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Heptapleurum taiwanianum; photograph (c) 雲一百香果, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) 雲一百香果, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-07-01

Heptapleurum taiwanianum (Nakai) G.M.Plunkett & Lowry

Taiwan Umbrella Tree; Taiwanese Umbrella Tree; Taiwanese schefflera

Araliaceae · Taiwan

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Heptapleurum taiwanianum, photograph (c) Jaw-Jian La, some rights reserved (CC BY)Heptapleurum taiwanianum, photograph (c) Cheng-Te Hsu, some rights reserved (CC BY)Heptapleurum taiwanianum, photograph (c) Cheng-Te Hsu, some rights reserved (CC BY)Heptapleurum taiwanianum, photograph (c) chrisdt, some rights reserved (CC BY)Heptapleurum taiwanianum, photograph (c) 林正文, some rights reserved (CC BY)Heptapleurum taiwanianum, photograph (c) 張家瑜, some rights reserved (CC BY) 57 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
-4.3°C
Record low -9.9 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
20°C
Jul and Aug at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
3,546mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
18–35DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  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 April to September, read as a summer growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Heptapleurum taiwanianum (syn. Schefflera taiwaniana, 台灣鵝掌藤) is a species of flowering plant in the family Araliaceae, native to Taiwan, where it is scattered throughout coniferous forests at 2,000–3,000 m (6,600–9,800 ft). Growing to 4 m (13 ft) tall by 2.5 m (8.2 ft) broad, it is an evergreen shrub or small tree. Large leaves up to 15 cm (5.9 in) long are composed of up to 11 ovate leaflets arranged radially around a central stalk (palmately compound). Young leaves are covered in silver hairs, while mature leaves have a smooth surface. More on Wikipedia ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Heptapleurum taiwanianum", CC BY-SA 4.0.

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 ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Heptapleurum", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (2,517 mm of 3,337 mm) falls in April to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 15.8 °C against a yearly mean of 12.8 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: October to March.

Rain

3,337 mm in the median year at the habitat, 2,517 mm of it April to September. Wettest month September at 498 mm, driest month December at 79 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 3,016 mm to 4,712 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 3,546 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 3,337 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: 18 to 35 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 15, the highest 90th-percentile month 36).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is -4.3 °C, the absolute minimum -9.9 °C, 1,176 frost nights in 44 years, 26.7 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 23.1 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 2.6 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range -0.2 °C to 5.8 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 20.4 °C in July (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -4.3 °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: 62 to 68% 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 +902 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 Heptapleurum taiwanianum through the yearWarmest months July and August, mean daily high 20 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 2.6 °C; 3,337 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.-20°-10°0°10°20°30°frost23.1° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-9.9° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter02004006008001000mm rainDLI 18–35RH 62–68%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 40 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 °C10 / 7–1311 / 8–1414 / 11–1716 / 14–1918 / 15–2119 / 17–2320 / 18–2320 / 18–2319 / 16–2217 / 14–2014 / 11–1811 / 8–14
Night °C3 / 0–64 / 1–76 / 4–109 / 6–1211 / 8–1412 / 10–1613 / 10–1613 / 10–1612 / 10–1510 / 8–137 / 5–104 / 1–7
Rain mm90 / 64–119178 / 141–190181 / 165–213216 / 187–318373 / 324–588481 / 393–766459 / 392–780490 / 435–856498 / 428–599198 / 148–37594 / 64–19979 / 57–115
DLI18 / 16–2220 / 18–2426 / 24–3029 / 28–3330 / 29–3230 / 29–3235 / 33–3632 / 29–3328 / 27–2925 / 23–2721 / 18–2318 / 15–21
RH %63 / 58–6764 / 61–6964 / 61–6765 / 62–6766 / 64–6867 / 64–6865 / 62–6868 / 65–7068 / 65–7066 / 64–7064 / 60–6962 / 57–68
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 40 grid cells holding the 245 in-range records, 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 1316:6024 (24.175, 121.225). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -9.9 °C, 1st-percentile night -4.3 °C, 99th-percentile day 23.1 °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 40 distinct grid cells holding 245 of the 245 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1316:6024 (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 24.00_121.250, lapse-corrected +902 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 2225 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.
NativeTaiwan · 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 marker23.515, 120.902 · in the densest population, 416 records (100% of those in range)
Kew's description“tree” · “subtropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 417 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 245 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 152 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 2 km away. 172 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 417 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Heptapleurum taiwanianum, photograph 1did not loadHeptapleurum taiwanianum, photograph 2did not loadHeptapleurum taiwanianum, photograph 3did not loadHeptapleurum taiwanianum, photograph 4did not loadHeptapleurum taiwanianum, photograph 5did not loadHeptapleurum taiwanianum, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Jaw-Jian La, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Cheng-Te Hsu, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) chrisdt, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) 林正文, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) 張家瑜, some rights reserved (CC BY).

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

Eurya glaberrima Eurya glaberrima Pentaphylacaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, 許文俊Rubus rolfei Rubus rolfei Taiwan creeping berry Photo: CC0, author not statedPicea morrisonicola Picea morrisonicola Mount Morrison Spruce Photo: CC BY, 葉淑蓮Gentiana flavomaculata Gentiana flavomaculata Gentianaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedDaphne arisanensis Daphne arisanensis Thymelaeaceae Photo: CC BY, 槲蕨MiuDryopteris lepidopoda Dryopteris lepidopoda Sunset Fern Photo: CC BY, Jacy Chen

Other Heptapleurum 17 in the reference

Heptapleurum actinophyllum Heptapleurum actinophyllum Octopus tree Photo: CC BY, Thomas MesaglioHeptapleurum arboricola Heptapleurum arboricola Hawaiian-elf Photo: CC BY, Peter Crowcroft Heptapleurum brevipedicellatum Araliaceae Heptapleurum calyptratum Heptapleurum calyptratum Araliaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Krzysztof Ziarnek, Kenraiz Heptapleurum chapanum Araliaceae Heptapleurum delavayi Heptapleurum delavayi Araliaceae Photo: CC0, DaderotHeptapleurum ellipticum Heptapleurum ellipticum Climbing umbrella tree Photo: CC0, author not stated Heptapleurum emarginatum Araliaceae Heptapleurum fantsipanense Araliaceae Heptapleurum heptaphyllum Heptapleurum heptaphyllum Ivy Tree Photo: CC0, author not stated Heptapleurum hoi Araliaceae Heptapleurum leucanthum Heptapleurum leucanthum Araliaceae Photo: CC BY, Carlos Otávio Gussoni all 18 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Agalma taiwanianum; Agalma taiwanianum subsp. taiwanianum; Schefflera taiwaniana; Schefflera taiwaniana subsp. taiwaniana. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Araliaceae
Described by
(Nakai) G.M.Plunkett & Lowry
Native to
Taiwan
Wild records
417 in range · 152 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
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 24.00_121.250, lapse-corrected +902 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 12 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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