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Barringtonia acutangula; photograph (c) Alan Bell, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Alan Bell, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-05-11

Barringtonia acutangula (L.) Gaertn.

Freshwater mangrove; Itchytree; Mango-pine; Hijal

Lecythidaceae · Afghanistan, Assam +18

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Barringtonia acutangula, photograph (c) Alan Bell, some rights reserved (CC BY)Barringtonia acutangula, photograph (c) Martin Rady, some rights reserved (CC BY)Barringtonia acutangula, photograph (c) Martin Rady, some rights reserved (CC BY)Barringtonia acutangula, photograph (c) Martin Rady, some rights reserved (CC BY)Barringtonia acutangula, photograph (c) Martin Rady, some rights reserved (CC BY)Barringtonia acutangula, photograph (c) Martin Rady, some rights reserved (CC BY) 77 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
17.8°C
Record low 15.2 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
33°C
Apr at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,791mm
9 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
30–40DLI
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 December to April (June to October 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

Barringtonia acutangula is a species of plant in the family Lecythidaceae native to coastal areas from Afghanistan east to mainland Southeast Asia and south to northern Australia. It has a conservation status of least concern, and it has culinary and medicinal uses in parts of Asia. Common names include freshwater mangrove, itchytree and mango-pine.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Barringtonia acutangula", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Barringtonia

Barringtonia is a genus of flowering plants in the family Lecythidaceae first described as a genus with this name in 1775. It is native to Africa, southern Asia, Australia, and various islands of the Pacific and Indian Oceans. The genus name commemorates Daines Barrington.

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

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,052 mm of 1,435 mm) falls in June to October, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 27.5 °C against a yearly mean of 26.9 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: December to April.

Rain

1,435 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,052 mm of it June to October. Wettest month September at 236 mm, driest month January at 15 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,106 mm to 3,058 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,791 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,435 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: 30 to 40 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 17.8 °C, the absolute minimum 15.2 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 40.4 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 20.4 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 13.3 °C to 23.9 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 32.8 °C in April (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 17.8 °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: 57 to 65% 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 -652 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 Barringtonia acutangula through the yearWarmest month April, mean daily high 33 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 20.4 °C; 1,435 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°40.4° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER15.2° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter02004006008001000mm rainDLI 30–40RH 57–65%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 156 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 / 25–3130 / 27–3332 / 28–3533 / 29–3732 / 29–3731 / 28–3530 / 28–3330 / 27–3230 / 28–3230 / 28–3129 / 27–3128 / 25–31
Night °C20 / 13–2421 / 16–2423 / 19–2525 / 22–2726 / 23–2825 / 23–2725 / 23–2725 / 22–2624 / 22–2623 / 21–2522 / 17–2421 / 14–24
Rain mm15 / 2–23221 / 1–19834 / 4–24370 / 7–234149 / 29–256189 / 61–536212 / 68–871225 / 80–580236 / 110–403190 / 86–32772 / 15–33822 / 4–289
DLI32 / 28–3637 / 31–4040 / 33–4340 / 33–4536 / 31–4432 / 27–3730 / 24–3530 / 24–3630 / 27–3631 / 28–3530 / 26–3330 / 25–33
RH %57 / 52–6659 / 52–6760 / 49–6761 / 51–6762 / 55–6864 / 57–7065 / 58–7165 / 60–7165 / 62–7064 / 60–6961 / 53–6859 / 51–67

Records on both sides of the equator: the 109 cells at least 10° south of it have seasons six months apart and are left out, not combined into a year no place has. These figures are across the 156 cells that remain: the 112 at least 10° north and the 44 within 10° of the equator, which stay in either way.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 156 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (184 records in those cells; 1 more cell holds records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cell is 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 1601:5135 (9.925, 76.775). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 15.2 °C, 1st-percentile night 17.8 °C, 99th-percentile day 40.4 °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 156 distinct grid cells holding 184 of the 339 in-range records (1 further cell with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out) on the northern side of the equator (112 cells poleward of 10° north, 109 poleward of 10° south: the two sides' seasons are not combined, and cells within 10° of the equator stay in); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1601:5135 (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 10.00_76.875, lapse-corrected -652 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 59 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.
NativeAfghanistan, Assam, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Borneo, Jawa, Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Philippines, Sulawesi, Sumatera, New Guinea, 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-13.431, 142.702 · in the densest population, 140 records (28% of those in range)
Kew's description“shrub or tree” · “wet tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 503 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 184 of them in the land cells it reads, of 339 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 364 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker in the same place. 993 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 164 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 inside the densest 2° block of the 503 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Barringtonia acutangula, photograph 1did not loadBarringtonia acutangula, photograph 2did not loadBarringtonia acutangula, photograph 3did not loadBarringtonia acutangula, photograph 4did not loadBarringtonia acutangula, photograph 5did not loadBarringtonia acutangula, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Alan Bell, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Martin Rady, some rights reserved (CC BY) (5).

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

Nymphaea rubra Nymphaea rubra Nymphaeaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Tom RiggleFicus rumphii Ficus rumphii Mock Bodh Tree Photo: CC0, author not statedNymphaea pubescens Nymphaea pubescens Hairy water lily Photo: CC BY, rajesh rockyBorassus flabellifer Borassus flabellifer Toddy palm Photo: CC BY-SA, Dinesh ValkeSterculia foetida Sterculia foetida Hazel sterculia Photo: CC BY, Karthik ThrikkadeeriBasella alba Basella alba Ceylon spinach Photo: CC0, author not stated

Other Barringtonia 12 in the reference

Barringtonia asiatica Barringtonia asiatica Sea putat Photo: CC BY, Shelomi DoyleBarringtonia calyptrata Barringtonia calyptrata Corned Beef Wood Photo: CC BY-SA, Steve Fitzgerald Barringtonia conoidea Lecythidaceae Barringtonia edulis Barringtonia edulis Cutnut Photo: CC BY, Eric Knight Barringtonia fusicarpa Lecythidaceae Barringtonia macrocarpa Barringtonia macrocarpa Lecythidaceae Photo: CC BY, luluchouetteBarringtonia macrostachya Barringtonia macrostachya Lecythidaceae Photo: CC BY, Adam KamalBarringtonia neocaledonica Barringtonia neocaledonica Lecythidaceae Photo: CC0, author not stated Barringtonia procera Cutnut Barringtonia racemosa Barringtonia racemosa China-pine Photo: CC BY, Saryu Mae 前 朝琉 Barringtonia reticulata Lecythidaceae Barringtonia samoensis Barringtonia samoensis Lecythidaceae Photo: CC BY, Ben Hayden

Names & registers

Also known as Barringtonia rubra; Butonica acutangula; Caryophyllus acutangulus; Eugenia acutangula; Huttum acutangulum and 3 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Lecythidaceae
Described by
(L.) Gaertn.
Native to
Afghanistan, Assam, Bangladesh +17
Wild records
503 in range · 364 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; 26 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (17 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 9 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 10.00_76.875, lapse-corrected -652 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 52 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

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