Species
+

Ehretia microphylla Lam.

Fukien tea tree, Fukien-tea, Philippine-tea, ji ji shu

Climate known 49 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

Ehretia microphylla is commonly known as the Fukien tea tree or Philippine tea tree, is a species of flowering plant. The genus Ehretia is placed in the family Ehretiaceae.

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

About the genus · Ehretia

Ehretia is a genus of flowering plants in the family Ehretiaceae. It contains 66 species native to the tropics and subtropics of the Americas, sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, Papuasia, and Australia. The generic name honors German botanical illustrator Georg Dionysius Ehret (1708–1770).

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

Family
Ehretiaceae
Described by
Lam.
Native to
Hainan, China Southeast, Nansei-shoto +20
Wild records
1323 in range· 458 open

At a glance

Warmest month
30°C
Jul, mean day; nights 25 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1974mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Aug 297 mm (CHELSA)
Light
24–36DLI
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: a summer growing season, May to October in the northern hemisphere (May to October at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 1974 mm a year, wettest August at 297 mm, driest January at 36 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 24 to 36 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 15.9 °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 Carmona heterophylla Cav.; Carmona microphylla (Lam.) G.Don; Carmona retusa (Vahl) Masam.; Cordia coromandeliana Retz.; Cordia coromandeliana Retz. ex A.DC. and 15 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, May to October in the northern hemisphere (May to October at the habitat, northern).

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

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (1469 mm of 1974 mm) falls in May to October, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 27.0 °C against a yearly mean of 24.7 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to April.

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 1974 mm a year, wettest August at 297 mm, driest January at 36 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1974 mm a year at the habitat, 1469 mm of it May to October. Wettest month August at 297 mm, driest January at 36 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1252 mm to 3196 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern 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: 24 to 36 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 24 to 36 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 16, the highest 90th-percentile month 43).

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 15.9 °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 15.9 °C, the absolute minimum 11.7 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 31.3 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 17.2 °C in January (across the envelope cells 12.2 °C to 24.2 °C), warmest day 29.5 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 15.9 °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: 62 to 66% 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 23 °C in Jan to 30 °C in Jul; mean night from 17 °C in Jan to 25 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1974 mm of rain a year, most in Aug. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 739 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 11.7 °C and the 99th-percentile day 31.3 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°15°20°25°30°35°31.3° 99th-percentile day (undated)11.7° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 24–36RH 62–66 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 739 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 °C23 / 18–2924 / 19–3126 / 21–3328 / 24–3429 / 26–3329 / 27–3230 / 28–3129 / 27–3129 / 27–3128 / 26–3026 / 23–2924 / 19–29
Night °C17 / 12–2418 / 13–2420 / 16–2522 / 19–2624 / 21–2625 / 22–2725 / 22–2725 / 22–2724 / 22–2623 / 20–2521 / 17–2518 / 13–25
Rain mm36 / 9–24267 / 11–23983 / 17–233143 / 28–232212 / 81–311267 / 100–446257 / 95–459297 / 114–499255 / 133–424181 / 39–351113 / 23–32963 / 12–282
DLI26 / 16–3429 / 19–3834 / 25–4236 / 29–4335 / 31–4034 / 30–3735 / 29–3933 / 28–3732 / 29–3630 / 27–3426 / 19–3224 / 16–32
RH %62 / 55–6763 / 55–6863 / 55–6864 / 57–6965 / 61–6966 / 62–7066 / 62–7066 / 62–7065 / 63–6864 / 60–6863 / 57–6862 / 55–68

Each figure is the median across the 739 grid cells holding the 1281 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 1916:6516 (-5.825, 145.825). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 11.7 °C, 1st-percentile night 15.9 °C, 99th-percentile day 31.3 °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 739 distinct grid cells holding the 1281 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1916:6516 (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 -6.00_145.625, lapse-corrected -292 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1005 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.
NativeHainan, China Southeast, Nansei-shoto, Taiwan, India, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Borneo, Jawa, Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Maluku, Philippines, Sulawesi, Sumatera, Christmas I., Bismarck Archipelago, New Guinea, Solomon Is.· introduced: Gulf States, Andaman Is., Nicobar Is., South China Sea, Samoa, Vanuatu, Marianas, Hawaii, Trinidad-Tobago
Kew's description“shrub or tree” · “wet tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker23.451, 120.495 · in the densest population, 492 records (37% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1323 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 458 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 15 km away. 240 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 42 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 of the 1323 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Ehretia microphyllaEhretia microphyllaEhretia microphyllaEhretia microphyllaEhretia microphyllaEhretia microphyllaEhretia microphyllaEhretia microphylla

Photographs: (c) 林正文, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Meng-Chi Hung, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Kevin Faccenda, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Hopeland, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3).

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

Recommended Medicinal Plants as Source of Natural Products: A Review
Henry Ivanz A. Boy, Alfred Joshua H. Rutilla, Kimbberly A. Santos, Allister Matthew T. Ty (2018) · Digital Chinese Medicine
Antibacterial activities of ethanol extracts of Philippine medicinal plants against multidrug-resistant bacteria
Demetrio L. Valle, Jeannie I. Andrade, Juliana Janet M. Puzon, Esperanza C. Cabrera (2015) · Asian Pacific Journal of Tropical Biomedicine
Antiallergic dimeric prenylbenzoquinones from Ehretia microphylla
Satoshi Yamamura, Lourdes R. Simpol, Koichiro Ozawa, Kazuhiro Ohtani (1995) · Phytochemistry
Benefits of Mainstreaming Herbal Medicine in the Philippine Healthcare System
Cecilia C. Maramba-Lazarte (2020) · Acta Medica Philippina
Carbon Material from Natural Sources as an Anode in Lithium Secondary Battery
Sunil Bhardwaj, Maheshwar Sharon, Toshihiko Ishihara, Sandesh Jayabhaye (2007) · Carbon letters
Screening for Mast Cell Histamine Release Inhibitory Activity of Philippine Medicinal Plants. : Active Constituent of Ehretia microphylla
Agnes M. Rimando, Inoshiri Shigo, Hideaki Otsuka, Hiroshi Kohda (1987) · The Japanese Journal of Pharmacology
Synergetic effect of Leucophyllum frutescens and Ehretia microphylla dyes in enhancing the photovoltaic performance of dye-sensitized solar cells
Amutha Soosairaj, Ahalya Gunasekaran, Sambandam Anandan, Leo Rajesh Asirvatham (2023) · Environmental Science and Pollution Research
Hepatoprotective activity of Ehretia microphylla on paracetamol induced liver toxic rats
Kumarapalayam Ramakrishnan YUVARAJA, Arockiasamy SANTHIAGU, S. Jasemine, K. Gopalasatheeskumar (2021) · Journal of Research in Pharmacy

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.

Other Ehretia 2 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (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 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; 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 63 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.