Species
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Khaya senegalensis (Desv.) A.Juss.

African Mahogany, Benin Mahogany, Dry Zone Mahogany, Senegal Mahogany

Climate known 29 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

Khaya senegalensis is a species of tree in the Meliaceae family that is native to Africa. Common names include African mahogany, dry zone mahogany, Gambia mahogany, khaya wood, Senegal mahogany, cailcedra, acajou, djalla, and bois rouge.

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

About the genus · Khaya

Khayaa is a genus of five tree species in the mahogany family Meliaceae. The timber of Khaya is called African mahogany, and is valued as a substitute to American mahogany.

Text from Wikipedia, “Khaya”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Meliaceae
Described by
(Desv.) A.Juss.
Native to
Benin, Burkina, Gambia, The +16
Wild records
1064 in range· 980 open

At a glance

Warmest month
37°C
Mar, mean day; nights 24 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1098mm/yr
7 wet months · peak Aug 239 mm (CHELSA)
Light
27–41DLI
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 winter growing season, June to September at the habitat (not shifted). Habitat rain 1098 mm a year, wettest August at 239 mm, driest January at 1 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 27 to 41 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 13.2 °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 Khaya senegalensis var. quadrivalvis Pell.; Khaya senegalensis var. spectabilis A.Chev.; Swietenia senegalensis Desr.; Swietenia senegalensis Desv.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a winter growing season, June to September at the habitat (not shifted).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a winter growing season: 70% of the year's rain (777 mm of 1098 mm) falls in June to September, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 25.4 °C against a yearly mean of 26.9 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere, within 10° of the equator; with no thermal season there there is no season to reverse, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

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 1098 mm a year, wettest August at 239 mm, driest January at 1 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1098 mm a year at the habitat, 777 mm of it June to September. Wettest month August at 239 mm, driest January at 1 mm; 3 months under 5 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 850 mm to 1310 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern 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: 27 to 41 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 27 to 41 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 24, 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 13.2 °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 13.2 °C, the absolute minimum 10.0 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 39.7 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 19.3 °C in January (across the envelope cells 17.8 °C to 23.0 °C), warmest day 36.6 °C in March (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 13.2 °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: 39 to 68% 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 29 °C in Aug to 37 °C in Mar; mean night from 19 °C in Jan to 25 °C in Apr. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1098 mm of rain a year, most in Aug. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 446 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 10.0 °C and the 99th-percentile day 39.7 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°15°20°25°30°35°40°45°39.7° 99th-percentile day (undated)10.0° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250300mm rainDLI 27–41RH 39–68 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 446 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 °C34 / 32–3536 / 34–3737 / 33–3935 / 32–4033 / 31–3831 / 29–3529 / 28–3129 / 28–3030 / 28–3031 / 30–3434 / 31–3634 / 32–35
Night °C19 / 18–2321 / 20–2424 / 22–2525 / 23–2624 / 23–2623 / 22–2522 / 21–2422 / 21–2322 / 21–2322 / 21–2421 / 20–2320 / 18–23
Rain mm1 / 0–94 / 0–2921 / 2–7770 / 20–120126 / 69–163160 / 121–208193 / 135–244239 / 92–289185 / 149–24090 / 40–1597 / 1–382 / 0–13
DLI38 / 34–3941 / 36–4241 / 35–4440 / 34–4337 / 30–4132 / 27–3928 / 25–3427 / 24–3130 / 27–3535 / 29–3938 / 31–3937 / 32–38
RH %39 / 33–5940 / 31–6047 / 34–6256 / 44–6561 / 52–6764 / 57–6867 / 62–6968 / 65–7067 / 65–6963 / 56–6851 / 40–6542 / 35–62

Each figure is the median across the 446 grid cells holding the 1021 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 1599:3629 (10.025, 1.475). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 10.0 °C, 1st-percentile night 13.2 °C, 99th-percentile day 39.7 °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 446 distinct grid cells holding the 1021 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1599:3629 (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 10.00_1.250, lapse-corrected +17 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 371 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.
NativeBenin, Burkina, Gambia, The, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Mali, Mauritania, Nigeria, Niger, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Gabon, Chad, Sudan, Uganda· introduced: Hainan, China Southeast, Taiwan, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Vietnam, Florida, Cuba, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Puerto Rico
Kew's description“tree” · “seasonally dry tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker6.97, 2.127 · in the densest population, 888 records (83% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1064 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 980 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker in the same place. 248 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 43 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 2° block of the 1064 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Khaya senegalensisKhaya senegalensisKhaya senegalensisKhaya senegalensisKhaya senegalensisKhaya senegalensisKhaya senegalensisKhaya senegalensis

Photographs: (c) Ong Jyh Seng, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA); (c) Dairon Cuevas Riveras, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (5); (c) ONG SOS Biodiversity, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2).

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 Khaya senegalensis, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Antioxidant and antibacterial activities of polyphenols from ethnomedicinal plants of Burkina Faso
Damintoti Simplice Karou, Mamoudou H. Dicko, Jacques Simporè, Alfred S. Traoré (2005) · Socio-Environmental Systems Modeling
In vitro trypanocidal effect of methanolic extract of some Nigerian savannah plants
Atawodi S.E., T. Bulus, S. Ibrahim, Ameh D.A. (2003) · AFRICAN JOURNAL OF BIOTECHNOLOGY
Ethnobotanical study of medicinal plants used in the management of diabetes mellitus and hypertension in the Central Region of Togo
Simplice Damintoti Karou, Tchadjobo Tchacondo, M Agassounon Djikpo Tchibozo, Saliou Abdoul-Rahaman (2011) · Pharmaceutical Biology
Anti-tyrosinase, total phenolic content and antioxidant activity of selected Sudanese medicinal plants
Ali Mahmoud Muddathir, Kosei Yamauchi, Irmanida Batubara, Ebtihal Abdalla M. Mohieldin (2016) · South African Journal of Botany
Traditional plant use in Burkina Faso (West Africa): a national-scale analysis with focus on traditional medicine
Alexander Zizka, Adjima Thiombiano, Stefan Dreßler, Blandine Marie Ivette Nacoulma (2015) · Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine
Evaluation of the anthelmintic activity of Khaya senegalensis extract against gastrointestinal nematodes of sheep: in vitro and in vivo studies
Isaiah Oluwafemi Ademola, Benjamin O. Fagbemi, Sunday Olakunle Idowu (2004) · Veterinary Parasitology
Recovery from bark harvesting of 12 medicinal tree species in Benin, West Africa
Claire Delvaux, Brice Sinsin, François Darchambeau, Patrick Van Damme (2009) · Journal of Applied Ecology
Khayanolides, rearranged phragmalin limonoid antifeedants from Khaya senegalensis
Samir A.M. Abdelgaleil, Hiroaki Okamura, Tetsuo Iwagawa, Atsuko Sato (2001) · Tetrahedron

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.

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 120 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.