Species
+

Davidia involucrata Baill.

Dove Tree, Dove-tree, Ghost Tree, Handkerchief Tree

Climate known 18 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

Davidia involucrata, dove tree, ghost tree, handkerchief tree, or pocket handkerchief tree is a medium-sized deciduous tree in the family Nyssaceae. It is the only living species in the genus Davidia. It was previously included with tupelos in the dogwood family, Cornaceae. Fossils of the species have been found in the Upper Cretaceous.

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

Family
Nyssaceae
Described by
Baill.
Native to
China South-Central, China Southeast
Wild records
169 in range· 73 open

At a glance

Warmest month
25°C
Jul, mean day; nights 19 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1466mm/yr
10 wet months · peak Jul 282 mm (CHELSA)
Light
14–29DLI
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: a summer growing season, May to September in the northern hemisphere (May to September at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 1466 mm a year, wettest July at 282 mm, driest December at 21 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 14 to 29 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -6.3 °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 Davidia involucrata subsp. vilmoriniana (Dode) Holub; Davidia involucrata var. vilmoriniana (Dode) Hemsl.; Davidia involucrata var. vilmoriniana (Dode) Wanger; Davidia laeta Dode; Davidia tibetana David and 1 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, May to September in the northern hemisphere (May to September at the habitat, northern).

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

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (1039 mm of 1466 mm) falls in May to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 20.1 °C against a yearly mean of 13.2 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to March.

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 1466 mm a year, wettest July at 282 mm, driest December at 21 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1466 mm a year at the habitat, 1039 mm of it May to September. Wettest month July at 282 mm, driest December at 21 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1019 mm to 2122 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern 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: 14 to 29 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 14 to 29 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 11, the highest 90th-percentile month 34).

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 -6.3 °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 -6.3 °C, the absolute minimum -20.9 °C, about 65 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 37.8 °C. Monthly means: coldest night -1.7 °C in January (across the envelope cells -9.0 °C to 1.3 °C), warmest day 25.2 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -6.3 °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: 63 to 67% 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 6 °C in Jan to 25 °C in Jul; mean night from -2 °C in Jan to 19 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1466 mm of rain a year, most in Jul. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 103 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -20.9 °C and the 99th-percentile day 37.8 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-30°-20°-10°10°20°30°40°frost37.8° 99th-percentile day (undated)-20.9° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 14–29RH 63–67 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 103 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 °C6 / -1–98 / 1–1112 / 5–1517 / 9–2021 / 15–2523 / 17–2825 / 18–3025 / 18–3021 / 15–2617 / 11–2012 / 7–168 / 2–10
Night °C-2 / -9–10 / -7–34 / -3–79 / 2–1214 / 6–1717 / 11–2119 / 12–2318 / 12–2215 / 9–1910 / 5–145 / -1–90 / -7–3
Rain mm24 / 12–5936 / 17–7766 / 33–125127 / 68–189178 / 100–250222 / 143–308282 / 186–386213 / 142–394144 / 98–234101 / 68–14852 / 24–7921 / 11–37
DLI16 / 12–2418 / 14–2821 / 17–3226 / 22–3128 / 25–3427 / 24–3229 / 26–3329 / 25–3223 / 17–2616 / 12–2315 / 11–2114 / 12–21
RH %65 / 60–7165 / 60–7265 / 59–7164 / 59–7063 / 60–6865 / 62–7067 / 63–7166 / 62–7066 / 61–7166 / 60–7364 / 59–7263 / 59–71

Each figure is the median across the 103 grid cells holding the 161 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 1158:5975 (32.075, 118.775). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -20.9 °C, 1st-percentile night -6.3 °C, 99th-percentile day 37.8 °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 103 distinct grid cells holding the 161 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1158:5975 (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 32.00_118.750, lapse-corrected -10 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 13 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.
NativeChina South-Central, China Southeast
Kew's description“tree” · “temperate”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker29.616, 102.855 · in the densest population, 148 records (88% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 169 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 73 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 698 km away. 297 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 8 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 inside the densest 4° block of the 169 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Davidia involucrataDavidia involucrataDavidia involucrataDavidia involucrataDavidia involucrataDavidia involucrataDavidia involucrataDavidia involucrata

Photographs: Morten Ross, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF (3); Sarah Adamson, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIF (2); Wang.QG, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF (3).

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

Response of photosynthesis to different concentrations of heavy metals in Davidia involucrata
Yan Yang, Liuqing Zhang, Xing Huang, Yiyang Zhou (2020) · PLoS ONE
Multifunctional Bracts in the Dove Tree Davidia involucrata (Nyssaceae: Cornales): Rain Protection and Pollinator Attraction
Ji‐Fan Sun, Yanbing Gong, Susanne S. Renner, Shuang‐Quan Huang (2007) · The American Naturalist
Potential effects of climate change on geographic distribution of the Tertiary relict tree species Davidia involucrata in China
Cindy Q. Tang, Yi-Fei Dong, Sonia Herrando‐Moraira, Tetsuya Matsui (2017) · Scientific Reports
Leaves and Fruits of Davidia (Cornales) from the Paleocene of North America
Steven R. Manchester (2009) · BioOne Complete (BioOne)
Inhibition of protein SUMOylation by davidiin, an ellagitannin from Davidia involucrata
Misao Takemoto, Yumi Kawamura, Mikako Hirohama, Yuki Yamaguchi (2014) · The Journal of Antibiotics
Genomic analyses of a “living fossil”: The endangered dove‐tree
Chen Yang, Tao Ma, Lushui Zhang, Minghui Kang (2020) · Molecular Ecology Resources
Exogenous melatonin-stimulated transcriptomic alterations of Davidia involucrata seedlings under drought stress
Qinsong Liu, Zhiqiang Feng, Wenjuan Xu, Ramesh R. Vetukuri (2021) · Trees
Transference of function shapes organ identity in the dove tree inflorescence
Dries Vekemans, Tom Viaene, Pieter Caris, Koen Geuten (2011) · New Phytologist
Phylogeography of Davidia involucrata (Davidiaceae) Inferred from cpDNA Haplotypes and nSSR Data
Qing Ma, Yu-juan Du, Nan Chen, Luyi Zhang (2015) · Systematic Botany

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.

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 not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: not asked: 9 wild photographs already from the GBIF download
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: filled 2026-09-20
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 73 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.