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Dischidia vidalii; photograph Mokkie, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SAMokkie, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Dischidia vidalii Becc.

Apocynaceae · Philippines · listed by its genus as an epiphyte

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Dischidia vidalii, photograph Mokkie, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia CommonsDischidia vidalii, photograph Afia Anjum Maliha, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsDischidia vidalii, photograph 阿橋 HQ, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia CommonsDischidia vidalii, photograph Steve Fitzgerald, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsDischidia vidalii, photograph Steve Fitzgerald, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsDischidia vidalii, photograph Steve Fitzgerald, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons 12 photographs ›
Habitat figuresfrom few records
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
17.7°C
Record low 14.6 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
30°C
Apr and May at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
2,739mm
10 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
27–42DLI
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
A sharp rainy season, June to September (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.

From few records: 3 records in 3 grid cells. The records.

Summary

Dischidia vidalii, commonly known as ant plant or kangaroo pocket, is a plant in the frangipani family Apocynaceae native to the Philippines. It is a climbing plant with clusters of pink or magenta flowers. Like some other species in the genus — e.g. Dischidia major — and in the related genus Hoya, this species has evolved a symbiotic relationship with ants. In addition to small, oval leaves the plant develops significantly larger, hollow leaves where additional roots grow, and these leaves are colonised by ants.

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

Cultivation

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

Seasons

The rain rule reads a sharp season: 70% of the median year's rain (2,007 mm of 2,828 mm) falls in June to September. The temperature curve is flat, 3.4 °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, northern 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

2,828 mm in the median year at the habitat, 2,007 mm of it June to September. Wettest month August at 609 mm, driest month January at 11 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 2,655 mm to 4,601 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 2,739 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 2,828 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: 27 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 24, the highest 90th-percentile month 42).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 17.7 °C, the absolute minimum 14.6 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 35.3 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 19.8 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 18.4 °C to 22.6 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 29.7 °C in April (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 17.7 °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: 64 to 75% 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 +108 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 “epiphytic subshrub”. 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

From few records: this habitat climate is read from 3 records in 3 grid cells; a page says so under 12 records or 5 cells, and shows the figures as read.

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Dischidia vidalii through the yearWarmest months April and May, mean daily high 30 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 19.8 °C; 2,828 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.10°15°20°25°30°35°40°35.3° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER14.6° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter020040060080010001200mm rainDLI 27–42RH 64–75%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 3 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 °C26 / 25–2727 / 26–2728 / 27–2930 / 28–3030 / 28–3029 / 27–2928 / 26–2827 / 26–2828 / 26–2828 / 26–2827 / 26–2826 / 25–27
Night °C20 / 18–2320 / 19–2321 / 20–2422 / 21–2523 / 22–2623 / 22–2522 / 22–2522 / 22–2522 / 22–2522 / 21–2522 / 21–2420 / 19–23
Rain mm11 / 10–3417 / 11–3240 / 17–4274 / 34–84224 / 190–387398 / 360–698565 / 515–1034609 / 500–1144435 / 405–733312 / 260–347101 / 98–16842 / 27–90
DLI30 / 28–3234 / 32–3539 / 37–4042 / 40–4236 / 35–3833 / 30–3430 / 26–3127 / 24–2928 / 26–3031 / 29–3129 / 28–3127 / 26–30
RH %65 / 62–6664 / 62–6564 / 62–6464 / 62–6467 / 66–6970 / 69–7372 / 70–7575 / 71–7772 / 70–7569 / 68–6967 / 65–6766 / 62–66
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 3 grid cells holding the 3 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 1498:6022 (15.075, 121.125). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 14.6 °C, 1st-percentile night 17.7 °C, 99th-percentile day 35.3 °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 3 distinct grid cells holding 3 of the 3 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1498:6022 (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 15.00_121.250, lapse-corrected +108 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 368 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.
No openly licensed record to show inside the range.
NativePhilippines · 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 marker15.05, 120.55 · in the densest population, 3 records (100% of those in range)
Kew's description“epiphytic subshrub” · “wet tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate across the range rest on all 3 georeferenced records inside the native range; none carries a licence permitting republication, so the map shows no points. Under a dozen records behind the map and the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the centre of the tenth-degree cell nearest the middle (no openly licensed record lies in the population, so no record's coordinates are published) of the densest 1° population of the 3 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 vidalii, photograph 1did not loadDischidia vidalii, photograph 2did not loadDischidia vidalii, photograph 3did not loadDischidia vidalii, photograph 4did not loadDischidia vidalii, photograph 5did not loadDischidia vidalii, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: Mokkie, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons; Afia Anjum Maliha, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons; 阿橋 HQ, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons; Steve Fitzgerald, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (3).

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

Pinanga maculata Tamy's palm Procris repens Procris repens Polynesian Ivy Photo: CC BY, Michael BerardozziTetrameles nudiflora Tetrameles nudiflora Shidam tree Photo: CC BY, sucker69420Anthurium cubense Anthurium cubense Cuban anthurium Photo: CC BY, AidanCissus nodosa Cissus nodosa Javanese treebine Photo: CC BY, Kevin FaccendaAristolochia odoratissima Aristolochia odoratissima Fragrant dutchman's pipe Photo: CC BY, Andrés Ramírez-Barrera

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

Also known as Dischidia pectenoides. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipedia

The record

Family
Apocynaceae
Described by
Becc.
Native to
Philippines
Wild records
3 in range · 0 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
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 15.00_121.250, lapse-corrected +108 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist taxon inat.taxon not asked
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild not asked
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media nothing to reportasked 2026-10-22
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 2 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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