Species
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Heptapleurum actinophyllum (Endl.) Lowry & G.M.Plunkett

Australian Umbrella Tree, Australian cabbagetree, Australian umbrella-tree, Octopus tree

Climate known 44 photographs
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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

Heptapleurum actinophyllum is a tree in the family Araliaceae. It is native to tropical rainforests and gallery forests in northern and northeastern Queensland coasts and the Northern Territory of Australia, as well as New Guinea and Java. Common names include Australian umbrella tree, Queensland umbrella tree, octopus tree and amate.

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

About the genus · Heptapleurum

Heptapleurum is a genus of flowering plants in the family Araliaceae, the ivy or ginseng family. These plants are native to Southeast Asia: Malesia, Papuasia, southern China, Vietnam, the Indian Subcontinent, Tibet, Hainan, Taiwan, Japan, and Australia. The genus was phylogenetically resurrected from the genus Schefflera in 2020. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Heptapleurum”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Araliaceae
Described by
(Endl.) Lowry & G.M.Plunkett
Native to
New Guinea, Northern Territory, Queensland
Wild records
489 in range· 268 open

At a glance

Warmest month
28°C
Jan, mean day; nights 23 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1424mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Feb 241 mm (CHELSA)
Light
23–42DLI
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 (November to April at the habitat, southern). Habitat rain 1424 mm a year, wettest February at 241 mm, driest September at 38 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 23 to 42 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 9.4 °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 Aralia longipes W.Bull; Brassaia actinophylla Endl.; Brassaia actinophylla F.Muell., 1863; Brassaia singaporensis Ridl.; Schefflera actinophylla (Endl.) Harms.

Cultivation

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

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 (1058 mm of 1424 mm) falls in November to April, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 24.4 °C against a yearly mean of 21.9 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: May to October.

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 1424 mm a year, wettest February at 241 mm, driest September at 38 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1424 mm a year at the habitat, 1058 mm of it November to April. Wettest month February at 241 mm, driest September at 38 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1042 mm to 2420 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: 23 to 42 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 23 to 42 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 20, 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 9.4 °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 9.4 °C, the absolute minimum 6.1 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 36.9 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 14.4 °C in July (across the envelope cells 10.1 °C to 20.8 °C), warmest day 28.2 °C in January (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 9.4 °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: 57 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 20 °C in Jul to 28 °C in Jan; mean night from 14 °C in Jul to 23 °C in Jan. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest night. 1424 mm of rain a year, most in Feb. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 327 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 6.1 °C and the 99th-percentile day 36.9 °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°36.9° 99th-percentile day (undated)6.1° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 23–42RH 57–64 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 327 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 / 26–3128 / 26–3027 / 25–3025 / 23–3023 / 21–2921 / 19–2820 / 18–2821 / 19–2824 / 21–3126 / 23–3227 / 24–3228 / 26–32
Night °C23 / 21–2623 / 21–2622 / 19–2520 / 17–2418 / 14–2315 / 11–2214 / 10–2115 / 11–2117 / 13–2219 / 16–2421 / 18–2522 / 20–26
Rain mm199 / 109–455241 / 155–462190 / 112–429141 / 85–279106 / 26–16966 / 8–11346 / 5–8342 / 4–6838 / 7–6468 / 24–94114 / 74–156173 / 132–260
DLI40 / 35–4236 / 33–3834 / 32–3630 / 27–3425 / 22–3123 / 20–3025 / 22–3130 / 27–3637 / 34–4242 / 37–4442 / 39–4441 / 38–43
RH %63 / 61–6864 / 61–7063 / 60–6862 / 59–6860 / 58–6759 / 57–6658 / 55–6557 / 55–6558 / 56–6460 / 57–6461 / 58–6662 / 60–67

Each figure is the median across the 327 grid cells holding the 451 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 2186:6535 (-19.325, 146.775). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 6.1 °C, 1st-percentile night 9.4 °C, 99th-percentile day 36.9 °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 327 distinct grid cells holding the 451 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2186:6535 (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 -19.50_146.875, lapse-corrected -43 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 89 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.
NativeNew Guinea, Northern Territory, Queensland· introduced: Canary Is., Madeira, Comoros, Bangladesh, Nicobar Is., Christmas I., Norfolk Is., Society Is., Caroline Is., Marianas, Marshall Is., Hawaii, Florida, Bahamas, Bermuda, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Puerto Rico
Kew's description“scrambling tree” · “wet tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-27.444, 153.018 · in the densest population, 371 records (76% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 489 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 268 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 254 km away. 1142 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 489 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Heptapleurum actinophyllumHeptapleurum actinophyllumHeptapleurum actinophyllumHeptapleurum actinophyllumHeptapleurum actinophyllumHeptapleurum actinophyllumHeptapleurum actinophyllumHeptapleurum actinophyllum

Photographs: no rights reserved · CC0; (c) Greg Tasney, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA); (c) Steve Fitzgerald, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA); (c) loisfraser, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Raúl A. Ruiz M., some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Bruno - Yolande Zanette, 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 Heptapleurum actinophyllum, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility

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 Heptapleurum 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 64 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.