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Malus sikkimensis; photograph Kurt Stüber, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SAKurt Stüber, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Malus sikkimensis (Wenz.) Koehne

Rosaceae · China South-Central, Tibet +4

Cited as Kew's World Checklist cites it, Malus sikkimensis (Wenz.) Koehne: GBIF's backbone key for this page carries the name with another author, (Wenz.) Koehne ex C.K.Schneid.

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Malus sikkimensis, photograph Kurt Stüber, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia CommonsMalus sikkimensis, photograph Kurt Stüber, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia CommonsMalus sikkimensis, photograph User:BotBln, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia CommonsMalus sikkimensis, photograph User:BotBln, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia CommonsMalus sikkimensis, photograph User:BotBln, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia CommonsMalus sikkimensis, photograph Darren Swim, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons 12 photographs ›
Habitat figuresfrom few records
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
-8.1°C
Record low -15.1 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
17°C
Jul and Aug at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,528mm
9 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
22–36DLI
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 September, read as a summer growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

From few records: 4 records in 4 grid cells. The records.

Summary

Malus sikkimensis is a rare species of apple known by the common name Sikkim crabapple. Its Chinese name is xi jin hai tang (锡金海棠).

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Malus sikkimensis", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Malus

Malus is a genus of about 32–57 species of small deciduous trees or shrubs in the rose family Rosaceae. It includes the domesticated orchard apple, crabapples, and wild apples.

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

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,148 mm of 1,531 mm) falls in May to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 12.8 °C against a yearly mean of 7.7 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to March.

Rain

1,531 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,148 mm of it May to September. Wettest month July at 340 mm, driest month December at 16 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,309 mm to 2,253 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,528 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,531 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: 22 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 19, the highest 90th-percentile month 37).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is -8.1 °C, the absolute minimum -15.1 °C, 5,229 frost nights in 44 years, 118.8 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 23.2 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low -5.8 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range -7.6 °C to -3.2 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 16.8 °C in August (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -8.1 °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: 61 to 74% 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 -294 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

Habitat climate of Malus sikkimensis through the yearWarmest months July and August, mean daily high 17 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low -5.8 °C; 1,531 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.-20°-10°0°10°20°30°frost23.2° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-15.1° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500600mm rainDLI 22–36RH 61–74%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 4 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 °C5 / 4–86 / 4–99 / 8–1212 / 11–1415 / 14–1716 / 16–1817 / 16–1817 / 16–1916 / 15–1813 / 12–1610 / 8–137 / 6–10
Night °C-6 / -8–-3-5 / -6–-2-1 / -2–22 / 1–45 / 4–79 / 8–1110 / 10–1210 / 9–128 / 8–104 / 3–60 / -1–3-3 / -5–-1
Rain mm24 / 20–3746 / 35–7074 / 57–87108 / 84–125144 / 118–182218 / 190–335340 / 309–569256 / 227–387190 / 166–28793 / 74–12022 / 18–3116 / 12–24
DLI24 / 21–2628 / 25–3134 / 30–3536 / 33–3734 / 33–3530 / 27–3026 / 22–2728 / 25–2927 / 24–2726 / 24–2823 / 21–2522 / 19–24
RH %61 / 61–6463 / 62–6765 / 64–6965 / 64–6966 / 65–7070 / 69–7474 / 72–7772 / 70–7670 / 69–7465 / 64–6763 / 62–6561 / 60–64
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 4 grid cells holding the 4 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 1248:5414 (27.575, 90.725). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -15.1 °C, 1st-percentile night -8.1 °C, 99th-percentile day 23.2 °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 4 distinct grid cells holding 4 of the 4 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1248:5414 (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 27.50_90.625, lapse-corrected -294 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 2840 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.
NativeChina South-Central, Tibet, Assam, East Himalaya, Nepal, Myanmar · 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 marker27.177, 99.287 · in the densest population, 17 records (74% of those in range)
Kew's description“tree” · “temperate” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 23 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 4 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 22 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 593 km away. 3 records outside the WCVP native range not used. Under a dozen records behind the climate. 19 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 inside the densest 4° block of the 23 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Malus sikkimensis, photograph 1did not loadMalus sikkimensis, photograph 2did not loadMalus sikkimensis, photograph 3did not loadMalus sikkimensis, photograph 4did not loadMalus sikkimensis, photograph 5did not loadMalus sikkimensis, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: Kurt Stüber, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (2); User:BotBln, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (3); Darren Swim, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

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

Osmanthus suavis Osmanthus suavis Oleaceae Photo: CC0, DaderotInula hookeri Inula hookeri Hooker's fleabane Photo: CC BY, scottvanceEnkianthus deflexus Enkianthus deflexus Chinese enkianthus Photo: CC BY, Wang.QGBuddleja colvilei Buddleja colvilei Scrophulariaceae Photo: CC BY, Morten RossRhododendron keysii Rhododendron keysii Ericaceae Photo: CC BY, Morten RossGeranium procurrens Geranium procurrens Trailing geranium Photo: CC BY, phiroza

Other Malus 31 in the reference

Malus angustifolia Malus angustifolia Southern crab apple Photo: CC0, author not statedMalus asiatica Malus asiatica Chinese Pearleaf Crabapple Photo: CC BY-SA, Łukasz SzczurowskiMalus baccata Malus baccata Siberian crabapple Photo: CC0, author not statedMalus coronaria Malus coronaria Sweet crab apple Photo: CC BY, Skyler PrincipeMalus × dasyphylla Malus × dasyphylla Paradise Apple Photo: CC BY-SA, Stefan.lefnaerMalus delavayi Malus delavayi Rosaceae Photo: Public domain, DaderotMalus domestica Malus domestica Apple Photo: CC BY, Alexander DubyninMalus doumeri Malus doumeri Rosaceae Photo: CC BY, Jacy Chen Malus florentina Rosaceae Malus × floribunda Malus × floribunda Japanese crab Photo: CC BY, Owen and Carol Fawcett.Malus fusca Malus fusca Oregon crab apple Photo: CC0, author not statedMalus halliana Malus halliana Hall crab apple Photo: CC BY, Jo Roberts all 32 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Malus baccata subsp. sikkimensis; Malus pashia var. sikkimensis; Pyrus pashia var. sikkimensis; Pyrus sikkimensis; Sinomalus sikkimensis and 1 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipedia

The record

Family
Rosaceae
Described by
(Wenz.) Koehne
Native to
China South-Central, Tibet, Assam +3
Wild records
23 in range · 22 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 3001344 is Malus sikkimensis (Wenz.) Koehne ex C.K.Schneid.; the page links Kew's Malus sikkimensis (Wenz.) Koehne, 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
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 27.50_90.625, lapse-corrected -294 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22IPNI and POWO linked by Kew's number for Malus sikkimensis (Wenz.) Koehne (the item's: IPNI 726401-1, POWO 907840-1)
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist taxon inat.taxon not asked
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild not asked
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media nothing to reportasked 2026-10-22
Wikimedia Commons commons 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 9 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…