1515 / 13–1616 / 15–1818 / 17–2019 / 18–21
Rain mm370 / 287–556415 / 336–634382 / 244–664199 / 134–452111 / 75–30365 / 42–18560 / 38–17646 / 30–12747 / 30–11460 / 42–125126 / 100–205210 / 151–295
DLI36 / 35–3833 / 32–3433 / 32–3430 / 29–3226 / 24–2825 / 23–2726 / 24–2831 / 29–3239 / 37–4043 / 42–4442 / 42–4440 / 39–41
RH %69 / 68–7171 / 70–7370 / 68–7271 / 69–7370 / 68–7368 / 66–7067 / 65–6965 / 63–6762 / 60–6563 / 60–6565 / 63–6867 / 65–69
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 31 grid cells holding the 64 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 2129:6504 (-16.475, 145.225). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 0.5 °C, 1st-percentile night 5.5 °C, 99th-percentile day 32.6 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 31 distinct grid cells holding 64 of the 64 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2129:6504 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -16.50_145.000, lapse-corrected +509 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1014 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 the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeQueensland · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker-17.3, 145.567 · in the densest population, 86 records (99% of those in range)
Kew's description“tree” · “wet tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 87 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 64 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 74 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 1 km away. 23 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 87 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Agathis atropurpurea, photograph 1did not loadAgathis atropurpurea, photograph 2did not loadAgathis atropurpurea, photograph 3did not loadAgathis atropurpurea, photograph 4did not loadAgathis atropurpurea, photograph 5did not loadAgathis atropurpurea, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Steve Fitzgerald, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (4); (c) Evert Materman, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (2).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Syzygium alatoramulum Syzygium alatoramulum Tinkling stainash Photo: CC BY-SA, Steve Fitzgerald Lenwebbia lasioclada Myrtaceae Pectinopitys ladei Podocarpaceae Boea kinnearii Gesneriaceae Acronychia acidula Acronychia acidula Lemon-aspen Photo: CC BY, Wairambar RainforestAgathis microstachya Agathis microstachya Bull kauri Photo: CC BY, Richard Littauer

Other Agathis 10 in the reference

Agathis australis Agathis australis Araucariaceae Photo: CC BY, Leon PerrieAgathis borneensis Agathis borneensis Borneo kauri Photo: CC BY, Carrie SeltzerAgathis dammara Agathis dammara Dammar-pine Photo: CC BY-SA, Wibowo Djatmiko (Wie146)Agathis labillardierei Agathis labillardierei New Guinea kauri Photo: CC0, author not statedAgathis lanceolata Agathis lanceolata Koghis Kauri Photo: CC BY, Irisa HudsonAgathis macrophylla Agathis macrophylla Fijian Kauri Pine Photo: CC BY, Neal KelsoAgathis microstachya Agathis microstachya Bull kauri Photo: CC BY, Richard LittauerAgathis moorei Agathis moorei Moore's Kauri Photo: CC BY-SA, Poyt448, Peter WoodardAgathis ovata Agathis ovata Scrub Kauri Photo: CC0, author not statedAgathis robusta Agathis robusta Queensland kauri Photo: CC BY, sblumen

Names & registers

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Araucariaceae
Described by
B.Hyland
Native to
Queensland
Wild records
87 in range · 74 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-21
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-21
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-21
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-21names fetched 2026-10-21
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 7 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (7 at a botanic garden or arboretum; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-21
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-21NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -16.50_145.000, lapse-corrected +509 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-21
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-21
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media nothing to reportasked 2026-10-21
Wikimedia Commons commons answeredasked 2026-10-21
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 13 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

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