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Gyrocarpus americanus; photograph (c) Dinesh Valke, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) CC BY-SA(c) Dinesh Valke, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) · observed growing wild · 2026-02-02

Gyrocarpus americanus Jacq.

Coolamon-tree; Gyro damson; Helicopter-tree; Twirly-whirly-tree

Hernandiaceae · Guinea, Mali +52

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Gyrocarpus americanus, photograph (c) Ravuri Krishna Chaitanya, some rights reserved (CC BY)Gyrocarpus americanus, photograph (c) Ravuri Krishna Chaitanya, some rights reserved (CC BY)Gyrocarpus americanus, photograph (c) Vikas D Prasad, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Gyrocarpus americanus, photograph (c) Vikas D Prasad, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Gyrocarpus americanus, photograph (c) Vikas D Prasad, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Gyrocarpus americanus, photograph author not stated, no rights reserved 96 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
10.7°C
Record low 7.0 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
36°C
Oct and Nov at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
943mm
7 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
32–45DLI
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
Wet summers: the rain comes December to March (the habitat's months, not shifted), read as a summer growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Not shifted: the shift rule does not apply to this habitat. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Gyrocarpus americanus is a flowering plant in the Hernandiaceae family, with a wide pantropical distribution. Its common names include the helicopter tree, propeller tree, whirly whirly tree, stinkwood or shitwood.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Gyrocarpus americanus", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (692 mm of 849 mm) falls in December to March, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 28.3 °C against a yearly mean of 26.4 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere. The habitat lies within 10° of the equator, where the shift rule does not apply, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

Rain

849 mm in the median year at the habitat, 692 mm of it December to March. Wettest month February at 218 mm, driest month August at 1 mm; 2 months under 5 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 645 mm to 1,813 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 943 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 849 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: 32 to 45 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 26, the highest 90th-percentile month 47).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 10.7 °C, the absolute minimum 7.0 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 42.5 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 15.5 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range 13.1 °C to 21.6 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 36.0 °C in October and November (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 10.7 °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: 47 to 62% 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 -29 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, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Gyrocarpus americanus through the yearWarmest months October and November, mean daily high 36 °C; coldest month July, mean nightly low 15.5 °C; 849 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.0°10°20°30°40°50°42.5° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER7.0° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 32–45RH 47–62%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 266 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 °C33 / 28–3532 / 28–3432 / 28–3532 / 27–3530 / 25–3228 / 23–3028 / 23–3030 / 24–3234 / 26–3636 / 27–3836 / 27–3834 / 28–37
Night °C25 / 20–2624 / 20–2623 / 20–2622 / 19–2519 / 17–2416 / 14–2316 / 13–2217 / 15–2220 / 17–2323 / 18–2525 / 19–2725 / 20–27
Rain mm211 / 70–323218 / 85–312121 / 69–24535 / 19–18411 / 4–2135 / 2–1743 / 1–1571 / 0–1725 / 3–21325 / 18–23172 / 46–173142 / 95–249
DLI39 / 34–4237 / 34–3937 / 35–3937 / 32–3834 / 27–3532 / 26–3433 / 27–3538 / 32–3942 / 37–4345 / 35–4645 / 31–4742 / 31–44
RH %60 / 55–6662 / 57–6658 / 53–6554 / 46–6551 / 44–6549 / 44–6448 / 42–6347 / 40–6349 / 41–6551 / 43–6653 / 47–6657 / 52–65

Records on both sides of the equator: the 72 cells at least 10° north of it have seasons six months apart and are left out, not combined into a year no place has. These figures are across the 266 cells that remain: the 230 at least 10° south and the 36 within 10° of the equator, which stay in either way.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 266 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (856 records in those cells; 5 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 2109:6196 (-15.475, 129.825). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 7.0 °C, 1st-percentile night 10.7 °C, 99th-percentile day 42.5 °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 266 distinct grid cells holding 856 of the 967 in-range records (5 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out) on the southern side of the equator (72 cells poleward of 10° north, 230 poleward of 10° south: the two sides' seasons are not combined, and cells within 10° of the equator stay in); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2109:6196 (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 -15.50_130.000, lapse-corrected -29 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 44 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.
NativeGuinea, Mali, Mauritania, Senegal, Eritrea, Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania, Angola, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Caprivi Strip, Namibia, Northern Provinces, Madagascar, Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Sri Lanka, Andaman Is., Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Jawa, Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Philippines, Christmas I., New Guinea, Solomon Is., Northern Territory, Queensland, Western Australia, Fiji, New Caledonia, Samoa, Vanuatu, Society Is., Tubuai Is., Mexico Central, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Venezuela, Colombia, Brazil Northeast · introduced: Chagos Archipelago, Tonga · 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 marker6.86, -75.843 · in the densest population, 564 records (52% of those in range)
Extinct inCocos (Keeling) I. · recorded as extinct by WCVP: history, not habitat; no records are tested against these regions
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 1090 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 856 of them in the land cells it reads, of 967 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 995 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker in the same place. 1 record outside the WCVP native range not used. 123 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 of the 1090 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Gyrocarpus americanus, photograph 1did not loadGyrocarpus americanus, photograph 2did not loadGyrocarpus americanus, photograph 3did not loadGyrocarpus americanus, photograph 4did not loadGyrocarpus americanus, photograph 5did not loadGyrocarpus americanus, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Ravuri Krishna Chaitanya, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Vikas D Prasad, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (3); author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0.

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

Acacia holosericea Acacia holosericea Candelabra wattle Photo: CC BY, Martin RadyEriocaulon cinereum Eriocaulon cinereum Ashy pipewort Photo: CC BY, Alan Bell Sabdariffa meraukensis Malvaceae Crotalaria medicaginea Crotalaria medicaginea Trefoil rattlepod Photo: CC BY, Petra HollandFimbristylis littoralis Fimbristylis littoralis Lesser fimbristylis Photo: CC BY, WATANABE Hitoshi 渡辺仁Flueggea virosa Flueggea virosa Common bushweed Photo: CC BY-SA, Rebecca Ryen-Stols

Other Gyrocarpus 1 in the reference

Gyrocarpus jatrophifolius Gyrocarpus jatrophifolius Hernandiaceae Photo: CC BY, nasua

Names & registers

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Hernandiaceae
Described by
Jacq.
Native to
Guinea, Mali, Mauritania +51
Wild records
1090 in range · 995 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; 1 record within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (1 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 -15.50_130.000, lapse-corrected -29 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 82 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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