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Hymenaea verrucosa; photograph Maximilien Casterman, CC BY-SA, via GBIF CC BY-SAMaximilien Casterman, CC BY-SA, via GBIF

Hymenaea verrucosa Gaertn.

East African copal; Madagascar copal; Zanzibar copal; East African Gum Copal

Fabaceae · Kenya, Tanzania +5

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Hymenaea verrucosa, photograph Dinesh Valke from Thane, India, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia CommonsHymenaea verrucosa, photograph Dinesh Valke from Thane, India, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia CommonsHymenaea verrucosa, photograph Dinesh Valke from Thane, India, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia CommonsHymenaea verrucosa, photograph Dinesh Valke from Thane, India, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia CommonsHymenaea verrucosa, photograph Dinesh Valke from Thane, India, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia CommonsHymenaea verrucosa, photograph Dinesh Valke from Thane, India, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons 10 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
17.4°C
Record low 14.8 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
29°C
Jan and Feb at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,747mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
29–40DLI
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, December 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

Hymenaea verrucosa (commonly known as Zanzibar copal, East African copal, or amber tree) is a species of flowering plant in the legume family, Fabaceae. It belongs to the paraphyletic subfamily Caesalpinioideae. It is a large tree native to the tropical regions of East Africa and is cultivated in many tropical parts of the world. The species is currently treated as a species of Hymenaea, though a few authors isolate it into a separate monospecific genus Trachylobium as Trachylobium verrucosum. More on Wikipedia ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Hymenaea verrucosa", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a sharp season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,153 mm of 1,578 mm) falls in December to April. The temperature curve is flat, 3.9 °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

1,578 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,153 mm of it December to April. Wettest month February at 279 mm, driest month July at 29 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 863 mm to 3,049 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,747 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,578 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: 29 to 40 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 21, the highest 90th-percentile month 43).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 17.4 °C, the absolute minimum 14.8 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 32.7 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 19.6 °C in July and August (across the grid cells of the range 15.8 °C to 22.5 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 28.8 °C in February (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 17.4 °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 67% 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 -215 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 Hymenaea verrucosa through the yearWarmest months January and February, mean daily high 29 °C; coldest months July and August, mean nightly low 19.6 °C; 1,578 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.10°15°20°25°30°35°32.7° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER14.8° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 29–40RH 61–67%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 24 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 °C29 / 27–3129 / 27–3128 / 27–3128 / 26–3027 / 25–2926 / 23–2825 / 22–2725 / 23–2826 / 24–2827 / 25–3028 / 26–3128 / 27–31
Night °C24 / 22–2524 / 23–2524 / 22–2523 / 21–2522 / 19–2420 / 16–2320 / 16–2320 / 17–2220 / 18–2321 / 19–2422 / 21–2524 / 22–25
Rain mm250 / 52–457279 / 38–492257 / 84–424156 / 65–29669 / 30–28539 / 15–21929 / 8–22941 / 7–19347 / 9–12386 / 21–128114 / 49–194211 / 106–355
DLI38 / 35–4136 / 34–4135 / 32–3933 / 28–3731 / 24–3329 / 21–3130 / 22–3234 / 26–3638 / 32–4040 / 35–4340 / 38–4339 / 38–41
RH %67 / 63–7067 / 63–7066 / 63–7066 / 62–6965 / 60–6762 / 57–6561 / 57–6562 / 57–6562 / 58–6562 / 59–6763 / 60–6865 / 63–70
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 24 grid cells holding the 31 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 2085:4602 (-14.275, 50.125). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 14.8 °C, 1st-percentile night 17.4 °C, 99th-percentile day 32.7 °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 24 distinct grid cells holding 31 of the 31 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2085:4602 (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 -14.50_50.000, lapse-corrected -215 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 11 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, Comoros, Mauritius, Madagascar, Réunion · introduced: Benin, Ghana, Senegal, Seychelles, Taiwan, India, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Borneo, Jawa · 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-15.62, 49.95 · in the densest population, 107 records (45% of those in range)
Kew's description“shrub or tree” · “wet tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 238 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 31 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 202 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 1 km away. 21 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 207 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 2° block of the 238 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Hymenaea verrucosa, photograph 1did not loadHymenaea verrucosa, photograph 2did not loadHymenaea verrucosa, photograph 3did not loadHymenaea verrucosa, photograph 4did not loadHymenaea verrucosa, photograph 5did not loadHymenaea verrucosa, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: Dinesh Valke from Thane, India, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (6).

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

Entada rheedei Entada rheedei African dream herb Photo: CC0, author not statedAlchornea rugosa Alchornea rugosa Alchorntree Photo: CC BY-SA, Steve FitzgeraldCoelogyne imbricata Coelogyne imbricata Orchidaceae Photo: CC0, ForestowletSorindeia madagascariensis Sorindeia madagascariensis Anacardiaceae Photo: CC BY, Peter L AchuffFlagellaria indica Flagellaria indica Bush Cane Photo: CC BY, yatesyDendrobium smillieae Dendrobium smillieae Bottlebrush orchid Photo: CC BY, Luke Lythgoe

Other Hymenaea 4 in the reference

Hymenaea courbaril Hymenaea courbaril Stinking toe tree Photo: CC BY, The Great WalterHymenaea martiana Hymenaea martiana Fabaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Gustavo Sandres Hymenaea oblongifolia Fabaceae Hymenaea stigonocarpa Hymenaea stigonocarpa Fabaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Wallace Carneiro Almeida

Names & registers

Also known as Hymenaea gaertneriana; Hymenaea hayneana; Hymenaea hornemanniana; Hymenaea lamarckiana; Trachylobium gaertnerianum and 5 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Fabaceae
Described by
Gaertn.
Native to
Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique +4
Wild records
238 in range · 202 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; 14 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (10 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 2 at a herbarium, 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 -14.50_50.000, lapse-corrected -215 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22IPNI and POWO linked by Kew's number for Hymenaea verrucosa Gaertn. (the item's: IPNI none, POWO 498815-1)
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild nothing to reportasked 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
Wikimedia Commons commons 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 29 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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