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Austrotaxus spicata; photograph Cs california, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons CC BYCs california, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Austrotaxus spicata Compton

New Caledonia Yew; Southern yew

Taxaceae · New Caledonia

Cited as Kew's World Checklist cites it, Austrotaxus spicata Compton: GBIF's backbone key for this page carries the name with another author, R.H.Compton.

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Habitat figuresfrom few records
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
13.6°C
Record low 12.1 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
26°C
Jan, Feb and Dec at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,681mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
20–42DLI
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 November (December to May 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.

From few records: 5 records in 4 grid cells. The records.

Summary

Austrotaxus spicata, the New Caledonia yew or southern yew, is a species of conifer in the yew family, Taxaceae, the sole species in the genus Austrotaxus. It is closely related to the other yews in the genera Taxus and Pseudotaxus.

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

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,180 mm of 1,685 mm) falls in December to May, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 21.7 °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 November.

Rain

1,685 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,180 mm of it December to May. Wettest month March at 263 mm, driest month September at 51 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,609 mm to 1,822 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,681 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,685 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: 20 to 42 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 19, the highest 90th-percentile month 42).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 13.6 °C, the absolute minimum 12.1 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 27.6 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 12.7 °C in August (across the grid cells of the range 12.6 °C to 13.5 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 26.1 °C in February (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 13.6 °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: 64 to 70% 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 +453 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

From few records: this habitat climate is read from 5 records in 4 grid cells; a page says so under 12 records or 5 cells, and shows the figures as read.

Habitat months, southern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Austrotaxus spicata through the yearWarmest months January, February and December, mean daily high 26 °C; coldest month August, mean nightly low 12.7 °C; 1,685 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°27.6° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER12.1° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250300mm rainDLI 20–42RH 64–70%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 4 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 / 26–2726 / 26–2725 / 25–2624 / 24–2422 / 22–2320 / 20–2119 / 19–2019 / 19–2021 / 21–2223 / 23–2425 / 24–2526 / 26–26
Night °C19 / 19–2020 / 20–2019 / 19–2018 / 18–1816 / 16–1715 / 14–1513 / 13–1413 / 13–1413 / 13–1415 / 15–1616 / 16–1718 / 18–19
Rain mm239 / 230–259258 / 243–284263 / 253–284128 / 122–139124 / 116–134107 / 103–11286 / 82–9183 / 79–8751 / 48–5566 / 62–73112 / 108–122168 / 161–183
DLI39 / 39–4036 / 36–3632 / 31–3229 / 28–3023 / 22–2420 / 19–2122 / 21–2327 / 26–2834 / 33–3539 / 39–4041 / 41–4142 / 41–42
RH %69 / 67–7070 / 69–7170 / 70–7169 / 68–6967 / 67–6867 / 66–6765 / 64–6665 / 64–6564 / 63–6465 / 63–6565 / 64–6667 / 66–68
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 4 grid cells holding the 5 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 2232:6917 (-21.625, 165.875). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 12.1 °C, 1st-percentile night 13.6 °C, 99th-percentile day 27.6 °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 4 distinct grid cells holding 5 of the 5 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2232:6917 (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 -21.50_165.625, lapse-corrected +453 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 591 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.
NativeNew Caledonia · 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-21.434, 165.362 · in the densest population, 71 records (100% 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 71 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 5 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 66 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 8 km away. Under a dozen records behind the climate. 66 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 71 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

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

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Names & registers

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Taxaceae
Described by
Compton
Native to
New Caledonia
Wild records
71 in range · 66 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 2026-10-21GBIF's key 2685114 is Austrotaxus spicata R.H.Compton; the page links Kew's Austrotaxus spicata Compton, and the name is cited as Kew cites it
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 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 -21.50_165.625, lapse-corrected +453 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-21
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-21Wikipedia redirects Austrotaxus spicata to Austrotaxus, this species' genus (Q13052844), which holds one accepted species in Kew's WCVP
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild nothing to reportasked 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 12 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

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