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Alocasia sarawakensis; photograph (c) Kai Squires, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Kai Squires, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-02-22

Alocasia sarawakensis M.Hotta

Araceae · Borneo · listed by its genus as a tropical foliage plant

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Alocasia sarawakensis, photograph (c) Kai Squires, some rights reserved (CC BY)Alocasia sarawakensis, photograph (c) desertnaturalist, some rights reserved (CC BY)Alocasia sarawakensis, photograph (c) desertnaturalist, some rights reserved (CC BY)Alocasia sarawakensis, photograph Bernard DUPONT from FRANCE, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia CommonsAlocasia sarawakensis, photograph Bernard DUPONT from FRANCE, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons 6 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
20.3°C
Record low 17.7 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
30°C
Apr and May at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
2,849mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
28–36DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in the habitat's months, not shifted
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Rain spread: 70% of the median year's rain takes 8 months, so no short rainy season. rain rule, CHELSA
Not shifted: the shift rule does not apply to this habitat. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Alocasia sarawakensis is a species of flowering plant in the elephant ear genus Alocasia (family Araceae), native to Borneo. Unusually for an aroid, it is a freshwater swamp forest obligate, preferring well-lit situations. A large species, it can reach 8 ft (2.4 m). A cultivar, 'Yucatan Princess', is commercially available.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Alocasia sarawakensis", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Alocasia

Alocasia is a genus of rhizomatous or tuberous, broad-leaved, perennial, flowering plants from the family Araceae. There are about 90 accepted species native to tropical and subtropical Asia and eastern Australia. Around the world, many growers widely cultivate a range of hybrids and cultivars as ornamentals.

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

Cultivation

Grouped as a tropical foliage plant, listed under the genus Alocasia in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “subshrub or shrub”, “wet tropical”.

Seasons

The rain rule reads no short rainy season: 70% of the median year's rain (2,082 mm of 2,947 mm) takes 8 months, August to January and April to May. Mean temperature moves 1.1 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere. The habitat lies within 10° of the equator, where the shift rule does not apply, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

Rain

2,947 mm in the median year at the habitat, 2,082 mm of it August to January and April to May. Wettest months (2 at 279 mm), driest month February at 205 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 2,459 mm to 4,616 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 2,849 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 2,947 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: 28 to 36 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 27, the highest 90th-percentile month 36).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 20.3 °C, the absolute minimum 17.7 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 31.6 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 20.7 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 18.1 °C to 21.6 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 29.6 °C in April (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 20.3 °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: 68 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 -265 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.

Group. Listed under the genus Alocasia in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “subshrub or shrub”, “wet tropical”. A group is taken only where Kew's description of the species agrees with the table's listing. The table gives no figure and no prose; the cold floor is the habitat's alone.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Alocasia sarawakensis through the yearWarmest months April and May, mean daily high 30 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 20.7 °C; 2,947 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.15°20°25°30°35°31.6° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER17.7° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500600mm rainDLI 28–36RH 68–71%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 9 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 / 26–2928 / 26–2929 / 27–3030 / 27–3030 / 27–3029 / 27–3029 / 26–3029 / 27–3029 / 27–3029 / 26–3029 / 26–2928 / 26–29
Night °C21 / 18–2221 / 18–2221 / 18–2221 / 19–2222 / 19–2321 / 18–2321 / 18–2221 / 18–2221 / 18–2221 / 18–2221 / 18–2221 / 18–22
Rain mm267 / 237–592205 / 185–385212 / 187–374254 / 153–414252 / 191–405226 / 190–275222 / 205–277241 / 199–295260 / 216–341279 / 239–377250 / 213–403279 / 240–479
DLI28 / 27–3131 / 30–3334 / 33–3635 / 33–3634 / 32–3533 / 31–3534 / 32–3536 / 34–3636 / 33–3633 / 31–3430 / 29–3128 / 27–30
RH %70 / 68–7469 / 68–7269 / 67–7168 / 67–7069 / 67–7168 / 65–7068 / 65–7068 / 65–6968 / 66–7070 / 67–7071 / 68–7370 / 69–74
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 9 grid cells holding the 19 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 1719:5896 (4.025, 114.825). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 17.7 °C, 1st-percentile night 20.3 °C, 99th-percentile day 31.6 °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 9 distinct grid cells holding 19 of the 19 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1719:5896 (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 4.00_115.000, lapse-corrected -265 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 224 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.
NativeBorneo · 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 marker3.892, 114.774 · in the densest population, 17 records (55% of those in range)
Kew's description“subshrub or shrub” · “wet tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 31 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 19 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 13 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 335 km away. 12 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 31 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Alocasia sarawakensis, photograph 1did not loadAlocasia sarawakensis, photograph 2did not loadAlocasia sarawakensis, photograph 3did not loadAlocasia sarawakensis, photograph 4did not loadAlocasia sarawakensis, photograph 5did not load

Photographs: (c) Kai Squires, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) desertnaturalist, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); Bernard DUPONT from FRANCE, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (2).

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

Etlingera fimbriobracteata Etlingera fimbriobracteata Zingiberaceae Photo: CC BY, Paul Prior Lepisorus longifolius Polypodiaceae Begonia ruthiae Begonia ruthiae Begoniaceae Photo: CC BY, Brodie Cass TalbottPyrrosia nummulariifolia Pyrrosia nummulariifolia Polypodiaceae Photo: CC BY, Nina KerrKoompassia excelsa Koompassia excelsa Fabaceae Photo: CC BY, TimPiper porphyrophyllum Piper porphyrophyllum Piperaceae Photo: CC BY, dhfischer

Other Alocasia 25 in the reference

Alocasia baginda Alocasia baginda Araceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Cs californiaAlocasia boyceana Alocasia boyceana Araceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Felixvaldez2698Alocasia brisbanensis Alocasia brisbanensis Cunjevoi Photo: CC BY, Andy McKayAlocasia cadieri Alocasia cadieri Araceae Photo: CC0, SycedAlocasia clypeolata Alocasia clypeolata Green Shield Alocasia Photo: CC BY-SA, IsiwalAlocasia cucullata Alocasia cucullata Chinese taro Photo: CC BY, 胡正恆(Jackson Hu)Alocasia cuprea Alocasia cuprea Giant caladium Photo: CC BY, Kai SquiresAlocasia fornicata Alocasia fornicata Araceae Photo: CC BY, Ben MachadoAlocasia heterophylla Alocasia heterophylla Araceae Photo: CC0, Obsidian SoulAlocasia indica Alocasia indica Araceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Yercaud-elangoAlocasia lauterbachiana Alocasia lauterbachiana Araceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Rasyid AffandiAlocasia longiloba Alocasia longiloba Araceae Photo: CC BY, pbsg all 26 ›

Names & registers

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Araceae
Described by
M.Hotta
Native to
Borneo
Wild records
31 in range · 13 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; 1 record within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (1 at a herbarium; 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 4.00_115.000, lapse-corrected -265 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 2026-10-21none of the photographs on this page is credited to GBIF: those shown are other sources', and GBIF's were the same photographs or were set aside by the photograph rules
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 6 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

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