Kokia drynarioides (Seem.) Lewton
Hawaiian Tree Cotton; Hawaii tree cotton; Hau-hele'ula; Koki'o
17 photographs › At a glance
- Jan
- Feb
- Mar
- Apr
- May
- Jun
- Jul
- Aug
- Sep
- Oct
- Nov
- Dec
From few records: 4 records in 4 grid cells. The records.
Summary
Kokia drynarioides, commonly known as Hawaiian tree cotton, is a species of flowering plant in the mallow family, Malvaceae, that is endemic to the Big Island of Hawaii. It inhabits dry forests at elevations of 455–1,915 m (1,493–6,283 ft). Associated plants include ʻāheahea (Chenopodium oahuense), ʻaʻaliʻi (Dodonaea viscosa), hala pepe (Pleomele hawaiiensis), wiliwili (Erythrina sandwicensis), uhiuhi (Caesalpinia kavaiensis), kōlea (Myrsine lanaiensis), ʻaiea (Nothocestrum latifolium), kuluʻī (Nototrichium sandwicense), ʻālaʻa (Planchonella sandwicensis), ʻohe kukuluāeʻo (Reynoldsia sandwicensis), māmane (Sophora chrysophylla), and maua (Xylosma hawaiensis var. hillebrandii). It is threatened by habitat loss and competition with invasive species, such as fountain grass (Pennisetum setaceum).
Quoted from Wikipedia, "Kokia drynarioides", CC BY-SA 4.0.
Cultivation
Seasons
The rain rule reads no short rainy season: 70% of the median year's rain (569 mm of 785 mm) takes 8 months, December to May and September to October. Mean temperature moves 2.9 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern 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
785 mm in the median year at the habitat, 569 mm of it December to May and September to October. Wettest month January at 93 mm, driest month July at 49 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 662 mm to 940 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 776 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 785 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: 26 to 42 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 25, the highest 90th-percentile month 43).
Warmth and air
Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 15.1 °C, the absolute minimum 12.9 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 28.0 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 17.8 °C in February (across the grid cells of the range 10.2 °C to 19.8 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 25.5 °C in August (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 15.1 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).
Relative humidity at the habitat: 65 to 72% 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 -37 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
From few records: this habitat climate is read from 4 records in 4 grid cells; a page says so under 12 records or 5 cells, and shows the figures as read.
Habitat months, northern hemisphere
Mean daily high from 23 °C in Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr and Dec to 26 °C in Aug; mean nightly low from 18 °C in Jan, Feb, Mar and Apr to 21 °C in Aug and Sep. The cold quarter, Jan to Mar, is the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low, centred on the 4 months in a row that tie for it. 785 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added), the wettest month Jan. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 4 habitat cells. Over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER) the absolute minimum was 12.9 °C and the 99th-percentile day 28.0 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.
Figures by month
| Figure | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day °C | 23 / 17–24 | 23 / 17–24 | 23 / 17–24 | 23 / 17–25 | 24 / 18–25 | 24 / 19–26 | 25 / 19–26 | 26 / 20–27 | 25 / 19–27 | 25 / 19–26 | 24 / 18–26 | 23 / 17–25 |
| Night °C | 18 / 11–20 | 18 / 10–20 | 18 / 11–20 | 18 / 11–20 | 19 / 12–21 | 20 / 12–22 | 20 / 13–22 | 21 / 13–23 | 21 / 13–23 | 20 / 13–22 | 20 / 12–22 | 19 / 11–21 |
| Rain mm | 93 / 77–104 | 65 / 57–74 | 73 / 63–89 | 68 / 58–85 | 65 / 54–79 | 57 / 45–66 | 49 / 40–64 | 56 / 45–71 | 68 / 54–83 | 65 / 54–75 | 54 / 46–63 | 72 / 63–86 |
| DLI | 28 / 26–29 | 32 / 31–33 | 36 / 35–37 | 39 / 38–41 | 41 / 39–42 | 41 / 39–43 | 42 / 40–42 | 41 / 39–42 | 37 / 36–38 | 34 / 32–35 | 29 / 27–29 | 26 / 25–27 |
| RH % | 65 / 62–66 | 65 / 62–66 | 66 / 65–67 | 68 / 67–70 | 70 / 68–71 | 72 / 70–74 | 71 / 69–73 | 71 / 69–73 | 71 / 68–73 | 69 / 67–71 | 67 / 66–68 | 66 / 65–67 |
How this section is made
Natural habitat
How this section is made
Photographs
Photographs: (c) Neal Kelso, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) David Anderson, some rights reserved (CC BY); Forest & Kim Starr, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (2).
Related
Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.
Colubrina oppositifolia Kauila Photo: CC BY, Brynn Fricke
Bidens torta Corkscrew beggarticks Photo: CC0, author not stated
Pittosporum glabrum Koolau Range cheesewood Photo: CC BY, Brynn Fricke
Argemone glauca Smooth pricklypoppy Photo: CC BY, Harrison Cole
Planchonella sandwicensis Sapotaceae Photo: CC BY, Brynn Fricke
Microsorum spectrum Triploid fern Photo: CC0, author not statedOther Kokia 1 in the reference
Names & registers
Also known as Gossypium drynarioides; Hibiscus drynariodes; Hibiscus drynarioides; Kokia rockii. (GBIF Backbone)
The record
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 answeredasked 2026-10-22gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21climate answeredasked 2026-10-22climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 20.00_-155.625, lapse-corrected -37 m at 6.5 °C/kmwikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22inat.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 2026-10-22inat.photos.cultivated not askedgbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22none of the photographs on this page is credited to GBIF: those shown are other sources', and GBIF's were the same photographs or were set aside by the photograph rulescommons answeredasked 2026-10-22openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshotEvery 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 6 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.