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An example collection, so you can see what this page does. Nothing added here is kept: leaving deletes it.
Lophostemon suaveolens; photograph (c) Lucas Christofides, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Lucas Christofides, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-08-13

Lophostemon suaveolens (Sol. ex Gaertn.) Peter G.Wilson & J.T.Waterh.

Swamp mahogany; Swamp box; Swamp turpentine; Paperbark-mahogany

Myrtaceae · New Guinea, New South Wales +1

Cited as Kew's World Checklist cites it, Lophostemon suaveolens (Sol. ex Gaertn.) Peter G.Wilson & J.T.Waterh.: GBIF's backbone key for this page carries the name with another author, (Sol. ex Gaertn.) Paul G.Wilson & J.T.Waterh.

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Lophostemon suaveolens, photograph (c) Lucas Christofides, some rights reserved (CC BY)Lophostemon suaveolens, photograph (c) Lucas Christofides, some rights reserved (CC BY)Lophostemon suaveolens, photograph (c) Lucas Christofides, some rights reserved (CC BY)Lophostemon suaveolens, photograph (c) Greg Tasney, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Lophostemon suaveolens, photograph (c) Greg Tasney, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Lophostemon suaveolens, photograph (c) Greg Tasney, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) 114 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
9.1°C
Record low 6.5 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
29°C
Jan at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,197mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
20–41DLI
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 May to October (November to April at the habitat), 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

Lophostemon suaveolens, commonly known as swamp mahogany, swamp box or swamp turpentine, is a species of flowering plant in the clove and eucalyptus family Myrtaceae, native to New Guinea and Australia. In Australia, it occurs on the east coast, from north of the Hunter River in New South Wales, through to the top of Cape York Peninsula in Queensland. It grows in sclerophyll forest, swamp forest, gallery forest, and the margins of rainforests.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Lophostemon suaveolens", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Lophostemon

Lophostemon is a genus of 4 species of evergreen trees in the myrtle and clove family Myrtaceae. All four species are native to Australia, with one extending to New Guinea. The genus was first described in 1830 but not widely recognised until the 1980s. More on Wikipedia ›

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

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (810 mm of 1,153 mm) falls in November to April, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 23.2 °C against a yearly mean of 20.2 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: May to October.

Rain

1,153 mm in the median year at the habitat, 810 mm of it November to April. Wettest month February at 177 mm, driest month September at 39 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 813 mm to 1,736 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,197 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,153 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: 20 to 41 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 19, the highest 90th-percentile month 44).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 9.1 °C, the absolute minimum 6.5 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 33.0 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 11.0 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range 7.7 °C to 17.0 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 28.6 °C in January (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 9.1 °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: 55 to 62% 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 -82 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 Lophostemon suaveolens through the yearWarmest month January, mean daily high 29 °C; coldest month July, mean nightly low 11.0 °C; 1,153 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.5°10°15°20°25°30°35°33.0° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER6.5° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 20–41RH 55–62%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 824 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 / 26–3128 / 26–3027 / 25–2925 / 23–2722 / 20–2520 / 18–2219 / 18–2221 / 19–2424 / 21–2626 / 23–2827 / 24–3028 / 26–31
Night °C21 / 20–2421 / 19–2420 / 18–2318 / 15–2215 / 12–2012 / 9–1811 / 8–1712 / 8–1814 / 11–1917 / 14–2118 / 16–2320 / 18–24
Rain mm141 / 102–345177 / 127–361143 / 75–277108 / 56–18189 / 46–14061 / 33–11342 / 26–7541 / 25–6639 / 20–5771 / 35–92105 / 75–133136 / 116–187
DLI40 / 38–4236 / 34–3833 / 31–3627 / 26–3222 / 21–2820 / 19–2622 / 21–2728 / 27–3135 / 34–3939 / 38–4341 / 39–4341 / 40–44
RH %61 / 59–6662 / 60–6761 / 59–6661 / 58–6560 / 58–6458 / 56–6256 / 55–6255 / 54–6156 / 54–6158 / 55–6259 / 56–6360 / 58–64
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 824 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (1386 records in those cells; 12 more cells hold records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cells are left out), 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 2398:6663 (-29.925, 153.175). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 6.5 °C, 1st-percentile night 9.1 °C, 99th-percentile day 33.0 °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 824 distinct grid cells holding 1386 of the 1399 in-range records (12 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2398:6663 (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 -30.00_153.125, lapse-corrected -82 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 37 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.
NativeNew Guinea, New South Wales, Queensland · 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-28.686, 153.126 · in the densest population, 760 records (49% of those in range)
Kew's description“tree” · “wet tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 1546 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 1386 of them in the land cells it reads, of 1399 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 1262 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 37 km away. 15 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 147 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 1546 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Lophostemon suaveolens, photograph 1did not loadLophostemon suaveolens, photograph 2did not loadLophostemon suaveolens, photograph 3did not loadLophostemon suaveolens, photograph 4did not loadLophostemon suaveolens, photograph 5did not loadLophostemon suaveolens, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Lucas Christofides, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Greg Tasney, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (3).

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

Corymbia torelliana Corymbia torelliana Cadaghi Photo: CC BY-SA, Greg TasneyCryptocarya triplinervis Cryptocarya triplinervis Brown-laurel Photo: CC BY-SA, Greg TasneyAcacia disparrima Acacia disparrima Southern Salwood Photo: CC BY-SA, Greg TasneyDiospyros fasciculosa Diospyros fasciculosa Clustered Persimmon Photo: CC BY-SA, Greg TasneyAlyxia magnifolia Alyxia magnifolia Apocynaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Mark MarathonGrevillea venusta Grevillea venusta Proteaceae Photo: CC0, author not stated

Other Lophostemon 1 in the reference

Lophostemon confertus Lophostemon confertus Brisbane box Photo: CC0, author not stated

Names & registers

Also known as Lophostemon depressum; Melaleuca suaveolens; Tristania depressa; Tristania rhytiphloia; Tristania salicifolia and 3 more. (GBIF Backbone)

Kew accepts as species of their own Homaliopsis forbesii: older names in GBIF's record of this species that Kew's World Checklist accepts as other species. (WCVP, RBG Kew, file of 2026-06-04)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Myrtaceae
Described by
(Sol. ex Gaertn.) Peter G.Wilson & J.T.Waterh.
Native to
New Guinea, New South Wales, Queensland
Wild records
1546 in range · 1262 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 2026-10-22GBIF's key 3188420 is Lophostemon suaveolens (Sol. ex Gaertn.) Paul G.Wilson & J.T.Waterh.; the page links Kew's Lophostemon suaveolens (Sol. ex Gaertn.) Peter G.Wilson & J.T.Waterh., and the name is cited as Kew cites it
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; 4 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (4 at a botanic garden or arboretum; 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 -30.00_153.125, lapse-corrected -82 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 30 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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