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Crateva religiosa; photograph (c) P Jeganathan, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) P Jeganathan, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-02-03

Crateva religiosa G.Forst.

Sacred garlic pear; March dalur; Garlic-pear; Sacred barma

Capparaceae · Hainan, China Southeast +33

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Crateva religiosa, photograph (c) P Jeganathan, some rights reserved (CC BY)Crateva religiosa, photograph (c) P Jeganathan, some rights reserved (CC BY)Crateva religiosa, photograph (c) P Jeganathan, some rights reserved (CC BY)Crateva religiosa, photograph (c) P Jeganathan, some rights reserved (CC BY)Crateva religiosa, photograph (c) P Jeganathan, some rights reserved (CC BY)Crateva religiosa, photograph (c) P Jeganathan, some rights reserved (CC BY) 34 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
13.9°C
Record low 9.6 °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)
2,341mm
10 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
26–41DLI
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 November to March (May to September 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

Crateva religiosa, the sacred garlic pear or temple plant, is a species of flowering tree. It is a member of the capers family. The tree is sometimes called the spider tree because the showy flowers bear long, spidery stamens. It is native to much of tropical Asia and several South Pacific islands. More on Wikipedia ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Crateva religiosa", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Crateva

Crateva is a genus of flowering plants in the caper family, Capparaceae. It includes 21 species which range through the tropical regions of the world, including the tropical Americas, sub-Saharan Africa, the Indian subcontinent, Indochina, southern China, Japan, Malesia, Papuasia, Queensland, and the South Pacific.

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

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,478 mm of 1,915 mm) falls in May to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 26.9 °C against a yearly mean of 26.2 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: November to March.

Rain

1,915 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,478 mm of it May to September. Wettest month July at 382 mm, driest month January at 15 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 763 mm to 3,680 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 2,341 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,915 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 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 23, the highest 90th-percentile month 47).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 13.9 °C, the absolute minimum 9.6 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 43.0 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 18.4 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 10.1 °C to 24.1 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 32.5 °C in April (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 13.9 °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 69% 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 -73 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 Crateva religiosa through the yearWarmest month April, mean daily high 33 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 18.4 °C; 1,915 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.0°10°20°30°40°50°43.0° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER9.6° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter02004006008001000mm rainDLI 26–41RH 57–69%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 126 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 / 20–3130 / 22–3331 / 27–3533 / 28–3731 / 28–3929 / 27–3828 / 26–3328 / 27–3229 / 27–3329 / 27–3329 / 25–3128 / 22–30
Night °C18 / 10–2419 / 12–2422 / 16–2524 / 20–2625 / 22–2725 / 23–2724 / 22–2624 / 22–2624 / 22–2523 / 19–2521 / 15–2419 / 11–24
Rain mm15 / 2–25019 / 1–23827 / 1–26682 / 2–265179 / 9–307317 / 63–765382 / 110–986340 / 132–589260 / 108–382171 / 21–37495 / 8–23628 / 2–231
DLI33 / 23–3737 / 27–4041 / 31–4440 / 30–4735 / 29–4730 / 25–4126 / 23–3428 / 23–3432 / 27–3532 / 29–3530 / 26–3330 / 23–34
RH %58 / 50–6757 / 46–6758 / 42–6862 / 41–7064 / 43–6967 / 50–7269 / 60–7269 / 63–7167 / 58–7063 / 50–7062 / 46–6859 / 49–67

Records on both sides of the equator: the 25 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 126 cells that remain: the 90 at least 10° north and the 36 within 10° of the equator, which stay in either way.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 126 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (169 records in those cells; 3 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 1419:5060 (19.025, 73.025). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 9.6 °C, 1st-percentile night 13.9 °C, 99th-percentile day 43.0 °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 126 distinct grid cells holding 169 of the 216 in-range records (3 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out) on the northern side of the equator (90 cells poleward of 10° north, 25 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 1419:5060 (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 19.00_73.125, lapse-corrected -73 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 24 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.
NativeHainan, China Southeast, Taiwan, Assam, Bangladesh, East Himalaya, India, Nepal, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Nicobar Is., Thailand, Vietnam, Borneo, Jawa, Malaya, Maluku, Philippines, Sulawesi, Sumatera, Bismarck Archipelago, New Guinea, Solomon Is., Queensland, Fiji, Gilbert Is., Samoa, Tonga, Vanuatu, Society Is., Tuamotu, Caroline Is., Marianas, Venezuela · 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-12.849, 143.291 · in the densest population, 104 records (27% 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 380 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 169 of them in the land cells it reads, of 216 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 306 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 1 km away. 83 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 4° block of the 380 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Crateva religiosa, photograph 1did not loadCrateva religiosa, photograph 2did not loadCrateva religiosa, photograph 3did not loadCrateva religiosa, photograph 4did not loadCrateva religiosa, photograph 5did not loadCrateva religiosa, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) P Jeganathan, some rights reserved (CC BY) (6).

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

Lagerstroemia speciosa Lagerstroemia speciosa Pride of India Photo: CC BY, Sindhu HaridasAlbizia procera Albizia procera Tall albizia Photo: CC BY, Cricket RaspetTabernaemontana divaricata Tabernaemontana divaricata Pinwheelflower Photo: CC BY, Sabarni SarkerGmelina arborea Gmelina arborea Lamiaceae Photo: CC BY, Sayee GirdhariFicus racemosa Ficus racemosa Clustertree Photo: CC BY, Raja Sekhar ChimiralaMallotus nudiflorus Mallotus nudiflorus False White Teak Photo: CC BY-SA, Dinesh Valke

Other Crateva 6 in the reference

Crateva adansonii Crateva adansonii Sacred Garlic Pear Photo: CC BY-SA, Dinesh Valke Crateva eminens Capparaceae Crateva kirkii Capparaceae Crateva magna Crateva magna Three-leaf-caper Photo: CC BY, Utain PummarinCrateva tapia Crateva tapia Garlic-pear Photo: CC BY-SA, cristianol1456Crateva unilocularis Crateva unilocularis Spider Tree Photo: CC BY, Yj

Names & registers

Also known as Capparis trifoliata; Crateva brownii; Crateva hansemannii; Crateva macrocarpa; Crateva membranifolia and 1 more. (GBIF Backbone)

Under another author Crateva tapia Burm.fil. and Crateva tapia Vahl is an older name of this species, not Crateva tapia, a species of the reference. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Capparaceae
Described by
G.Forst.
Native to
Hainan, China Southeast, Taiwan +32
Wild records
380 in range · 306 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 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
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; 17 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (12 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 3 at a herbarium, 2 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 19.00_73.125, lapse-corrected -73 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
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 2026-10-22
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 63 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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