Species
+

Dodonaea viscosa (L.) Jacq.

'a'ali'i, Florida hopbush, Hawaiian Hopseed, Hopbush

Climate known 85 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

Dodonaea viscosa, also known as the broadleaf hopbush, is a species of flowering plant in the Dodonaea (hopbush) genus that has a cosmopolitan distribution in tropical, subtropical and warm temperate regions of Africa, the Americas, southern Asia and Australasia. Dodonaea is part of Sapindaceae, the soapberry family.

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

About the genus · Dodonaea

Dodonaea, commonly known as hop-bushes, is a genus of about 70 species of flowering plants in the soapberry family, Sapindaceae. The genus has a cosmopolitan distribution in tropical, subtropical and warm temperate regions of Africa, the Americas, southern Asia and Australasia, but 59 species are endemic to Australia.

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

Family
Sapindaceae
Described by
(L.) Jacq.
Native to
Egypt, Libya, Cape Verde +161
Wild records
1878 in range· 1437 open

At a glance

Warmest month
28°C
Jan, mean day; nights 17 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
540mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jul 54 mm (CHELSA)
Light
17–47DLI
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: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (November to June in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 540 mm a year, wettest July at 54 mm, driest March at 37 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 17 to 47 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 3.1 °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 ? spathulata Sm.; Dodonaea angustifolia Roxb.; Dodonaea arborescens var. spathulata (Sm.) Benth.; Dodonaea attenuata subsp. linearis Benth.; Dodonaea burmanni Hook.f. and 36 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (November to June in the northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (388 mm of 540 mm) takes 8 months, May to December. Mean temperature moves 11.7 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: November to June.

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 540 mm a year, wettest July at 54 mm, driest March at 37 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

540 mm a year at the habitat, 388 mm of it May to December. Wettest month July at 54 mm, driest March at 37 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 264 mm to 1574 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, southern 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: 17 to 47 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 17 to 47 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 12, the highest 90th-percentile month 51).

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 3.1 °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 3.1 °C, the absolute minimum -0.4 °C, 2 frost nights in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 37.4 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 6.1 °C in July (across the envelope cells 3.5 °C to 19.6 °C), warmest day 27.5 °C in January (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 3.1 °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: 53 to 60% 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 15 °C in Jul to 28 °C in Jan; mean night from 6 °C in Jul to 17 °C in Jan. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest night. 540 mm of rain a year, most in Jul. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 1564 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -0.4 °C and the 99th-percentile day 37.4 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-10°10°20°30°40°frost37.4° 99th-percentile day (undated)-0.4° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200mm rainDLI 17–47RH 53–60 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 1564 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 °C28 / 19–3427 / 20–3326 / 20–3023 / 18–2719 / 15–2716 / 12–2615 / 11–2617 / 12–2620 / 15–2823 / 17–2825 / 18–2926 / 18–32
Night °C17 / 10–2217 / 10–2215 / 10–2012 / 9–1810 / 7–187 / 5–196 / 4–207 / 4–209 / 6–1911 / 8–1814 / 9–1915 / 10–21
Rain mm38 / 15–12438 / 15–12937 / 13–13039 / 13–12547 / 19–13452 / 17–15654 / 20–16549 / 15–15246 / 17–16351 / 21–13344 / 19–12545 / 18–128
DLI47 / 29–5142 / 32–4637 / 30–4128 / 23–4321 / 15–4217 / 12–3918 / 13–3924 / 18–3832 / 26–3838 / 31–4344 / 29–4847 / 27–50
RH %53 / 44–6353 / 46–6454 / 46–6455 / 47–6458 / 51–6560 / 53–6659 / 53–6657 / 51–6557 / 47–6555 / 45–6454 / 45–6353 / 44–63

Each figure is the median across the 1564 grid cells holding the 1840 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 2374:6648 (-28.725, 152.425). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -0.4 °C, 1st-percentile night 3.1 °C, 99th-percentile day 37.4 °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 1564 distinct grid cells holding the 1840 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2374:6648 (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 -28.50_152.500, lapse-corrected -147 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 313 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.
NativeEgypt, Libya, Cape Verde, Benin, Gambia, The, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo, Burundi, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Congo, Gabon, Rwanda, Zaïre, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Socotra, Somalia, Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Angola, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Cape Provinces, KwaZulu-Natal, Swaziland, Northern Provinces, Aldabra, Comoros, Mauritius, Madagascar, Réunion, Rodrigues, Seychelles, Afghanistan, Iran, Gulf States, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, China South-Central, Hainan, China Southeast, Kazan-retto, Nansei-shoto, Ogasawara-shoto, Taiwan, Assam, Bangladesh, East Himalaya, India, Laccadive Is., Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, West Himalaya, Andaman Is., Myanmar, Nicobar Is., Thailand, Vietnam, Borneo, Cocos (Keeling) I., Jawa, Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Maluku, Philippines, Sulawesi, Sumatera, Christmas I., Bismarck Archipelago, New Guinea, Solomon Is., Norfolk Is., New South Wales, Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria, Western Australia, Chatham Is., New Zealand North, New Zealand South, Fiji, Gilbert Is., Nauru, Niue, New Caledonia, Samoa, Tonga, Vanuatu, Wallis-Futuna Is., Cook Is., Marquesas, Society Is., Tuamotu, Tubuai Is., Caroline Is., Marianas, Marshall Is., Hawaii, Arizona, Florida, Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexican Pacific Is., Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Bahamas, Bermuda, Cayman Is., Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Puerto Rico, Southwest Caribbean, Turks-Caicos Is., Trinidad-Tobago, Windward Is., French Guiana, Guyana, Surinam, Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Galápagos, Peru, Brazil West-Central, Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast, Brazil North, Brazil South, Argentina Northeast, Argentina Northwest, Chile Central, Uruguay· introduced: Spain, Tunisia, Madeira, Chagos Archipelago, Cyprus, East Aegean Is., Iraq, Palestine, Easter Is., California
Kew's description“subshrub or shrub” · “seasonally dry tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-30.472, 150.239 · in the densest population, 756 records (40% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1878 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 1437 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker in the same place. 15 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 38 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 1878 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Dodonaea viscosaDodonaea viscosaDodonaea viscosaDodonaea viscosaDodonaea viscosaDodonaea viscosaDodonaea viscosaDodonaea viscosa

Photographs: (c) Nicola van Berkel, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (4); (c) Tony Rebelo, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (3); (c) Jeremy Gilmore, some rights reserved (CC BY).

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 Dodonaea viscosa, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Antimicrobial, Antioxidant and Cytotoxic Activities and Phytochemical Screening of Some Yemeni Medicinal Plants
Ramzi A. Mothana, Salah A. A. Abdo, Sidgi S. Hasson, Faisal M. N. Althawab (2008) · Evidence-based Complementary and Alternative Medicine
The response of native species to removal of invasive exotic grasses in a seasonally dry Hawaiian woodland
Carla M. D’Antonio, R. Flint Hughes, Michelle C. Mack, Derek Hitchcock (1998) · Journal of Vegetation Science
Plant Extracts as Skin Care and Therapeutic Agents
Monika Michalak (2023) · International Journal of Molecular Sciences
Leaf morphology shift linked to climate change
Greg R. Guerin, Haixia Wen, Andrew J. Lowe (2012) · Biology Letters
Biosynthesis of Cu, ZVI, and Ag nanoparticles using Dodonaea viscosa extract for antibacterial activity against human pathogens
S.C.G. Kiruba Daniel, G. Vinothini, Nivedhitha Subramanian, K. Nehru (2012) · Journal of Nanoparticle Research
Physical dormancy in seeds of Dodonaea viscosa (Sapindales, Sapindaceae) from Hawaii
Jerry M. Baskin, Barbara Davis, Carol C. Baskin, Sean M. Gleason (2004) · Seed Science Research
The Complete Chloroplast Genome Sequence of Tree of Heaven (Ailanthus altissima (Mill.) (Sapindales: Simaroubaceae), an Important Pantropical Tree
Josphat K. Saina, Zhizhong Li, Andrew W. Gichira, Yiying Liao (2018) · International Journal of Molecular Sciences
Plant growth-promoting potential of endophytic bacteria isolated from roots of wild Dodonaea viscosa L.
Imran Afzal, Irum Iqrar, Zabta Khan Shinwari, Azra Yasmin (2016) · Plant Growth Regulation

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 157 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.