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Macaranga gigantea; photograph (c) Toby Y, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Toby Y, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-06-30

Macaranga gigantea (Rchb.f. & Zoll.) Müll.Arg.

Giant Mahang

Euphorbiaceae · Myanmar, Thailand +4

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Macaranga gigantea, photograph (c) nik gaffney, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Macaranga gigantea, photograph (c) grass_0, some rights reserved (CC BY)Macaranga gigantea, photograph (c) grass_0, some rights reserved (CC BY)Macaranga gigantea, photograph (c) grass_0, some rights reserved (CC BY)Macaranga gigantea, photograph (c) grass_0, some rights reserved (CC BY)Macaranga gigantea, photograph (c) Steven Bodzin, some rights reserved (CC BY) 49 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
21.6°C
Record low 19.8 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
30°C
Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Aug and Sep at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
2,812mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
29–36DLI
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
Rain spread: 70% of the median year's rain takes 8 months, so no short rainy season. rain rule, CHELSA
Not shifted: the shift rule does not apply to this habitat. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Macaranga gigantea Common name Chia Kubet, (synonym Macaranga megalophylla) is a pioneer tree species in the spurge family Euphorbiaceae from western Indo-China and Malesia from southern Myanmar south to Sumatra and east to Sulawesi. It is a small tree growing to 15 metres tall, rarely to 25 metres. The leaves are peltate, tricuspidate and are typically up to 60 centimetres (24 in) long and wide on a petiole of comparable length.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Macaranga gigantea", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Macaranga

Macaranga is a large genus of Old World tropical trees of the family Euphorbiaceae and the only genus in the subtribe Macaranginae. Native to Africa, Australasia, Asia and various islands of the Indian and Pacific Oceans, the genus comprises over 300 different species. It was first described as a genus in 1806, based on specimens collected on the Island of Mauritius. More on Wikipedia ›

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

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads no short rainy season: 70% of the median year's rain (2,086 mm of 2,804 mm) takes 8 months, September to January and March to May. Mean temperature moves 1.3 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere. The habitat lies within 10° of the equator, where the shift rule does not apply, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

Rain

2,804 mm in the median year at the habitat, 2,086 mm of it September to January and March to May. Wettest month November at 305 mm, driest month June at 166 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 2,303 mm to 3,920 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 2,812 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 2,804 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: 29 to 36 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 26, the highest 90th-percentile month 38).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 21.6 °C, the absolute minimum 19.8 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 31.0 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 22.6 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 20.9 °C to 24.3 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 29.8 °C in April (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 21.6 °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: 65 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 -17 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 Macaranga gigantea through the yearWarmest months March, April, May, June, August and September, mean daily high 30 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 22.6 °C; 2,804 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.15°20°25°30°35°31.0° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER19.8° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 29–36RH 65–68%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 86 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 / 27–3029 / 27–3130 / 28–3130 / 29–3130 / 29–3130 / 28–3129 / 28–3030 / 28–3130 / 28–3129 / 28–3029 / 28–3028 / 27–29
Night °C23 / 21–2423 / 21–2523 / 22–2524 / 22–2524 / 22–2623 / 22–2623 / 22–2523 / 22–2523 / 22–2523 / 22–2523 / 22–2523 / 21–24
Rain mm224 / 133–490187 / 101–319243 / 151–353268 / 163–331235 / 195–310166 / 141–254177 / 154–273188 / 155–272236 / 173–319281 / 191–359305 / 219–383294 / 188–445
DLI31 / 27–3435 / 30–3836 / 31–3835 / 31–3833 / 30–3533 / 30–3433 / 30–3534 / 32–3734 / 31–3733 / 30–3430 / 27–3129 / 26–31
RH %67 / 64–7166 / 64–7066 / 65–7167 / 65–7167 / 65–7166 / 64–7065 / 64–6965 / 64–6866 / 64–6967 / 65–7068 / 67–7168 / 66–71
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 86 grid cells holding the 232 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 1754:5837 (2.275, 111.875). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 19.8 °C, 1st-percentile night 21.6 °C, 99th-percentile day 31.0 °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 86 distinct grid cells holding 232 of the 232 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1754:5837 (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 2.50_111.875, lapse-corrected -17 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 8 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.
NativeMyanmar, Thailand, Borneo, Malaya, Sulawesi, Sumatera · 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 marker1.361, 103.78 · in the densest population, 177 records (52% 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 338 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 232 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 124 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 1 km away. 2 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 106 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 338 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Macaranga gigantea, photograph 1did not loadMacaranga gigantea, photograph 2did not loadMacaranga gigantea, photograph 3did not loadMacaranga gigantea, photograph 4did not loadMacaranga gigantea, photograph 5did not loadMacaranga gigantea, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) nik gaffney, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA); (c) grass_0, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4); (c) Steven Bodzin, some rights reserved (CC BY).

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

Ficus grossularioides Ficus grossularioides White-leaved fig Photo: CC BY, Ong Jyh SengTeijsmanniodendron pteropodum Teijsmanniodendron pteropodum Lamiaceae Photo: CC0, Naturalis Biodiversity CenterDurio zibethinus Durio zibethinus King of Fruits Photo: CC BY, Samuel LeeSyzygium myrtifolium Syzygium myrtifolium Red Lip Photo: CC BY, Abdul Hanif Arromy Alstonia spatulata Hard milkwood Garcinia mangostana Garcinia mangostana Mangosteen Photo: CC0, author not stated

Other Macaranga 6 in the reference

Macaranga capensis Macaranga capensis Euphorbiaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Tony RebeloMacaranga grandifolia Macaranga grandifolia Coraltree Photo: CC0, author not statedMacaranga mappa Macaranga mappa Pengua Photo: CC0, author not statedMacaranga peltata Macaranga peltata Euphorbiaceae Photo: CC BY, Swarochi TathagathMacaranga tanarius Macaranga tanarius Parasol leaf tree Photo: CC0, author not statedMacaranga triloba Macaranga triloba Common mahang Photo: CC0, author not stated

Names & registers

Also known as Macaranga incisa; Macaranga megalophylla; Macaranga rugosa; Mappa gigantea; Mappa macrophylla and 6 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Euphorbiaceae
Described by
(Rchb.f. & Zoll.) Müll.Arg.
Native to
Myanmar, Thailand, Borneo +3
Wild records
338 in range · 124 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; 12 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (7 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 5 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 2.50_111.875, lapse-corrected -17 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 16 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

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