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Diospyros mespiliformis; photograph (c) Mark Clarke, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Mark Clarke, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-07-23

Diospyros mespiliformis Hochst. ex A.DC.

African Ebony; Bush Matome; Ebony diospyros; Hill Matome

Ebenaceae · Benin, Burkina +31

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Diospyros mespiliformis, photograph (c) alanbedfordshaw, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Diospyros mespiliformis, photograph (c) alanbedfordshaw, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Diospyros mespiliformis, photograph (c) alanbedfordshaw, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Diospyros mespiliformis, photograph (c) Mark Clarke, some rights reserved (CC BY)Diospyros mespiliformis, photograph (c) Mark Clarke, some rights reserved (CC BY)Diospyros mespiliformis, photograph (c) Mark Clarke, some rights reserved (CC BY) 64 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
13.4°C
Record low 9.0 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
37°C
Mar and Apr at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,064mm
7 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
29–42DLI
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
Wet winters: the rain comes June to September (the habitat's months, not shifted), read as a winter growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Not shifted: the shift rule does not apply to this habitat. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Diospyros mespiliformis, the jackalberry (also known as African ebony and by its Afrikaans name jakkalsbessie), is a large dioecious evergreen tree found mostly in the savannas of Africa. Jackals are fond of the fruit, hence the common names. It is a member of the family Ebenaceae, and is related to the true ebony (D. ebenum) and edible persimmon (D. kaki).

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Diospyros mespiliformis", 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 winter growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (765 mm of 1,031 mm) falls in June to September, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 25.8 °C against a yearly mean of 27.4 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern 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

1,031 mm in the median year at the habitat, 765 mm of it June to September. Wettest month August at 241 mm, driest months (2 at 1 mm); 3 months under 5 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 746 mm to 1,240 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,064 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,031 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 29 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 25, 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 13.4 °C, the absolute minimum 9.0 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 43.9 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 19.0 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 17.1 °C to 22.4 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 37.3 °C in March (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 13.4 °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: 35 to 67% 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 +31 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, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Diospyros mespiliformis through the yearWarmest months March and April, mean daily high 37 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 19.0 °C; 1,031 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, northern hemisphere.0°10°20°30°40°50°43.9° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER9.0° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250300mm rainDLI 29–42RH 35–67%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 358 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 °C34 / 32–3536 / 34–3737 / 35–3937 / 34–4035 / 32–3932 / 30–3630 / 28–3229 / 28–3030 / 29–3132 / 30–3534 / 32–3634 / 32–35
Night °C19 / 17–2221 / 19–2424 / 22–2525 / 24–2724 / 23–2723 / 22–2522 / 21–2422 / 21–2322 / 21–2322 / 21–2421 / 20–2319 / 18–23
Rain mm1 / 0–92 / 0–2115 / 1–6352 / 11–116117 / 47–142152 / 108–175192 / 133–235241 / 118–282180 / 126–23373 / 29–1195 / 0–181 / 0–10
DLI38 / 36–3941 / 37–4242 / 37–4441 / 35–4439 / 32–4235 / 28–4130 / 26–3529 / 25–3332 / 28–3737 / 30–3939 / 33–3937 / 34–38
RH %36 / 33–5435 / 30–5542 / 32–5952 / 40–6258 / 49–6562 / 55–6765 / 61–6967 / 64–7067 / 62–6960 / 52–6646 / 37–6238 / 34–58

Records on both sides of the equator: the 81 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 358 cells that remain: the 224 at least 10° north and the 134 within 10° of the equator, which stay in either way.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 358 grid cells holding the 945 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 1542:3344 (12.875, -12.775). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 9.0 °C, 1st-percentile night 13.4 °C, 99th-percentile day 43.9 °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 358 distinct grid cells holding 945 of the 1046 in-range records on the northern side of the equator (224 cells poleward of 10° north, 81 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 1542:3344 (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 13.00_-12.500, lapse-corrected +31 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 149 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.
NativeBenin, Burkina, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Mali, Mauritania, Nigeria, Niger, Senegal, Burundi, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Chad, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Angola, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Caprivi Strip, Namibia, Swaziland, Northern Provinces, Saudi Arabia, Yemen · introduced: Trinidad-Tobago · 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 marker6.95, 2.134 · in the densest population, 626 records (45% of those in range)
Kew's description“tree” · “seasonally dry tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 1403 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 945 of them in the land cells it reads, of 1046 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 1229 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker in the same place. 2 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 357 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 of the 1403 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 mespiliformis, photograph 1did not loadDiospyros mespiliformis, photograph 2did not loadDiospyros mespiliformis, photograph 3did not loadDiospyros mespiliformis, photograph 4did not loadDiospyros mespiliformis, photograph 5did not loadDiospyros mespiliformis, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) alanbedfordshaw, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (3); (c) Mark Clarke, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3).

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

Strychnos spinosa Strychnos spinosa Natal orange Photo: CC BY, ONG SOS BiodiversityTerminalia leiocarpa Terminalia leiocarpa Combretaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Fuseini Mugisu Suhuyini Ledebouria sudanica Asparagaceae Leucas martinicensis Leucas martinicensis Whitewort Photo: CC BY, Bruno - Yolande ZanettePiliostigma thonningii Piliostigma thonningii Camel’s foot Photo: CC0, author not statedBombax costatum Bombax costatum Red kapok tree Photo: CC BY, Attila Oláh

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 bicolor; Diospyros corylicarpa; Diospyros holtzii; Diospyros kilimandscharica; Diospyros sabiensis and 1 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Ebenaceae
Described by
Hochst. ex A.DC.
Native to
Benin, Burkina, The Gambia +30
Wild records
1403 in range · 1229 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; 3 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (2 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 1 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 13.00_-12.500, lapse-corrected +31 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 117 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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