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Ailanthus excelsa; photograph (c) Raja bandi, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Raja bandi, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-01-07

Ailanthus excelsa Roxb.

Plant of heaven; Indian tree-of-heaven; High Ailanthus; Ardusi

Simaroubaceae · Assam, Bangladesh +4

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Ailanthus excelsa, photograph (c) harrier, some rights reserved (CC BY)Ailanthus excelsa, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedAilanthus excelsa, photograph (c) Aadi Kulkarni, some rights reserved (CC BY)Ailanthus excelsa, photograph (c) Aadi Kulkarni, some rights reserved (CC BY)Ailanthus excelsa, photograph (c) Aadi Kulkarni, some rights reserved (CC BY)Ailanthus excelsa, photograph (c) Aadi Kulkarni, some rights reserved (CC BY) 63 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
12.2°C
Record low 9.1 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
36°C
Apr at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,248mm
8 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
27–43DLI
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
A rainy season, July to October, neither the cool nor the warm half of the year. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Ailanthus excelsa, commonly known as tree of heaven, is a large deciduous tree found in India and Sri Lanka. In Tamil, it is also known as Pi-Nari Maram due to its disagreeable odor. The trees are grown along the edges of fields and rivers to mark boundaries and prevent soil erosion.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Ailanthus excelsa", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Ailanthus

Ailanthus is a genus of trees belonging to the family Simaroubaceae, in the order Sapindales. The genus is native from East Asia south to northern Australasia. One species, the tree of heaven, is considered a weed or invasive species in some parts of the world.

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

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a rainy season with no name: 70% of the median year's rain (972 mm of 1,354 mm) falls in July to October, whose mean temperature, 26.3 °C, is within half a degree of the year's, 26.1 °C, so it is neither the cooler nor the warmer part of the year. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: January to April.

Rain

1,354 mm in the median year at the habitat, 972 mm of it July to October. Wettest month July at 339 mm, driest month January at 8 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 650 mm to 3,432 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,248 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,354 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 27 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 48).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 12.2 °C, the absolute minimum 9.1 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 38.4 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 16.1 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 8.1 °C to 22.9 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 35.7 °C in April (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 12.2 °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: 50 to 67% 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 -25 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, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Ailanthus excelsa through the yearWarmest month April, mean daily high 36 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 16.1 °C; 1,354 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, northern hemisphere.0°10°20°30°40°50°38.4° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER9.1° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter02004006008001000mm rainDLI 27–43RH 50–67%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 479 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 °C28 / 21–3230 / 25–3433 / 30–3636 / 31–3935 / 30–4033 / 28–3829 / 27–3328 / 27–3229 / 27–3330 / 28–3329 / 27–3028 / 23–31
Night °C16 / 8–2318 / 11–2421 / 16–2524 / 21–2626 / 22–2725 / 22–2824 / 21–2624 / 21–2623 / 21–2522 / 19–2419 / 14–2416 / 10–23
Rain mm8 / 2–209 / 2–2919 / 3–5740 / 2–14078 / 10–259161 / 48–868339 / 91–898272 / 96–537197 / 83–314164 / 17–35053 / 7–19914 / 3–51
DLI34 / 28–3739 / 33–4041 / 40–4343 / 37–4742 / 32–4833 / 25–4227 / 24–3327 / 23–3431 / 29–3632 / 30–3431 / 28–3230 / 26–34
RH %54 / 48–6052 / 45–6050 / 41–6153 / 38–6456 / 40–6761 / 49–7266 / 58–7267 / 59–7164 / 57–6961 / 47–6960 / 46–6656 / 48–62
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 479 grid cells holding the 913 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 1556:5130 (12.175, 76.525). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 9.1 °C, 1st-percentile night 12.2 °C, 99th-percentile day 38.4 °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 479 distinct grid cells holding 913 of the 913 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1556:5130 (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 12.00_76.250, lapse-corrected -25 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 738 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.
NativeAssam, Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, West Himalaya, Andaman Is. · introduced: Sudan, Botswana · 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 marker11.839, 75.446 · in the densest population, 385 records (41% of those in range)
Kew's description“tree” · “seasonally dry tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 928 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 913 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 748 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker in the same place. 20 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 15 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 928 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Ailanthus excelsa, photograph 1did not loadAilanthus excelsa, photograph 2did not loadAilanthus excelsa, photograph 3did not loadAilanthus excelsa, photograph 4did not loadAilanthus excelsa, photograph 5did not loadAilanthus excelsa, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) harrier, some rights reserved (CC BY); author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0; (c) Aadi Kulkarni, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4).

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

Vachellia leucophloea Vachellia leucophloea Distiller's acacia Photo: CC BY, Shikha SreenivasTerminalia arjuna Terminalia arjuna Arjun Photo: CC BY, Ravuri Krishna ChaitanyaFicus benghalensis Ficus benghalensis Indian banyan Photo: CC BY, Sayee GirdhariCrossandra infundibuliformis Crossandra infundibuliformis Firecracker-flower Photo: CC BY, Fathima Nishana KPAristolochia indica Aristolochia indica Indian birthwort Photo: CC BY, Ravuri Krishna ChaitanyaWrightia tinctoria Wrightia tinctoria Pala indigo Photo: CC BY, Ravuri Krishna Chaitanya

Other Ailanthus 3 in the reference

Ailanthus altissima Ailanthus altissima Tree of heaven Photo: CC BY, John AbramsAilanthus fordii Ailanthus fordii Simaroubaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedAilanthus triphysa Ailanthus triphysa Ferntop Ash Photo: CC BY-SA, Greg Tasney

Names & registers

Also known as Ailanthus wightii; Pongelion excelsum; Pongelion wightii. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Simaroubaceae
Described by
Roxb.
Native to
Assam, Bangladesh, India +3
Wild records
928 in range · 748 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; 35 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (4 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 1 at a herbarium, 30 at a zoo; 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 12.00_76.250, lapse-corrected -25 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 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 16 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

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