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Combretum constrictum; photograph (c) Jiao Sun (孙娇), some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Jiao Sun (孙娇), some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2020-10-05

Combretum constrictum (Benth.) M.A.Lawson

Powderpuff Combretum

Combretaceae · Nigeria, Somalia +3

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Combretum constrictum, photograph (c) Thorsten Hackbarth, some rights reserved (CC BY)Combretum constrictum, photograph (c) Wich’yanan (Jay) Limparungpatthanakij, some rights reserved (CC BY)Combretum constrictum, photograph (c) Wich’yanan (Jay) Limparungpatthanakij, some rights reserved (CC BY)Combretum constrictum, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedCombretum constrictum, photograph (c) desertnaturalist, some rights reserved (CC BY)Combretum constrictum, photograph (c) Sabarni Sarker, some rights reserved (CC BY) 25 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
19.4°C
Record low 17.1 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
33°C
Feb at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
956mm
11 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
31–41DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in the habitat's months, not shifted
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
A sharp rainy season, April to June and October to December (the habitat's months, not shifted), in a year of even temperature. rain rule, CHELSA
Not shifted: the shift rule does not apply to this habitat. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Combretum constrictum is a flowering tree species endemic to tropical Africa, within Afrotropic ecoregions.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Combretum constrictum", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Combretum

Combretum, the bushwillows or combretums, make up the type genus of the family Combretaceae. The genus comprises about 272 species of trees and shrubs, most of which are native to tropical and southern Africa, about 5 to Madagascar, but there are others that are native to tropical Asia, New Guinea and the Bismarck Archipelago, Australia, and tropical America.

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

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a sharp season: 70% of the median year's rain (621 mm of 815 mm) falls in April to June and October to December. The temperature curve is flat, 3.3 °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, southern hemisphere. The habitat lies within 10° of the equator, where the shift rule does not apply, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

Rain

815 mm in the median year at the habitat, 621 mm of it April to June and October to December. Wettest month May at 142 mm, driest month February at 8 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 621 mm to 1,395 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 956 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 815 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: 31 to 41 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 29, the highest 90th-percentile month 43).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 19.4 °C, the absolute minimum 17.1 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 40.6 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 21.9 °C in August (across the grid cells of the range 20.2 °C to 23.0 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 33.2 °C in February (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 19.4 °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: 60 to 64% 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 -34 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 Combretum constrictum through the yearWarmest month February, mean daily high 33 °C; coldest month August, mean nightly low 21.9 °C; 815 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.15°20°25°30°35°40°45°40.6° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER17.1° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250300mm rainDLI 31–41RH 60–64%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 24 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 °C32 / 29–3533 / 29–3632 / 29–3630 / 28–3329 / 27–3228 / 27–3128 / 26–3028 / 26–3129 / 26–3230 / 27–3331 / 28–3331 / 28–33
Night °C24 / 24–2524 / 24–2625 / 24–2625 / 23–2524 / 22–2523 / 20–2422 / 20–2322 / 20–2322 / 21–2323 / 22–2424 / 23–2524 / 23–25
Rain mm25 / 20–848 / 7–7651 / 43–170139 / 83–253142 / 64–26563 / 14–14342 / 9–8736 / 8–7032 / 10–5572 / 33–111107 / 50–13098 / 66–140
DLI39 / 37–4141 / 37–4340 / 35–4135 / 30–3631 / 29–3231 / 30–3231 / 30–3334 / 31–3637 / 35–3938 / 37–4037 / 36–3937 / 36–40
RH %61 / 56–6560 / 55–6562 / 57–6564 / 61–6663 / 61–6561 / 58–6360 / 57–6361 / 58–6361 / 58–6362 / 59–6462 / 59–6562 / 59–64
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 24 grid cells holding the 29 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 1834:4401 (-1.725, 40.075). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 17.1 °C, 1st-percentile night 19.4 °C, 99th-percentile day 40.6 °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 24 distinct grid cells holding 29 of the 29 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1834:4401 (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 -1.50_40.000, lapse-corrected -34 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 49 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.
NativeNigeria, Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique · introduced: Mauritius, Réunion, Rodrigues · 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-6.476, 38.851 · in the densest population, 43 records (61% of those in range)
Kew's description“scrambling shrub” · “seasonally dry tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 70 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 29 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 55 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 448 km away. 84 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 41 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 70 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Combretum constrictum, photograph 1did not loadCombretum constrictum, photograph 2did not loadCombretum constrictum, photograph 3did not loadCombretum constrictum, photograph 4did not loadCombretum constrictum, photograph 5did not loadCombretum constrictum, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Thorsten Hackbarth, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Wich’yanan (Jay) Limparungpatthanakij, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0; (c) desertnaturalist, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Sabarni Sarker, some rights reserved (CC BY).

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

Momordica trifoliolata Momordica trifoliolata Cucurbitaceae Photo: CC BY, Pharaoh han Rauvolfia mombasiana Mozambique quinine-tree Dracaena powellii Asparagaceae Euphorbia wakefieldii Euphorbia wakefieldii Euphorbiaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Frank Vincentz Momordica peteri Cucurbitaceae Ochna atropurpurea Ochna atropurpurea Ochnaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Susan Brown

Other Combretum 28 in the reference

Combretum afrum Combretum afrum Combretaceae Photo: CC BY, Christiaan ViljoenCombretum albidum Combretum albidum Combretaceae Photo: CC BY, Ravuri Krishna ChaitanyaCombretum apiculatum Combretum apiculatum Red bushwillow Photo: CC BY-SA, Rebecca Ryen-StolsCombretum bracteosum Combretum bracteosum Hiccup-nut Photo: CC BY-SA, Margaret BurgerCombretum celastroides Combretum celastroides Jesse-bush Combretum Photo: CC BY, Mathew ReesCombretum coccineum Combretum coccineum Combretaceae Photo: CC BY, jeanjacquesgodonCombretum collinum Combretum collinum Combretaceae Photo: CC0, rosshawkinsCombretum densiflorum Combretum densiflorum Combretaceae Photo: CC BY, Nguyen-Khanh-Trinh TramCombretum erythrophyllum Combretum erythrophyllum Bush-willow Photo: CC0, author not statedCombretum falcatum Combretum falcatum Combretaceae Photo: CC BY, Julien RenoultCombretum farinosum Combretum farinosum Combretaceae Photo: CC BY, Andrea GantzerCombretum fruticosum Combretum fruticosum Combretaceae Photo: CC BY, Alexis López Hernández all 29 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Combretum bussei; Combretum constrictum var. somalense; Combretum constrictum var. tomentellum; Combretum infundibuliforme; Poivrea constricta. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Combretaceae
Described by
(Benth.) M.A.Lawson
Native to
Nigeria, Somalia, Kenya +2
Wild records
70 in range · 55 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; 11 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (10 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 1 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 -1.50_40.000, lapse-corrected -34 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 20 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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