Areca catechu L.
Betel Nut Palm, Indian nut, Betelnut palm, Betelnut, Betel palm, Areca nut, Areca Nut Palm, Areca Palm, Indian-nut, Mvovo
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
Areca catechu is a species of palm native to the Philippines cultivated for areca nuts. It was carried widely through the tropics by the Austronesian migrations and trade since at least 1500 BCE due to its use in betel nut chewing. It is widespread in cultivation and is considered naturalized in much of tropical Asia and in Taiwan, southern China, Madagascar, parts of the Pacific Islands, and also in the West Indies.
Text from Wikipedia, “Areca catechu”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.
About the genus · Areca
Areca is a genus of palms in the family Arecaceae, found in humid tropical forests from the islands of the Philippines and Malaysia, India, and across Southeast Asia to Melanesia. The generic name Areca is derived from a name used locally on the Malabar Coast of India.
Text from Wikipedia, “Areca”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.
At a glance
Also known as Areca catechu f. communis Becc.; Areca catechu var. alba Blume; Areca catechu var. batanensis Becc.; Areca catechu var. longicarpa Becc.; Areca catechu var. nigra Giseke and 12 more.
Cultivation
Grouped as a tropical foliage plant by Arecaceae, which is usually but not always one kind of plant (archetype table). The table supplies one figure for this group, a conventional minimum for the cold floor, and no prose.
Its year Rain rule: a sharp rainy season, June to December at the habitat (not shifted); the temperature curve is flat (2.7 °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 (1891 mm of 2475 mm) falls in June to December. The temperature curve is flat, 2.7 °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, northern 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 2475 mm a year, wettest July at 309 mm, driest February at 83 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
2475 mm a year at the habitat, 1891 mm of it June to December. Wettest month July at 309 mm, driest February at 83 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 2054 mm to 3559 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 40 mol/m²/day.
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
Open sky over the habitat: 26 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 19, the highest 90th-percentile month 42).
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 20.7 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 20.7 °C, the absolute minimum 18.1 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 31.2 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 22.1 °C in January (across the envelope cells 15.7 °C to 23.8 °C), warmest day 29.9 °C in May (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 20.7 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER); the archetype table's minimum for a tropical foliage plant, 12 °C, is lower and does not raise it.
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, and the archetype table's group minimum where that is higher. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.
Relative humidity at the habitat: 66 to 70% 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
Figures by month
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day °C | 26 / 21–28 | 27 / 22–29 | 28 / 24–30 | 30 / 25–31 | 30 / 26–31 | 29 / 26–31 | 29 / 26–30 | 29 / 26–30 | 28 / 25–30 | 28 / 24–29 | 28 / 23–29 | 27 / 22–28 |
| Night °C | 22 / 16–24 | 22 / 16–24 | 23 / 16–25 | 24 / 18–25 | 25 / 19–26 | 24 / 19–26 | 24 / 19–26 | 24 / 19–26 | 24 / 19–25 | 24 / 18–25 | 24 / 18–25 | 23 / 17–24 |
| Rain mm | 114 / 27–391 | 83 / 21–278 | 87 / 25–205 | 116 / 41–165 | 184 / 138–313 | 250 / 179–372 | 309 / 197–454 | 276 / 186–487 | 309 / 210–412 | 300 / 246–465 | 236 / 129–522 | 211 / 69–500 |
| DLI | 28 / 22–31 | 32 / 27–36 | 37 / 33–40 | 40 / 37–42 | 37 / 34–39 | 35 / 30–38 | 33 / 29–37 | 34 / 28–37 | 32 / 29–37 | 30 / 27–34 | 28 / 23–31 | 26 / 19–29 |
| RH % | 69 / 62–75 | 67 / 63–73 | 66 / 62–71 | 66 / 63–70 | 67 / 65–71 | 68 / 66–72 | 69 / 66–73 | 68 / 66–73 | 69 / 67–73 | 69 / 66–74 | 70 / 65–74 | 69 / 63–76 |
Each figure is the median across the 40 grid cells holding the 43 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 1700:5962 (4.975, 118.125). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 18.1 °C, 1st-percentile night 20.7 °C, 99th-percentile day 31.2 °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 40 distinct grid cells holding the 43 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1700:5962 (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 5.00_118.125, lapse-corrected +92 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 236 m (cell mean).
Natural habitat
Photographs
Photographs: no rights reserved · CC0 (2); (c) C L Dheeraj, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) 胡正恆(Jackson Hu), some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Nina Kerr, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) WATANABE Hitoshi 渡辺仁, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Navaneeth Sini George, some rights reserved (CC BY).
Photographs: iNaturalist and Wikimedia Commons 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 Areca catechu, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.
Related
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.
Piper betle Betel Pepper
Medinilla magnifica Rose Grape
Aglaonema commutatum Chinese evergreen
Dendrobium anosmum Orchidaceae
Mussaenda philippica Buddha's-lamp
Caryota mitis Burmese Fishtail PalmHistory & 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 answeredgbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zamclimate answeredwikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skippedinat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skippedinat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)commons not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)gbif.media answeredopenalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skippedEvery upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 66 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.








