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Guettarda speciosa; photograph (c) Neal Kelso, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Neal Kelso, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-07-01

Guettarda speciosa L.

Sea randa; Zebrawood; Beach False-Medlar; Beach-Medlar

Rubiaceae · Kenya, Tanzania +62

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Guettarda speciosa, photograph (c) Neal Kelso, some rights reserved (CC BY)Guettarda speciosa, photograph (c) Neal Kelso, some rights reserved (CC BY)Guettarda speciosa, photograph (c) Matt B, some rights reserved (CC BY)Guettarda speciosa, photograph (c) Matt B, some rights reserved (CC BY)Guettarda speciosa, photograph (c) Matt B, some rights reserved (CC BY)Guettarda speciosa, photograph (c) Neal Kelso, some rights reserved (CC BY) 93 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
19.8°C
Record low 16.1 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
28°C
Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Oct, Nov and Dec at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,771mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
30–42DLI
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, November to April (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

Guettarda speciosa, with common names sea randia, or zebra wood, is a species of shrub in the family Rubiaceae found in coastal habitats in tropical areas around the Pacific Ocean, including the coastline of central and northern Queensland and Northern Territory in Australia, and Pacific Islands, including Micronesia, French Polynesia and Fiji, Malaysia and Indonesia, Maldives and the east coast of Africa. It reaches 6 m in height, has fragrant white flowers, and large green prominently-veined leaves. It grows in sand above the high tide mark.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Guettarda speciosa", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a sharp season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,251 mm of 1,679 mm) falls in November to April. The temperature curve is flat, 2.6 °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

1,679 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,251 mm of it November to April. Wettest month January at 272 mm, driest month September at 50 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,201 mm to 2,881 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,771 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,679 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: 30 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 46).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 19.8 °C, the absolute minimum 16.1 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 36.1 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 23.3 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range 19.0 °C to 26.2 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 28.1 °C in March and April (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 19.8 °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: 61 to 65% 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 -19 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.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, southern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Guettarda speciosa through the yearWarmest months January, February, March, April, May, October, November and December, mean daily high 28 °C; coldest month July, mean nightly low 23.3 °C; 1,679 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.15°20°25°30°35°40°36.1° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER16.1° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 30–42RH 61–65%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 494 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 °C28 / 27–3028 / 27–3028 / 27–3028 / 26–3028 / 24–3027 / 23–2926 / 22–2926 / 22–2927 / 23–2928 / 24–3028 / 25–3128 / 26–30
Night °C26 / 24–2726 / 24–2726 / 24–2726 / 23–2725 / 22–2724 / 20–2723 / 19–2623 / 19–2624 / 21–2625 / 22–2626 / 23–2726 / 23–27
Rain mm272 / 44–421260 / 39–395242 / 58–348161 / 84–278111 / 27–24781 / 5–24161 / 3–27057 / 2–28750 / 4–31168 / 15–297116 / 48–264200 / 103–319
DLI36 / 32–4237 / 32–4137 / 34–4135 / 31–4032 / 26–3730 / 24–3531 / 25–3535 / 29–3938 / 33–4442 / 32–4642 / 30–4538 / 30–44
RH %64 / 61–6665 / 61–6664 / 61–6663 / 60–6661 / 58–6661 / 57–6661 / 56–6562 / 57–6663 / 59–6662 / 60–6662 / 60–6663 / 61–66
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 494 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (762 records in those cells; 120 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 2026:6220 (-11.325, 131.025). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 16.1 °C, 1st-percentile night 19.8 °C, 99th-percentile day 36.1 °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 494 distinct grid cells holding 762 of the 974 in-range records (120 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2026:6220 (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_131.250, lapse-corrected -19 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 4 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.
NativeKenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, KwaZulu-Natal, Aldabra, Chagos Archipelago, Comoros, Mozambique Channel Is., Madagascar, Seychelles, Hainan, China Southeast, Nansei-shoto, Taiwan, Bangladesh, India, Laccadive Is., Maldives, Sri Lanka, Andaman Is., Cambodia, Myanmar, Nicobar Is., South China Sea, Thailand, Vietnam, Borneo, Cocos (Keeling) I., Jawa, Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Maluku, Philippines, Sulawesi, Sumatera, Christmas I., Bismarck Archipelago, New Guinea, Solomon Is., Northern Territory, Queensland, Western Australia, Fiji, Gilbert Is., Nauru, Niue, New Caledonia, Phoenix Is., Samoa, Tokelau-Manihiki, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, Wallis-Futuna Is., Cook Is., Line Is., Marquesas, Pitcairn Is., Society Is., Tuamotu, Tubuai Is., Caroline Is., Marianas, Marshall Is. · 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-12.192, 136.695 · in the densest population, 279 records (19% of those in range)
Kew's description“tree” · “wet tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 1455 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 762 of them in the land cells it reads, of 974 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 1000 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 30 km away. 65 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 481 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 inside the densest 4° block of the 1455 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Guettarda speciosa, photograph 1did not loadGuettarda speciosa, photograph 2did not loadGuettarda speciosa, photograph 3did not loadGuettarda speciosa, photograph 4did not loadGuettarda speciosa, photograph 5did not loadGuettarda speciosa, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Neal Kelso, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Matt B, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3).

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

Pemphis acidula Pemphis acidula Ironwood mangrove Photo: CC BY, Roland MuenchCordia subcordata Cordia subcordata Kou Photo: CC BY, Harrison ColeRhizophora mucronata Rhizophora mucronata Loop-root mangrove Photo: CC BY, Rob FosterLeptopetalum biflorum Leptopetalum biflorum Twoflower Mille Graines Photo: CC BY, 胡正恆(Jackson Hu)Sonneratia alba Sonneratia alba Lythraceae Photo: CC BY, Thomas MesaglioSonneratia ovata Sonneratia ovata Lythraceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Abu Hamas

Other Guettarda 4 in the reference

Guettarda elliptica Guettarda elliptica Elliptic-leaf velvetseed Photo: CC0, author not stated Guettarda odorata Cucubano de vieques Guettarda scabra Guettarda scabra Wild guave Photo: CC BY, Tom FieldGuettarda uruguensis Guettarda uruguensis Rubiaceae Photo: CC BY, Seba Fernández

Names & registers

Also known as Cadamba jasminiflora; Gardenia speciosa; Guettarda hirsuta; Guettarda speciosa f. speciosa; Guettarda speciosa f. tahitensis and 12 more. (GBIF Backbone)

Kew accepts as species of their own Atractocarpus tahitensis: older names in GBIF's record of this species that Kew's World Checklist accepts as other species. (WCVP, RBG Kew, file of 2026-06-04)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Rubiaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique +61
Wild records
1455 in range · 1000 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; 9 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (7 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 2 at a zoo; 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_131.250, lapse-corrected -19 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 2026-10-22
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 89 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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