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Arenga australasica; photograph (c) coenobita, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) coenobita, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2004-08-22

Arenga australasica (H.Wendl. & Drude) S.T.Blake ex H.E.Moore

Arenga palm; Southern arenga

Arecaceae · Maluku, New Guinea +2

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Arenga australasica, photograph (c) coenobita, some rights reserved (CC BY)Arenga australasica, photograph Russell Cumming, CC BY, via GBIFArenga australasica, photograph Russell Cumming, CC BY, via GBIFArenga australasica, photograph Russell Cumming, CC BY, via GBIFArenga australasica, photograph Russell Cumming, CC BY, via GBIFArenga australasica, photograph Lokal_Profil, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons 17 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
16.3°C
Record low 13.8 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
29°C
Jan, Feb and Dec at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,857mm
10 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
26–43DLI
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 September (December to March 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

Arenga australasica, commonly known as arenga palm or southern arenga, is a plant in the palm family Arecaceae found only in the Northern Territory and Queensland, Australia. It has a clustering habit and it may reach 20 m (66 ft) in height with a trunk diameter of 30 cm (12 in). Fronds can be up to 4 m (13 ft) long with numerous leaflets (often more than 100), dark green above and grey underneath. Inflorescences are produced from the bases of the fronds and can reach a length of 2 m (6 ft 7 in), carrying numerous pendant panicles of flowers. More on Wikipedia ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Arenga australasica", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,348 mm of 1,860 mm) falls in December to March, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 26.9 °C against a yearly mean of 24.9 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: June to September.

Rain

1,860 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,348 mm of it December to March. Wettest month February at 394 mm, driest month September at 14 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,317 mm to 3,284 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,857 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,860 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: 26 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 24, the highest 90th-percentile month 45).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 16.3 °C, the absolute minimum 13.8 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 39.9 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 19.4 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range 16.8 °C to 22.4 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 28.9 °C in December (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 16.3 °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: 62 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 -37 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 Arenga australasica through the yearWarmest months January, February and December, mean daily high 29 °C; coldest month July, mean nightly low 19.4 °C; 1,860 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°15°20°25°30°35°40°45°39.9° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER13.8° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500600mm rainDLI 26–43RH 62–67%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 26 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 °C29 / 28–3129 / 28–3028 / 27–3027 / 26–3026 / 24–2925 / 22–2724 / 22–2725 / 22–2726 / 24–2927 / 26–3128 / 27–3229 / 28–32
Night °C25 / 24–2625 / 24–2625 / 23–2624 / 22–2622 / 20–2520 / 18–2319 / 17–2220 / 17–2221 / 19–2423 / 21–2524 / 22–2625 / 23–27
Rain mm391 / 286–578394 / 275–575360 / 253–543192 / 129–37586 / 28–24142 / 9–12234 / 4–12724 / 2–9014 / 5–8134 / 16–9286 / 62–190203 / 167–268
DLI38 / 34–4035 / 32–3735 / 32–3632 / 30–3528 / 26–3326 / 24–3127 / 25–3232 / 30–3839 / 38–4343 / 42–4543 / 42–4541 / 38–43
RH %66 / 65–6867 / 66–6966 / 64–6865 / 61–6764 / 59–6763 / 59–6562 / 59–6462 / 60–6462 / 60–6362 / 59–6463 / 60–6565 / 62–66
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 26 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (28 records in those cells; 12 more cells hold records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cells are left out), 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 2075:6317 (-13.775, 135.875). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 13.8 °C, 1st-percentile night 16.3 °C, 99th-percentile day 39.9 °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 26 distinct grid cells holding 28 of the 40 in-range records (12 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2075:6317 (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 -14.00_135.625, lapse-corrected -37 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 4 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.
NativeMaluku, New Guinea, Northern Territory, Queensland · 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-17.2, 146 · in the densest population, 30 records (56% 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 54 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 28 of them in the land cells it reads, of 40 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 43 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 56 km away. 1 record outside the WCVP native range not used. 14 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.
Other GBIF keysRecords also from GBIF's key 7791449 (Arenga australasica (H.Wendl. & Drude) S.T.Blake): Kew's file holds it as Arenga australasica (H.Wendl. & Drude) S.T.Blake ex H.E.Moore (accepted); 1 record, from GBIF's search API on the day of the build.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 54 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Arenga australasica, photograph 1did not loadArenga australasica, photograph 2did not loadArenga australasica, photograph 3did not loadArenga australasica, photograph 4did not loadArenga australasica, photograph 5did not loadArenga australasica, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) coenobita, some rights reserved (CC BY); Russell Cumming, CC BY, via GBIF (4); Lokal_Profil, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

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

Miliusa horsfieldii Miliusa horsfieldii Beech Photo: CC BY-SA, Steve Fitzgerald Diplatia tomentosa Loranthaceae Dillenia alata Dillenia alata Dilleniaceae Photo: CC BY, Luke LythgoeGarcinia warrenii Garcinia warrenii Warren's mangosteen Photo: CC BY, Martin RadyGlycosmis trifoliata Glycosmis trifoliata Pink-fruit glycosmis Photo: CC BY-SA, Lachlan CopelandCeriops tagal Ceriops tagal Spurred mangrove Photo: CC BY, Fionn Ó Marcaigh

Other Arenga 11 in the reference

Arenga caudata Arenga caudata Arecaceae Photo: Public domain, Mmcknight4 Arenga disticha Arecaceae Arenga engleri Arenga engleri Formosan sugar palm Photo: CC BY, Yu-Huang WangArenga micrantha Arenga micrantha Arecaceae Photo: CC BY, chintan sheth Arenga oblongifolia Arecaceae Arenga obtusifolia Lang kap Arenga pinnata Arenga pinnata Sugar palm Photo: CC BY, Ong Jyh Seng Arenga porphyrocarpa Arecaceae Arenga tremula Arenga tremula Dwarf sugar palm Photo: CC BY-SA, David J. StangArenga undulatifolia Arenga undulatifolia Arecaceae Photo: CC BY, Celestino Quintela SabarísArenga westerhoutii Arenga westerhoutii Arecaceae Photo: CC BY, Zac Peterson

Names & registers

Also known as Normanbya australasicus; Saguerus australasicus. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Arecaceae
Described by
(H.Wendl. & Drude) S.T.Blake ex H.E.Moore
Native to
Maluku, New Guinea, Northern Territory +1
Wild records
54 in range · 43 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 answeredasked 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 1 record of GBIF's key 7791449, Arenga australasica (H.Wendl. & Drude) S.T.Blake (Kew's file holds it as Arenga australasica (H.Wendl. & Drude) S.T.Blake ex H.E.Moore (accepted)): GBIF occurrence search API
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-21
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-21NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -14.00_135.625, lapse-corrected -37 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
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 11 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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