Species
+

Dillenia indica L.

Chalta (Trinidad & Tobago), Chulta, Elephant Apple, chalta

Climate known 67 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

Dillenia indica, commonly known as elephant apple or ou tenga, is a species of Dillenia native to China, India, and tropical Asia. It is found in stony river banks.

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

About the genus · Dillenia

Dillenia is a genus of evergreen or semi-evergreen trees and shrubs in the flowering plant family Dilleniaceae, native to tropical and subtropical regions of southern Asia, Australasia, and the Indian Ocean islands.

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

Family
Dilleniaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
China South-Central, China Southeast, Assam +15
Wild records
594 in range· 395 open

At a glance

Warmest month
31°C
Apr, mean day; nights 23 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1820mm/yr
10 wet months · peak Jul 339 mm (CHELSA)
Light
27–38DLI
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 1820 mm a year, wettest July at 339 mm, driest December at 17 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 27 to 38 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 10.6 °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 Dillenia elliptica Thunb.; Dillenia elongata Miq.; Dillenia indica f. elongata (Miq.) Miq.; Dillenia speciosa Thunb.

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 (1361 mm of 1820 mm) falls in May to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 27.1 °C against a yearly mean of 25.4 °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 1820 mm a year, wettest July at 339 mm, driest December at 17 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1820 mm a year at the habitat, 1361 mm of it May to September. Wettest month July at 339 mm, driest December at 17 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1065 mm to 3282 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: 27 to 38 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 27 to 38 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 22, the highest 90th-percentile month 45).

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 10.6 °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 10.6 °C, the absolute minimum 7.3 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 42.1 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 15.3 °C in January (across the envelope cells 10.0 °C to 23.3 °C), warmest day 30.9 °C in April (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 10.6 °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: 58 to 68% 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 Dec to 31 °C in Apr; mean night from 15 °C in Jan to 25 °C in Jun. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1820 mm of rain a year, most in Jul. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 444 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 7.3 °C and the 99th-percentile day 42.1 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°20°30°40°50°42.1° 99th-percentile day (undated)7.3° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0200400600800mm rainDLI 27–38RH 58–68 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 444 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 °C27 / 20–3028 / 22–3130 / 26–3431 / 27–3731 / 28–3730 / 27–3429 / 27–3229 / 26–3129 / 27–3129 / 26–3128 / 24–3027 / 21–30
Night °C15 / 10–2317 / 12–2420 / 16–2523 / 19–2624 / 21–2725 / 21–2724 / 20–2624 / 20–2624 / 20–2522 / 18–2519 / 15–2415 / 11–23
Rain mm18 / 2–23629 / 3–20056 / 9–228125 / 8–271202 / 29–323240 / 111–555339 / 148–682313 / 148–540267 / 156–391163 / 59–33851 / 12–32917 / 6–315
DLI30 / 23–3634 / 26–4038 / 30–4338 / 31–4534 / 30–4431 / 26–3527 / 23–3427 / 23–3530 / 26–3531 / 27–3429 / 25–3228 / 22–32
RH %58 / 52–6958 / 49–6758 / 47–6762 / 46–6865 / 50–6967 / 58–7168 / 64–7268 / 64–7267 / 64–7064 / 57–7062 / 53–6959 / 51–69

Each figure is the median across the 444 grid cells holding the 578 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 1460:5169 (16.975, 78.475). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 7.3 °C, 1st-percentile night 10.6 °C, 99th-percentile day 42.1 °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 444 distinct grid cells holding the 578 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1460:5169 (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 17.00_78.750, lapse-corrected +214 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 656 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, Assam, Bangladesh, East Himalaya, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Borneo, Jawa, Malaya, Philippines, Sumatera· introduced: Gulf of Guinea Is., Comoros, Mauritius, Réunion, Andaman Is., Caroline Is., Cuba, Trinidad-Tobago, Windward Is., Ecuador
Kew's description“shrub or tree” · “wet tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker18.581, 73.683 · in the densest population, 136 records (23% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 594 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 395 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 1022 km away. 370 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 16 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 594 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Dillenia indicaDillenia indicaDillenia indicaDillenia indicaDillenia indicaDillenia indicaDillenia indicaDillenia indica

Photographs: (c) Steve Fitzgerald, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (4); (c) Siddarth Machado, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Luan Mazzeo, 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 Dillenia indica, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Antimicrobial Activity and Brine Shrimp Lethality Bioassay of the Leaves Extract of Dillenia indica Linn.
AS Apu, Md. Abdul Muhit, Syed Mohammed Tareq, Atiqul Haque Pathan (2010) · Journal of Young Pharmacists
Antidiabetic, hypolipidemic and histopathological analysis of Dillenia indica (L.) leaves extract on alloxan induced diabetic rats
Sunil Kumar, Vipin Kumar, Om Prakash (2011) · Asian Pacific Journal of Tropical Medicine
Anti-leukemic activity of Dillenia indica L. fruit extract and quantification of betulinic acid by HPLC
Deepak Kumar, Sumana Mallick, J. R. Vedasiromoni, Bikas C. Pal (2009) · Phytomedicine
Evaluation of Phenolic Content Variability along with Antioxidant, Antimicrobial, and Cytotoxic Potential of Selected Traditional Medicinal Plants from India
Garima Singh, Ajit Kumar Passsari, Vincent Vineeth Leo, Vineet Kumar Mishra (2016) · Frontiers in Plant Science
Integrating traditional ecological knowledge into habitat restoration: implications for meeting forest restoration challenges
Shiekh Marifatul Haq, Andréa Pieroni, Rainer W. Bussmann, Ahmed M. Abd‐ElGawad (2023) · Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine
A novel ‘green’ synthesis of colloidal silver nanoparticles (SNP) using Dillenia indica fruit extract
Susmita Singh, Jyoti Prasad Saikia, Alak Kumar Buragohain (2012) · Colloids and Surfaces B Biointerfaces
Biosynthesis and characterization of Dillenia indica ‐mediated silver nanoparticles and their biological activity
Sreenivasa Nayak, Meghashyama Prabhakara Bhat, A. C. Udayashankar, Thimappa Ramachandrappa Lakshmeesha (2020) · Applied Organometallic Chemistry
Asian Tapirs Are No Elephants When It Comes To Seed Dispersal
Ahimsa Campos‐Arceiz, Carl Træholt, Razak Jaffar, Luis Santamarı́a (2011) · Biotropica
Enzymes Inhibition and Antidiabetic Effect of Isolated Constituents fromDillenia indica
Sunil Kumar, Vipin Kumar, Om Prakash (2013) · BioMed Research International
Quality comparison of elephant apple juices after high‐pressure processing and thermal treatment
Prakash Kumar Nayak, Kalpana Rayaguru, Kesavan Radha Krishnan (2016) · Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture
Green synthesis of gold nanoparticles using aqueous extract of Dillenia indica
Arghya Sett, Manoj Gadewar, Pragya Sharma, Manab Deka (2016) · Advances in Natural Sciences Nanoscience and Nanotechnology
Total Phenolic Content, Antioxidative, Anti-amylase, Anti-glucosidase, and Antihistamine Release Activities of Bangladeshi Fruits
Sheikh Julfikar Hossain, Iyo TSUJIYAMA, Mikako Takasugi, Md. Ashabul ISLAM (2008) · Food Science and Technology Research

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 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.