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Dischidia ovata; photograph Krzysztof Ziarnek, Kenraiz, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SAKrzysztof Ziarnek, Kenraiz, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Dischidia ovata Benth.

Watermelon dischidia

Apocynaceae · New Guinea, Queensland · listed by its genus as an epiphyte

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Dischidia ovata, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedDischidia ovata, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedDischidia ovata, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedDischidia ovata, photograph Krzysztof Ziarnek, Kenraiz, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsDischidia ovata, photograph David J. Stang, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsDischidia ovata, photograph Krzysztof Ziarnek, Kenraiz, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons 15 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
16.8°C
Record low 10.1 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
29°C
Jan, Feb, Nov and Dec at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,818mm
9 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
27–43DLI
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
A sharp rainy season, December to March (the habitat's months, not shifted), in a year of even temperature. rain rule, CHELSA
Not shifted: the shift rule does not apply to this habitat. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Dischidia ovata, commonly called watermelon dischidia (pronounced ), is a small vine in the frangipani and hoya family Apocynaceae, native to New Guinea and Cape York Peninsula, Australia. The species name ovata refers to its ovate leaves, its common name refers to the leaf venation that resembles a watermelon rind. The species is succulent and grows as an epiphytic or lithophytic vine in a variety of habitats.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Dischidia ovata", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Grouped as an epiphyte, listed under the genus Dischidia in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “climbing epiphyte or lithophyte”.

Seasons

The rain rule reads a sharp season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,371 mm of 1,819 mm) falls in December to March. The temperature curve is flat, 3.7 °C between the warmest and coldest month, so the growing-season rule does not infer a growing season from it. Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere. The temperature curve moves under 4 °C between the warmest and coldest month, where the shift rule does not apply, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

Rain

1,819 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,371 mm of it December to March. Wettest month February at 401 mm, driest month September at 9 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,559 mm to 2,140 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,818 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,819 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: 27 to 43 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 16.8 °C, the absolute minimum 10.1 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 36.5 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 21.9 °C in July and August (across the grid cells of the range 18.9 °C to 24.3 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 29.2 °C in December (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 16.8 °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: 63 to 68% 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 +15 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.

Group. Listed under the genus Dischidia in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “climbing epiphyte or lithophyte”. A group is taken only where Kew's description of the species agrees with the table's listing. The table gives no figure and no prose; the cold floor is the habitat's alone.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, southern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Dischidia ovata through the yearWarmest months January, February, November and December, mean daily high 29 °C; coldest months July and August, mean nightly low 21.9 °C; 1,819 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.5°10°15°20°25°30°35°40°36.5° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER10.1° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 27–43RH 63–68%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 70 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 / 28–3029 / 28–3028 / 28–2928 / 27–2927 / 26–2826 / 25–2725 / 24–2725 / 24–2726 / 25–2828 / 26–3029 / 27–3129 / 28–31
Night °C25 / 23–2625 / 23–2625 / 23–2624 / 22–2624 / 21–2623 / 20–2522 / 19–2422 / 19–2423 / 20–2524 / 21–2525 / 23–2625 / 23–26
Rain mm388 / 345–438401 / 327–454369 / 311–407195 / 113–30273 / 31–14133 / 13–6323 / 10–5316 / 8–339 / 4–2625 / 16–4174 / 64–103213 / 171–266
DLI35 / 32–3633 / 31–3533 / 31–3432 / 31–3429 / 27–3327 / 25–3027 / 26–3131 / 30–3538 / 37–4042 / 41–4443 / 41–4439 / 38–40
RH %67 / 66–7068 / 66–7167 / 66–7166 / 65–7065 / 63–6964 / 62–6763 / 62–6763 / 61–6663 / 61–6663 / 61–6664 / 62–6665 / 64–68
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 70 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (112 records in those cells; 2 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 2033:6454 (-11.675, 142.725). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 10.1 °C, 1st-percentile night 16.8 °C, 99th-percentile day 36.5 °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 70 distinct grid cells holding 112 of the 115 in-range records (2 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2033:6454 (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 -11.50_142.500, lapse-corrected +15 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 99 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-12.721, 143.288 · in the densest population, 85 records (62% of those in range)
Kew's description“climbing epiphyte or lithophyte” · “wet tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 137 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 112 of them in the land cells it reads, of 115 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 121 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 3 km away. 22 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 137 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Dischidia ovata, photograph 1did not loadDischidia ovata, photograph 2did not loadDischidia ovata, photograph 3did not loadDischidia ovata, photograph 4did not loadDischidia ovata, photograph 5did not loadDischidia ovata, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0 (3); Krzysztof Ziarnek, Kenraiz, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (2); David J. Stang, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

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

Myrmecodia platytyrea Myrmecodia platytyrea Rubiaceae Photo: CC BY, Kristof ZyskowskiBrachychiton velutinosus Brachychiton velutinosus Brush kurrajong Photo: CC BY-SA, Steve FitzgeraldXanthostemon youngii Xanthostemon youngii Myrtaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, VengolisDendrobium bifalce Dendrobium bifalce Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY, snotch from Sapporo, Hokkaido, JapanPhaleria octandra Phaleria octandra Dwarf Phaleria Photo: CC BY, Sue CarnahanCynometra lenticellata Cynometra lenticellata Cascading Bean<!-- Photo: CC BY, Alan Bell

Other Dischidia 21 in the reference

Dischidia albida Apocynaceae Dischidia albiflora Dischidia albiflora Apocynaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Michael Wolf (Webseite)Dischidia astephana Dischidia astephana Apocynaceae Photo: CC BY, Daniel OnneweerDischidia bengalensis Dischidia bengalensis Apocynaceae Photo: CC BY, Samuel LeeDischidia chinensis Dischidia chinensis Apocynaceae Photo: CC0, author not stated Dischidia cochleata Apocynaceae Dischidia formosana Dischidia formosana Apocynaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedDischidia hirsuta Dischidia hirsuta Apocynaceae Photo: CC BY, Gerard ChartierDischidia imbricata Dischidia imbricata Apocynaceae Photo: CC BY, Samuel Lee Dischidia lanceolata Apocynaceae Dischidia major Dischidia major Malayan Urn Vine Photo: CC BY, 謝麗霦Dischidia merrillii Dischidia merrillii Apocynaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Krzysztof Ziarnek, Kenraiz all 22 ›

Names & registers

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Apocynaceae
Described by
Benth.
Native to
New Guinea, Queensland
Wild records
137 in range · 121 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; 2 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (2 at a botanic garden or arboretum; 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 -11.50_142.500, lapse-corrected +15 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 2026-10-22none of the photographs on this page is credited to GBIF: those shown are other sources', and GBIF's were the same photographs or were set aside by the photograph rules
Wikimedia Commons commons 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 11 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

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