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Moringa ovalifolia; photograph author not stated, no rights reserved CC0author not stated, no rights reserved · observed growing wild · 2026-05-16

Moringa ovalifolia Dinter & A.Berger

African Moringa; Ghost Tree; Moringo; Moringa

Moringaceae · Angola, Namibia · listed by its genus as a cactus or succulent

Cited as Kew's World Checklist cites it, Moringa ovalifolia Dinter & A.Berger: GBIF's backbone key for this page carries the name with another author, Dinter & Berger.

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Moringa ovalifolia, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedMoringa ovalifolia, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedMoringa ovalifolia, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedMoringa ovalifolia, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedMoringa ovalifolia, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedMoringa ovalifolia, photograph author not stated, no rights reserved 45 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
3.4°C
Record low -0.6 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
32°C
Jan, Nov and Dec at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
177mm
3 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
30–55DLI
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 July to September (January to March 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

Moringa ovalifolia is a succulent flowering tree of the family Moringaceae native to Namibia and southwestern Angola.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Moringa ovalifolia", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Grouped as a cactus or succulent, listed under the genus Moringa in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “semisucculent tree”.

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (131 mm of 171 mm) falls in January to March, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 24.6 °C against a yearly mean of 21.8 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: July to September.

Rain

171 mm in the median year at the habitat, 131 mm of it January to March. Wettest month February at 52 mm, driest months (2 at 0 mm); 6 months under 5 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 86 mm to 343 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 177 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 171 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: 30 to 55 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 28, the highest 90th-percentile month 56).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 3.4 °C, the absolute minimum -0.6 °C, 1 frost night in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 39.2 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 9.6 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range 5.9 °C to 11.7 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 32.4 °C in December (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 3.4 °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: 38 to 50% 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 +45 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.

Group. Listed under the genus Moringa in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “semisucculent tree”. A group is taken only where Kew's description of the species agrees with the table's listing. The table gives no figure and no prose; the cold floor is the habitat's alone.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, southern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Moringa ovalifolia through the yearWarmest months January, November and December, mean daily high 32 °C; coldest month July, mean nightly low 9.6 °C; 171 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.-10°0°10°20°30°40°50°frost39.2° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-0.6° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100mm rainDLI 30–55RH 38–50%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 129 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 °C32 / 30–3331 / 29–3331 / 29–3330 / 27–3128 / 24–2925 / 21–2725 / 21–2627 / 23–2829 / 27–3231 / 29–3432 / 29–3332 / 30–33
Night °C18 / 16–1918 / 17–1918 / 17–2016 / 14–1813 / 10–1510 / 7–1210 / 6–1211 / 7–1313 / 10–1614 / 13–1816 / 14–1817 / 15–19
Rain mm36 / 14–7952 / 22–9543 / 23–6616 / 10–262 / 1–31 / 0–20 / 0–10 / 0–11 / 1–23 / 1–107 / 4–2210 / 4–37
DLI52 / 47–5448 / 44–4943 / 42–4437 / 36–3833 / 31–3530 / 28–3231 / 29–3337 / 36–3944 / 43–4550 / 49–5154 / 50–5555 / 51–56
RH %49 / 45–5350 / 46–5448 / 44–5345 / 43–4841 / 40–4341 / 39–4340 / 39–4239 / 37–4338 / 35–4440 / 38–4542 / 39–4644 / 41–49
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 129 grid cells holding the 212 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 2235:3912 (-21.775, 15.625). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -0.6 °C, 1st-percentile night 3.4 °C, 99th-percentile day 39.2 °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 129 distinct grid cells holding 212 of the 212 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2235:3912 (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 -22.00_15.625, lapse-corrected +45 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1155 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.
NativeAngola, Namibia · 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-23.766, 15.998 · in the densest population, 141 records (52% of those in range)
Kew's description“semisucculent tree” · “desert or dry shrubland” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 272 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 212 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 77 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 54 km away. 12 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 60 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 272 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Moringa ovalifolia, photograph 1did not loadMoringa ovalifolia, photograph 2did not loadMoringa ovalifolia, photograph 3did not loadMoringa ovalifolia, photograph 4did not loadMoringa ovalifolia, photograph 5did not loadMoringa ovalifolia, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0 (6).

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

Commiphora glaucescens Commiphora glaucescens Blue-leaved corkwood Photo: CC0, author not statedCommiphora virgata Commiphora virgata Burseraceae Photo: CC0, author not statedMomordica humilis Momordica humilis Cucurbitaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedStrophanthus amboensis Strophanthus amboensis Elephant-Vine Photo: CC0, author not statedEuphorbia virosa Euphorbia virosa Eyao Naboom Photo: CC BY-SA, Dave UCeropegia currorii Ceropegia currorii Apocynaceae Photo: CC0, dune_ninja

Other Moringa 6 in the reference

Moringa concanensis Moringa concanensis Moringaceae Photo: CC BY, Siddarth MachadoMoringa drouhardii Moringa drouhardii Bottle Tree Photo: CC BY, amantedarmanin Moringa hildebrandtii Moringaceae Moringa oleifera Moringa oleifera Horseradish-tree Photo: CC BY, Raja Sekhar ChimiralaMoringa peregrina Moringa peregrina Wild drumstick tree Photo: CC BY, Krzysztof ZiarnekMoringa stenopetala Moringa stenopetala Cabbage tree Photo: CC BY, Kevin Faccenda

Names & registers

Also known as Moringa ovalifoliolata. (GBIF Backbone)

Under another author Moringa oleifera Exell & Mendonça is an older name of this species, not Moringa oleifera, a species of the reference. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Moringaceae
Described by
Dinter & A.Berger
Native to
Angola, Namibia
Wild records
272 in range · 77 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 3752366 is Moringa ovalifolia Dinter & Berger; the page links Kew's Moringa ovalifolia Dinter & A.Berger, 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; 1 record within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (1 at a botanic garden or arboretum; 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 -22.00_15.625, lapse-corrected +45 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 18 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…