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Medinilla balls-headleyi; photograph (c) Steve Fitzgerald, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) CC BY-SA(c) Steve Fitzgerald, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) · observed growing wild · 2025-09-03

Medinilla balls-headleyi F.Muell.

Daintree medinilla

Melastomataceae · Queensland

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Medinilla balls-headleyi, photograph (c) Steve Fitzgerald, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Medinilla balls-headleyi, photograph (c) Steve Fitzgerald, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Medinilla balls-headleyi, photograph (c) Steve Fitzgerald, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Medinilla balls-headleyi, photograph (c) Steve Fitzgerald, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Medinilla balls-headleyi, photograph (c) Steve Fitzgerald, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Medinilla balls-headleyi, photograph (c) Steve Fitzgerald, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) 38 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
11.7°C
Record low 3.8 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
29°C
Jan and Dec at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
2,560mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
25–43DLI
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 June to October (December 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

Medinilla balls-headleyi, commonly known as Daintree medinilla, is a climbing plant in the family Melastomataceae found only in the Wet Tropics bioregion of Queensland, Australia.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Medinilla balls-headleyi", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Medinilla

Medinilla is a large paleotropical genus of about 370 species of flowering plants in the family Melastomataceae, native to tropical regions of the Old World from Africa east through southeast Asia to Australia and the western Pacific Ocean. The genus was named after José de Medinilla y Pineda, governor of the Mariana Islands in 1820.

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

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,970 mm of 2,650 mm) falls in December to April, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 25.3 °C against a yearly mean of 23.2 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: June to October.

Rain

2,650 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,970 mm of it December to April. Wettest month March at 483 mm, driest month August at 62 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,762 mm to 4,001 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 2,560 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 2,650 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: 25 to 43 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 23, 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 11.7 °C, the absolute minimum 3.8 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 35.0 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 16.6 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range 14.2 °C to 18.5 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 28.6 °C in December (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 11.7 °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: 64 to 70% 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 +427 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 Medinilla balls-headleyi through the yearWarmest months January and December, mean daily high 29 °C; coldest month July, mean nightly low 16.6 °C; 2,650 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.0°10°20°30°40°35.0° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER3.8° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0200400600800mm rainDLI 25–43RH 64–70%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 45 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 / 27–2928 / 27–2927 / 26–2826 / 24–2624 / 23–2522 / 21–2322 / 21–2322 / 21–2325 / 24–2626 / 25–2728 / 26–2929 / 27–30
Night °C23 / 21–2523 / 21–2523 / 21–2422 / 20–2320 / 18–2117 / 15–1917 / 14–1917 / 15–1919 / 16–2021 / 19–2222 / 20–2323 / 21–24
Rain mm465 / 400–631476 / 422–653483 / 338–692296 / 139–484170 / 73–31882 / 39–17979 / 32–17462 / 26–12964 / 26–11274 / 38–128149 / 96–223250 / 194–312
DLI39 / 36–4035 / 32–3734 / 32–3631 / 28–3327 / 24–2925 / 23–2726 / 24–2831 / 29–3338 / 37–4043 / 42–4443 / 42–4441 / 40–42
RH %69 / 67–7270 / 68–7369 / 67–7269 / 67–7269 / 66–7267 / 64–7066 / 64–6966 / 63–6864 / 63–6665 / 63–6766 / 64–6967 / 65–70
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 45 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (76 records in those cells; 2 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 2076:6466 (-13.825, 143.325). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 3.8 °C, 1st-percentile night 11.7 °C, 99th-percentile day 35.0 °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 45 distinct grid cells holding 76 of the 78 in-range records (2 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2076:6466 (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 -14.00_143.125, lapse-corrected +427 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 616 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.
NativeQueensland · 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-16.498, 145.501 · in the densest population, 91 records (90% of those in range)
Kew's description“liana” · “wet tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 101 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 76 of them in the land cells it reads, of 78 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 92 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 5 km away. 23 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 101 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Medinilla balls-headleyi, photograph 1did not loadMedinilla balls-headleyi, photograph 2did not loadMedinilla balls-headleyi, photograph 3did not loadMedinilla balls-headleyi, photograph 4did not loadMedinilla balls-headleyi, photograph 5did not loadMedinilla balls-headleyi, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Steve Fitzgerald, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (6).

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

Lepidozamia hopei Lepidozamia hopei Hope's cycad Photo: CC BY, Shelomi Doyle Thelypteris subpubescens Aspleniaceae Hornstedtia scottiana Hornstedtia scottiana Native cardamom Photo: CC BY, Brendan McIntyreMyristica globosa Myristica globosa Myristicaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedMusa banksii Musa banksii Maroon-stemmed Banana Photo: CC BY-SA, Steve FitzgeraldFagraea cambagei Fagraea cambagei Gentianaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Steve Fitzgerald

Other Medinilla 23 in the reference

Medinilla alata Melastomataceae Medinilla alpestris Melastomataceae Medinilla astronioides Medinilla astronioides Melastomataceae Photo: CC BY, Peter Quakenbush Medinilla banahaensis Melastomataceae Medinilla basaltarum Melastomataceae Medinilla crassata Medinilla crassata Melastomataceae Photo: CC BY, M108tMedinilla cumingii Medinilla cumingii Chandelier tree Photo: CC BY, Nico CarlMedinilla eximia Medinilla eximia Melastomataceae Photo: CC0, Светлана ЦараховаMedinilla fengii Medinilla fengii Melastomataceae Photo: CC0, author not statedMedinilla formosana Medinilla formosana Melastomataceae Photo: CC BY, Emily ChangMedinilla hayatana Medinilla hayatana Melastomataceae Photo: CC BY-SA, 宜蘭第一公民 Medinilla intermedia Melastomataceae all 24 ›

Names & registers

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Melastomataceae
Described by
F.Muell.
Native to
Queensland
Wild records
101 in range · 92 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
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -14.00_143.125, lapse-corrected +427 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 2026-10-22none 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 rules
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 13 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

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