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Metrosideros vitiensis; photograph (c) Neal Kelso, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Neal Kelso, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-06-18

Metrosideros vitiensis (A.Gray) Pillon

Myrtaceae · Fiji, Samoa +1

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Metrosideros vitiensis, photograph (c) Neal Kelso, some rights reserved (CC BY)Metrosideros vitiensis, photograph (c) Neal Kelso, some rights reserved (CC BY)Metrosideros vitiensis, photograph (c) Neal Kelso, some rights reserved (CC BY)Metrosideros vitiensis, photograph (c) Neal Kelso, some rights reserved (CC BY)Metrosideros vitiensis, photograph (c) Neal Kelso, some rights reserved (CC BY)Metrosideros vitiensis, photograph (c) Neal Kelso, some rights reserved (CC BY) 10 photographs ›
Habitat figuresfrom few records
Coldest month, mean nightly low
23.7°C
Aug at the habitat, not a floor; extremes not used (sea cell) CHELSA
Warmest month, mean daily high
27°C
Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr and Dec at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
2,387mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
25–40DLI
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
A sharp rainy season, November to May (the habitat's months, not shifted), in a year of even temperature. rain rule, CHELSA
Not shifted: the shift rule does not apply to this habitat. The chart is in the habitat's months.

From few records: 3 records in 3 grid cells. The records.

Summary

Metrosideros vitiensis is a species of flowering plant in the family Myrtaceae. It is a shrub or tree native to Vanuatu, Fiji, and the Samoan Islands.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Metrosideros vitiensis", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Metrosideros

Metrosideros is a genus of approximately 60 trees, shrubs, and vines in the family Myrtaceae, mostly found in the Pacific region. Most of the tree forms are small, but some are exceptionally large, the New Zealand species in particular. The name derives from the Ancient Greek metra or "heartwood" and sideron or "iron". More on Wikipedia ›

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

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a sharp season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,812 mm of 2,413 mm) falls in November to May. The temperature curve is flat, 2.4 °C between the warmest and coldest month, so the growing-season rule does not infer a growing season from it. Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere. The temperature curve moves under 4 °C between the warmest and coldest month, where the shift rule does not apply, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

Rain

2,413 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,812 mm of it November to May. Wettest month January at 339 mm, driest month July at 93 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 2,287 mm to 5,007 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 2,387 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 2,413 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 40 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 41).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 23.7 °C in August (across the grid cells of the range 22.7 °C to 24.6 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 27.4 °C in March (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: none read. The nearest figure is 23.7 °C, the coldest month's mean nightly low, August, in the median year (CHELSA); a month's mean of its nightly lows is warmer than the nights a floor is read from. The daily extremes were read at a weather cell that is mostly sea and are not used.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 61 to 67% 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. CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. No cold floor is read without a daily extremes series; the coldest month's mean nightly low named in its sentence is not one. 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 3 records in 3 grid cells; a page says so under 12 records or 5 cells, and shows the figures as read.

Habitat months, southern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Metrosideros vitiensis through the yearWarmest months January, February, March, April and December, mean daily high 27 °C; coldest month August, mean nightly low 23.7 °C; 2,413 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA. Habitat months, southern hemisphere.20°25°30°°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500600mm rainDLI 25–40RH 61–67%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 3 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C27 / 27–2727 / 27–2827 / 27–2827 / 27–2726 / 26–2726 / 25–2725 / 24–2625 / 24–2625 / 24–2625 / 24–2626 / 25–2727 / 26–27
Night °C25 / 25–2626 / 25–2626 / 25–2626 / 25–2625 / 24–2525 / 24–2524 / 23–2524 / 23–2524 / 23–2524 / 23–2525 / 24–2525 / 25–26
Rain mm339 / 334–554280 / 260–483288 / 279–466305 / 289–445183 / 174–421148 / 128–29193 / 87–287101 / 95–288118 / 114–340141 / 135–427166 / 160–456251 / 216–553
DLI39 / 38–4039 / 37–3935 / 35–3632 / 30–3327 / 25–2925 / 23–2725 / 24–2829 / 28–3234 / 33–3638 / 38–3940 / 39–4040 / 39–41
RH %67 / 65–6967 / 65–6967 / 65–6966 / 64–6863 / 61–6763 / 61–6661 / 60–6562 / 61–6563 / 61–6664 / 62–6765 / 63–6866 / 64–68

The daily extremes were read at a NASA POWER cell that is 16% land: neither it nor the next candidates whose coldest month's mean nightly low is within 2 °C of the median across cells sit in a POWER cell that is mostly land, and the rule reads a cold floor only from a cell that is mostly land, so none is read for this species. Nor is the coldest month's mean nightly low taken as one: it is a mean of a month's lows, not its coldest night. What that cell gave over 44 years: absolute minimum 20.2 °C, 1st-percentile night 21.6 °C, 99th-percentile day 28.8 °C.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 3 grid cells holding the 3 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 2136:2 (-16.825, -179.875). 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 3 distinct grid cells holding 3 of the 3 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2136:2 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells, though its NASA POWER cell is only 16% land and none of the 2 next candidates within 2 °C of the median was mostly land); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -17.00_-180.000, lapse-corrected +99 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 131 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.
NativeFiji, Samoa, Vanuatu · introduced: Tonga · 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-19.486, 169.334 · in the densest population, 24 records (50% of those in range)
Kew's description“shrub or tree” · “wet tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 48 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 3 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 45 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker in the same place. 1 record outside the WCVP native range not used. Under a dozen records behind the climate. 45 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 48 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Metrosideros vitiensis, photograph 1did not loadMetrosideros vitiensis, photograph 2did not loadMetrosideros vitiensis, photograph 3did not loadMetrosideros vitiensis, photograph 4did not loadMetrosideros vitiensis, photograph 5did not loadMetrosideros vitiensis, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Neal Kelso, some rights reserved (CC BY) (6).

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

Hernandia nymphaeifolia Hernandia nymphaeifolia Sea hearse Photo: CC BY, Brendan McIntyreBarringtonia edulis Barringtonia edulis Cutnut Photo: CC BY, Eric KnightAngiopteris madagascariensis Angiopteris madagascariensis Marattiaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedEpipremnum aureum Epipremnum aureum Devil's ivy Photo: CC0, author not statedHeliotropium anomalum Heliotropium anomalum Polynesian heliotrope Photo: CC BY, Neal KelsoCalophyllum inophyllum Calophyllum inophyllum Alexandrian laurel Photo: CC BY, 林正文

Other Metrosideros 20 in the reference

Metrosideros albiflora Metrosideros albiflora White Flowering Rātā Photo: CC BY, Hannah Whittall Metrosideros angustifolia Myrtaceae Metrosideros bartlettii Metrosideros bartlettii Bartlett's rata Photo: CC0, author not statedMetrosideros carminea Metrosideros carminea Crimson rata Photo: CC BY, Chris ParminterMetrosideros colensoi Metrosideros colensoi Myrtaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedMetrosideros collina Metrosideros collina Vunga Photo: CC BY, Mike BowieMetrosideros diffusa Metrosideros diffusa Small ratavine Photo: CC BY, 大澤風季 ohsawa_FukiMetrosideros excelsa Metrosideros excelsa New Zealand Christmastree Photo: CC BY, Leon PerrieMetrosideros fulgens Metrosideros fulgens Scarlet rātā vine Photo: CC BY, Stephen HartleyMetrosideros kermadecensis Metrosideros kermadecensis Pohutukawa Photo: CC0, author not statedMetrosideros laurifolia Metrosideros laurifolia Myrtaceae Photo: CC BY, Rosario DouglasMetrosideros nervulosa Metrosideros nervulosa Mountain Rose Photo: CC BY, Leon Perrie all 21 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Metrosideros collina var. vitiensis. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Myrtaceae
Described by
(A.Gray) Pillon
Native to
Fiji, Samoa, Vanuatu
Wild records
48 in range · 45 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 -17.00_-180.000, lapse-corrected +99 m at 6.5 °C/km; read, and set aside: NASA POWER's cell is mostly sea (16% land), so no cold floor is shown
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 nothing to reportasked 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 3 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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