Species
+

Magnolia figo (Lour.) DC.

Banana Magnolia, Banana shrub, banana-shrub, chenille copperleaf

Climate known 74 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

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

Magnolia figo is a species of flowering plant in the family Magnoliaceae. This evergreen tree is sometimes referred to by the common names banana shrub, and port wine magnolia. It grows to 3–4 metres tall.

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

About the genus · Magnolia

Magnolia is a large genus of about 210 to 340 flowering plant species in the subfamily Magnolioideae of the family Magnoliaceae. The natural range of Magnolia species is disjunct, with a main center in east, south and southeast Asia and a secondary center in South America, Central America, the West Indies, and some species in eastern North America.

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

Family
Magnoliaceae
Described by
(Lour.) DC.
Native to
China Southeast
Wild records
394 in range· 171 open

At a glance

Warmest month
31°C
Jul, mean day; nights 25 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1772mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jun 293 mm (CHELSA)
Light
17–35DLI
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 summer growing season, March to August in the northern hemisphere (March to August at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 1772 mm a year, wettest June at 293 mm, driest December at 42 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 17 to 35 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -3.2 °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 Liriodendron figo Lour.; Magnolia figo (Lour.) Figlar, 2000; Michelia figo (Lour.) Spreng.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, March to August in the northern hemisphere (March to August at the habitat, northern).

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

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (1304 mm of 1772 mm) falls in March to August, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 23.6 °C against a yearly mean of 19.7 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: September to February.

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 1772 mm a year, wettest June at 293 mm, driest December at 42 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1772 mm a year at the habitat, 1304 mm of it March to August. Wettest month June at 293 mm, driest December at 42 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1453 mm to 2373 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: 17 to 35 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 17 to 35 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 14, the highest 90th-percentile month 37).

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 -3.2 °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 -3.2 °C, the absolute minimum -10.6 °C, about 16 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 34.6 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 4.3 °C in January (across the envelope cells 0.8 °C to 12.2 °C), warmest day 31.2 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -3.2 °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: 59 to 66% 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 13 °C in Jan to 31 °C in Jul; mean night from 4 °C in Jan to 25 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1772 mm of rain a year, most in Jun. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 284 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -10.6 °C and the 99th-percentile day 34.6 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-20°-10°10°20°30°40°frost34.6° 99th-percentile day (undated)-10.6° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 17–35RH 59–66 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 284 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 °C13 / 8–1814 / 10–1918 / 15–2223 / 20–2627 / 24–2829 / 27–3031 / 29–3331 / 29–3329 / 27–3025 / 22–2820 / 16–2415 / 11–20
Night °C4 / 1–126 / 3–1410 / 6–1615 / 12–2020 / 17–2323 / 21–2525 / 23–2625 / 22–2622 / 19–2417 / 14–2111 / 8–176 / 3–13
Rain mm66 / 26–98104 / 54–135162 / 77–220206 / 123–267258 / 180–334293 / 219–434201 / 138–361184 / 137–369127 / 83–29071 / 43–10158 / 38–9442 / 28–58
DLI17 / 14–2118 / 14–2220 / 17–2524 / 21–3028 / 25–3229 / 27–3235 / 32–3732 / 31–3428 / 26–3125 / 22–3020 / 18–2519 / 16–22
RH %61 / 58–6463 / 60–6764 / 61–6865 / 62–6965 / 61–6966 / 63–7064 / 60–6965 / 61–6963 / 60–6660 / 58–6459 / 57–6259 / 56–62

Each figure is the median across the 284 grid cells holding the 383 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 1304:5900 (24.775, 115.025). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -10.6 °C, 1st-percentile night -3.2 °C, 99th-percentile day 34.6 °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 284 distinct grid cells holding the 383 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1304:5900 (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 25.00_115.000, lapse-corrected -63 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 284 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.
NativeChina Southeast
Extinct inKorea· recorded as extinct by WCVP: history, not habitat; no records are tested against these regions
Kew's description“tree” · “subtropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker22.614, 114.278 · in the densest population, 112 records (28% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 394 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 171 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 336 km away. 154 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 11 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 of the 394 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Magnolia figoMagnolia figoMagnolia figoMagnolia figoMagnolia figoMagnolia figoMagnolia figoMagnolia figo

Photographs: (c) portioid, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Jiao Sun (孙娇), some rights reserved (CC BY) (5); (c) R. Peterika, some rights reserved (CC BY).

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

Phenolic glycosides from Magnolia figo
Chutima Srinroch, Poolsak Sahakitpichan, Nitirat Chimnoi, Somsak Ruchirawat (2019) · Phytochemistry Letters
‘Lilac Marble’: A New Hybrid Cultivar of Magnolia
Wenqian Zhang, Zachary J. Hutzell, Donglin Zhang, Xiaoling Jin (2023) · HortScience
Taxonomic Study on the Six Species of Genus Magnolia
Nawrin Satter Jesia, Mahbubul Alam, Arup Karmokar, M. Ashrafuzzaman (2024) · Journal of the Bangladesh Agricultural University
Searching for antimalarial agent from Indonesian Combretum indicum and Magnolia figo
Ari Satia Nugraha, Dwi Koko Pratoko, Bawon Triatmoko, Antonius Nugraha Widhi Pratama (2019) · Proceedings of the International Conference on Green Technology
The complete chloroplast genome of a widespread ornamental shrub in China, Magnolia figo (Magnoliaceae)
Yuzhen Zhou, Yan Zheng, Bin Chen, Jinliao Chen (2019) · Mitochondrial DNA Part B
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility

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.

Other Magnolia 12 in the reference

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