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Diospyros geminata; photograph (c) Greg Tasney, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) CC BY-SA(c) Greg Tasney, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) · observed growing wild · 2026-09-15

Diospyros geminata (R.Br.) F.Muell. ex Jessup

Scaly ebony

Ebenaceae · New Guinea, Queensland

Cited as Kew's World Checklist cites it, Diospyros geminata (R.Br.) F.Muell. ex Jessup: GBIF's backbone key for this page carries the name with another author, (R.Br.) F.Muell.

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Diospyros geminata, photograph (c) Damien O'Donnell, some rights reserved (CC BY)Diospyros geminata, photograph (c) Damien O'Donnell, some rights reserved (CC BY)Diospyros geminata, photograph (c) Greg Tasney, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Diospyros geminata, photograph (c) Greg Tasney, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Diospyros geminata, photograph (c) Greg Tasney, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Diospyros geminata, photograph (c) Greg Tasney, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) 98 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
5.1°C
Record low 1.5 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
29°C
Jan, Feb and Dec at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
982mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
23–42DLI
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 May to October (November to April 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

Diospyros geminata is a small tree or shrub of dry rainforest, gallery forest and sub tropical rainforest of Australia and New Guinea.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Diospyros geminata", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Diospyros

Diospyros is a genus of over 700 species of deciduous and evergreen trees and shrubs, which are typically dioecious. The majority are native to the tropics and many are of local ecological importance.

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

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (702 mm of 958 mm) falls in November to April, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 24.6 °C against a yearly mean of 21.7 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: May to October.

Rain

958 mm in the median year at the habitat, 702 mm of it November to April. Wettest month February at 174 mm, driest month September at 31 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 740 mm to 1,570 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 982 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 958 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: 23 to 42 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 20, the highest 90th-percentile month 44).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 5.1 °C, the absolute minimum 1.5 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 37.0 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 11.8 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range 8.2 °C to 17.5 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 29.4 °C in January (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 5.1 °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: 56 to 62% 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 +136 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 Diospyros geminata through the yearWarmest months January, February and December, mean daily high 29 °C; coldest month July, mean nightly low 11.8 °C; 958 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°37.0° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER1.5° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 23–42RH 56–62%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 698 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 / 27–3129 / 27–3028 / 26–3026 / 24–2823 / 21–2621 / 19–2420 / 18–2322 / 20–2524 / 22–2827 / 24–3028 / 25–3129 / 27–32
Night °C22 / 20–2522 / 19–2521 / 18–2419 / 15–2316 / 12–2113 / 9–1812 / 8–1813 / 9–1815 / 12–2018 / 14–2220 / 17–2422 / 19–25
Rain mm130 / 94–307174 / 116–360106 / 65–20672 / 46–14160 / 34–10544 / 24–6834 / 18–4533 / 19–4331 / 11–4154 / 25–7387 / 67–114133 / 110–176
DLI41 / 39–4336 / 35–3935 / 32–3730 / 27–3225 / 22–2823 / 20–2625 / 22–2730 / 28–3237 / 34–3941 / 38–4442 / 40–4442 / 41–44
RH %61 / 59–6562 / 60–6661 / 59–6460 / 58–6359 / 57–6258 / 56–6056 / 55–6056 / 54–6056 / 54–6158 / 55–6259 / 56–6260 / 58–63
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 698 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (1268 records in those cells; 29 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 2266:6612 (-23.325, 150.625). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 1.5 °C, 1st-percentile night 5.1 °C, 99th-percentile day 37.0 °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 698 distinct grid cells holding 1268 of the 1310 in-range records (29 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2266:6612 (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 -23.50_150.625, lapse-corrected +136 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 223 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.
NativeNew Guinea, Queensland · 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-24.112, 151.196 · in the densest population, 1019 records (65% of those in range)
Kew's description“shrub or tree” · “wet tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 1562 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 1268 of them in the land cells it reads, of 1310 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 1265 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 157 km away. 3 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 252 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 1562 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Diospyros geminata, photograph 1did not loadDiospyros geminata, photograph 2did not loadDiospyros geminata, photograph 3did not loadDiospyros geminata, photograph 4did not loadDiospyros geminata, photograph 5did not loadDiospyros geminata, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Damien O'Donnell, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Greg Tasney, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (4).

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

Dendrophthoe glabrescens Dendrophthoe glabrescens Smooth mistletoe Photo: CC BY, Scott W. GavinsDrypetes deplanchei Drypetes deplanchei Yellow Tulipwood Photo: CC BY-SA, Greg TasneyCorymbia tessellaris Corymbia tessellaris Moreton bay-ash Photo: CC0, author not statedMurdannia graminea Murdannia graminea Grass Lily Photo: CC0, author not statedCayratia acris Cayratia acris Hairy grape Photo: CC BY, Tony van KampenPersicaria attenuata Persicaria attenuata Watersmart Weed Photo: CC0, author not stated

Other Diospyros 59 in the reference

Diospyros anisandra Diospyros anisandra Ebenaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, ferleyva_Diospyros argentea Diospyros argentea Silver-leaved Ebony Photo: CC BY, Adam Kamal Diospyros armata Ebenaceae Diospyros australis Diospyros australis Ebenaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Greg TasneyDiospyros blancoi Diospyros blancoi Mabolo Photo: CC0, author not statedDiospyros buxifolia Diospyros buxifolia Ebenaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedDiospyros cathayensis Diospyros cathayensis Ebenaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Dieter AlbrechtDiospyros celebica Diospyros celebica Indonesian Ebony Photo: CC BY-SA, StevanopuasaDiospyros chloroxylon Diospyros chloroxylon Green ebony persimmon Photo: CC BY, Ravuri Krishna Chaitanya Diospyros conzattii Ebenaceae Diospyros dasyphylla Ebenaceae Diospyros decandra Diospyros decandra Ebenaceae Photo: CC BY, Utain Pummarin all 60 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Diospyros ferrea var. geminata; Ebenus geminata; Maba geminata. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Ebenaceae
Described by
(R.Br.) F.Muell. ex Jessup
Native to
New Guinea, Queensland
Wild records
1562 in range · 1265 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 2026-10-22GBIF's key 4070889 is Diospyros geminata (R.Br.) F.Muell.; the page links Kew's Diospyros geminata (R.Br.) F.Muell. ex Jessup, and the name is cited as Kew cites it
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; 23 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (21 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 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 -23.50_150.625, lapse-corrected +136 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22IPNI and POWO linked by Kew's number for Diospyros geminata (R.Br.) F.Muell. ex Jessup (the item's: IPNI 322430-1, POWO 72790-3)
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 21 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

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