Species
+

Filicium decipiens (Wight & Arn.) Thwaites

Ferntree, Marodi, Marodi mena, fern tree

Climate known 74 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

Filicium decipiens, called the ferntree, fern tree or fern leaf tree, is a species of Filicium found in east Africa, Madagascar, India and Sri Lanka. It is planted as an ornamental tree in the Indian subcontinent, Indonesia, Hawaii, and elsewhere.

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

About the genus · Filicium

Filicium is a genus of flowering plants in the soapberry family Sapindaceae, native to east Africa, Madagascar, India and Sri Lanka. The best known species is Filicium decipiens, which is planted as an ornamental tree.

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

Family
Sapindaceae
Described by
(Wight & Arn.) Thwaites
Native to
Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania +7
Wild records
386 in range· 303 open

At a glance

Warmest month
30°C
Mar, mean day; nights 19 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1002mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Sep 128 mm (CHELSA)
Light
27–41DLI
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 rainy season, April to May and July to November in the northern hemisphere, at the year's mean temperature, so called neither winter nor summer. Habitat rain 1002 mm a year, wettest September at 128 mm, driest February at 30 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 27 to 41 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 10.9 °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 Filicium decipiens (Wight & Arn.) Thwaites ex Hook.f.; Filicium decipiens f. apterum Capuron; Filicium elongatum Radlk.; Filicium elongatum Radlk. ex Taub.; Jurighas decipiens (Wight & Arn.) Kuntze and 2 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a rainy season, April to May and July to November in the northern hemisphere, at the year's mean temperature, so called neither winter nor summer.

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

The rain rule reads a rainy season with no name: 70% of the year's rain (732 mm of 1002 mm) falls in April to May and July to November, whose mean temperature, 23.7 °C, is within half a degree of the year's, 23.5 °C, so it is neither the cooler nor the warmer part of the year. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: January to May and October to November.

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 1002 mm a year, wettest September at 128 mm, driest February at 30 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1002 mm a year at the habitat, 732 mm of it April to May and July to November. Wettest month September at 128 mm, driest February at 30 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 795 mm to 2680 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: 27 to 41 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 27 to 41 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 23, the highest 90th-percentile month 44).

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 10.9 °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 10.9 °C, the absolute minimum 7.1 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 38.8 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 16.1 °C in January (across the envelope cells 12.7 °C to 22.6 °C), warmest day 30.3 °C in March (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 10.9 °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: 55 to 64% 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 26 °C in Jul to 30 °C in Mar; mean night from 16 °C in Jan to 21 °C in May. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1002 mm of rain a year, most in Sep. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 276 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 7.1 °C and the 99th-percentile day 38.8 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°20°30°40°38.8° 99th-percentile day (undated)7.1° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 27–41RH 55–64 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 276 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 °C27 / 24–3029 / 25–3230 / 24–3530 / 23–3729 / 22–3727 / 20–3326 / 20–3126 / 20–3127 / 22–3127 / 23–3026 / 23–2926 / 23–29
Night °C16 / 13–2317 / 13–2319 / 15–2421 / 15–2521 / 13–2620 / 12–2520 / 11–2519 / 11–2419 / 12–2419 / 13–2418 / 14–2316 / 13–23
Rain mm31 / 2–33630 / 2–28961 / 10–25185 / 19–244101 / 25–21773 / 18–31089 / 14–41198 / 14–359128 / 18–258122 / 49–294109 / 27–28475 / 6–268
DLI36 / 32–4140 / 35–4341 / 35–4439 / 31–4436 / 28–4331 / 24–3527 / 23–3329 / 24–3634 / 29–4033 / 30–4132 / 28–4132 / 29–39
RH %58 / 51–6955 / 48–6958 / 47–6862 / 50–6862 / 54–6962 / 56–7263 / 58–7264 / 57–7163 / 56–6962 / 57–6863 / 55–6861 / 52–67

Each figure is the median across the 276 grid cells holding the 382 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 1541:5150 (12.925, 77.525). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 7.1 °C, 1st-percentile night 10.9 °C, 99th-percentile day 38.8 °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 276 distinct grid cells holding the 382 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1541:5150 (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 13.00_77.500, lapse-corrected -7 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 835 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.
NativeEthiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Comoros, Madagascar, India, Sri Lanka· introduced: Bangladesh, Borneo, Jawa, Lesser Sunda Is., Fiji, Samoa, Hawaii, Trinidad-Tobago
Kew's description“tree” · “seasonally dry tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker12.93, 77.588 · in the densest population, 191 records (49% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 386 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 303 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker in the same place. 264 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 4 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 386 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Filicium decipiensFilicium decipiensFilicium decipiensFilicium decipiensFilicium decipiensFilicium decipiensFilicium decipiensFilicium decipiens

Photographs: (c) i_c_riddell, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); no rights reserved · CC0 (3); (c) Siddarth Machado, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2).

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

Green synthesis, characterization and antibacterial efficacy of palladium nanoparticles synthesized using Filicium decipiens leaf extract
G. Sharmila, M. Farzana Fathima, S. Haries, S. Geetha (2017) · Journal of Molecular Structure
Chemosystematics of the Sapindaceae
I. Umadevi, M. Daniel (1991) · Feddes Repertorium
Glycosides fromGrewia damineandFilicium decipiens
U.L.B. Jayasinghe, B.A.I.S. Balasooriya, A.G.D. Bandara, Yoshinori Fujimoto (2004) · Natural Product Research
Saponins from the stem bark of Filicium decipiens
Catherine Lavaud, Laurence Voutquenne‐Nazabadioko, Georges Massiot, Louisette Le Men‐Olivier (1998) · Phytochemistry
Antioxidant flavonol glycosides from Elaeocarpus serratus and Filicium decipiens
Lalith Jayasinghe, Nilupa R. Amarasinghe, B.G. Suranga Arundathie, G. Kalinga Rupasinghe (2011) · Natural Product Research
Termite Resistance of The Less Known Tropical Woods Species Grown in West Java, Indonesia
Fauzi Febrianto, Andi Zaim Pranata, Dea Septiana, Arinana Arinana (2015) · Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
Evaluation of anti-inflammatory activity on the leaves of Filicium decipiens in experimental animal models.
Rajaguru Paramaguru, K. Jagadeeshwar, C. B. M. Kumar, N Arun Raj (2011) · Journal of chemical and pharmaceutical research
Embryology and taxonomy of filicium decipiens
Neha Gulati, Shivani Mathur (1977) · Phytomorphology Phytomorphology An International Journal of Plant Sciences
Early identification of the quality of tree pruning cuts in a Bogor campus area
S Fickri, I Z Siregar (2018) · IOP Conference Series Earth and Environmental Science

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 2026-09-19 (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 56 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.