Species
+

Barringtonia racemosa (L.) Spreng.

Brackishwater Mangrove, Brackwater Mangrove, China-pine, Derbyshire-pine

Climate known 66 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

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

Barringtonia racemosa, commonly known as powder-puff tree, is a species of tree in the family Lecythidaceae. It is found in coastal swamp forests and on the edges of estuaries in the Indian Ocean, starting at the east coast of Mozambique and KwaZulu-Natal to Madagascar, India, Sri Lanka, Malesia, Maldives, Thailand, Laos, southern China, northern Australia, coastal Taiwan, the Ryukyu Islands and many Polynesian islands.

Text from Wikipedia, “Barringtonia racemosa”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

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.

Text from Wikipedia, “Barringtonia”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Lecythidaceae
Described by
(L.) Spreng.
Native to
Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique +36
Wild records
1333 in range· 736 open

At a glance

Warmest month
28°C
Feb, mean day; nights 24 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1932mm/yr
12 wet months · peak May 192 mm (CHELSA)
Light
30–36DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (December to June and October at the habitat (not shifted)). Habitat rain 1932 mm a year, wettest May at 192 mm, driest August at 130 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 30 to 36 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 18.0 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Barringtonia apiculata (Miers) R.Knuth; Barringtonia caffra (Miers) E.Mey.; Barringtonia caffra (Miers) E.Mey. ex R.Knuth; Barringtonia celebesensis R.Knuth; Barringtonia ceramensis R.Knuth and 45 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (December to June and October at the habitat (not shifted)).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (1363 mm of 1932 mm) takes 8 months, December to June and October. Mean temperature moves 1.4 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, southern 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 1932 mm a year, wettest May at 192 mm, driest August at 130 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1932 mm a year at the habitat, 1363 mm of it December to June and October. Wettest month May at 192 mm, driest August at 130 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1019 mm to 3680 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, southern 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: 30 to 36 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 30 to 36 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 20, the highest 90th-percentile month 43).

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 18.0 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 18.0 °C, the absolute minimum 15.7 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 35.2 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 23.0 °C in August (across the envelope cells 15.5 °C to 26.1 °C), warmest day 28.0 °C in February (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 18.0 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

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. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 64 to 65% 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

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 27 °C in Jul to 28 °C in Feb; mean night from 23 °C in Aug to 24 °C in Apr. The cold quarter, Jul to Sep, is the three months around the coldest night. 1932 mm of rain a year, most in May. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 653 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 15.7 °C and the 99th-percentile day 35.2 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°15°20°25°30°35°40°35.2° 99th-percentile day (undated)15.7° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 30–36RH 64–65 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 653 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C28 / 25–3028 / 26–3128 / 25–3128 / 24–3128 / 24–3127 / 22–3027 / 22–3027 / 22–3027 / 23–3028 / 23–3028 / 24–3028 / 24–30
Night °C23 / 18–2624 / 18–2624 / 20–2624 / 20–2624 / 17–2624 / 15–2623 / 15–2623 / 16–2623 / 17–2623 / 18–2623 / 19–2623 / 19–26
Rain mm184 / 18–436151 / 23–415178 / 50–386174 / 58–329192 / 40–317155 / 27–403151 / 29–415130 / 27–374140 / 26–348152 / 49–358148 / 73–315177 / 39–353
DLI35 / 27–4036 / 30–4035 / 31–4134 / 27–4032 / 23–3630 / 20–3531 / 21–3632 / 25–3734 / 29–4033 / 29–4335 / 26–4334 / 25–42
RH %65 / 58–6965 / 59–7065 / 60–6965 / 61–6965 / 60–6965 / 57–7064 / 57–7064 / 59–6964 / 60–6964 / 60–6964 / 59–6965 / 58–69

Each figure is the median across the 653 grid cells holding the 1266 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 1926:4375 (-6.325, 38.775). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 15.7 °C, 1st-percentile night 18.0 °C, 99th-percentile day 35.2 °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 653 distinct grid cells holding the 1266 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1926:4375 (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 -6.50_38.750, lapse-corrected -57 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 23 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 every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeKenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, KwaZulu-Natal, Comoros, Mozambique Channel Is., Madagascar, Seychelles, Hainan, Nansei-shoto, Taiwan, Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Andaman Is., Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Nicobar Is., Thailand, Vietnam, Borneo, Jawa, Malaya, Maluku, Philippines, Sulawesi, Sumatera, Christmas I., Bismarck Archipelago, New Guinea, Solomon Is., Queensland, Fiji, New Caledonia, Santa Cruz Is., Vanuatu, Caroline Is., Marianas
Kew's description“shrub or tree” · “wet tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-29.308, 31.4 · in the densest population, 393 records (29% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1333 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 736 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 7 km away. 58 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 67 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 1333 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Barringtonia racemosaBarringtonia racemosaBarringtonia racemosaBarringtonia racemosaBarringtonia racemosaBarringtonia racemosaBarringtonia racemosaBarringtonia racemosa

Photographs: (c) Saryu Mae 前 朝琉, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Edmundas Greimas, some rights reserved (CC BY) (5); (c) coenobita, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2).

Photographs: iNaturalist 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 Barringtonia racemosa, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Antimicrobial and Cytotoxic Properties of Some Malaysian Traditional Vegetables (Ulam)
Muhammad Mukram Mohamed Mackeen, Abdul Manaf Ali, Saleh El-Sharkawy, Mohd Yazid Abdul Manap (1997) · Pharmaceutical Biology
Antioxidant activities and polyphenolics from the shoots of Barringtonia racemosa (L.) Spreng in a polar to apolar medium system
Kin Weng Kong, Sarni Mat Junit, Norhaniza Aminudin, Amin Ismail (2012) · Food Chemistry
Inhibition of α ‐glucosidase and amylase by bartogenic acid isolated from Barringtonia racemosa Roxb. seeds
P. Mangala Gowri, Ashok Kumar Tiwari, Amtul Z. Ali, J. Madhusudana Rao (2007) · Phytotherapy Research
Anti‐Arthritic Activity of Bartogenic Acid Isolated from Fruits ofBarringtonia racemosaRoxb. (Lecythidaceae)
Kalpesh R. Patil, Chandragouda R. Patil, Rutuja Jadhav, Vallabh Krishnalal Mahajan (2009) · Evidence-based Complementary and Alternative Medicine
Presence of dehydrin-like proteins and levels of abscisic acid in recalcitrant (desiccation sensitive) seeds may be related to habitat
Jill M. Farrant, N.W. Pammenter, P. Berjak, Elizabeth J. Farnsworth (1996) · Seed Science Research
Antioxidant activities, flavonoids, ascorbic acid and phenolic content of Malaysian vegetables.
Yusuf Sumazian, Syahida Ahmad, Mansor Hakiman, Maziah Mahmood (2010) · Journal of Medicinal Plants Research
Antifungal activity of extracts and phenolic compounds from Barringtonia racemosa L. (Lecythidaceae)
Nurul Mariam Hussin, Radzali Muse, Siti Aqlima Ahmad, Johari Ramli (2009) · Universiti Putra Malaysia Institutional Repository (Universiti Putra Malaysia)
Comparisons of isotopic niche widths of some invasive and indigenous fauna in a S outh A frican river
Jaclyn M. Hill, Roy W. Jones, Martin Hill, Olaf L. F. Weyl (2015) · Freshwater Biology
Antinociceptive effect and toxicological study of the aqueous bark extract of Barringtonia racemosa on rats
S.A. Deraniyagala, W.D. Ratnasooriya, Charitha L. Goonasekara (2003) · Journal of Ethnopharmacology

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.

Other Barringtonia 1 in the reference

History & 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 answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata 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: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.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 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)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 77 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.