

4 photographs › At a glance
- Jan, shaded
- Feb, shaded
- Mar, shaded
- Apr, shaded
- May
- Jun
- Jul
- Aug
- Sep
- Oct, shaded
- Nov, shaded
- Dec, shaded
Summary
Musa borneensis is a species of wild banana (genus Musa), native to the island of Borneo, in the Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak. It is placed in section Callimusa (now including the former section Australimusa), having a diploid chromosome number of 2n = 20.
Quoted from Wikipedia, "Musa borneensis", CC BY-SA 4.0.
Cultivation
Grouped as a tropical foliage plant, listed under the genus Musa in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “herbaceous tree”, “wet tropical”.
Seasons
The rain rule reads a sharp season: 70% of the median year's rain (3,264 mm of 4,641 mm) falls in October to April. The temperature curve is flat, 0.8 °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, northern hemisphere. The habitat lies within 10° of the equator, where the shift rule does not apply, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.
Rain
4,641 mm in the median year at the habitat, 3,264 mm of it October to April. Wettest month January at 688 mm, driest month July at 239 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 3,736 mm to 6,705 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 4,568 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 4,641 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: 28 to 35 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 36).
Warmth and air
Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 21.7 °C, the absolute minimum 19.3 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 32.5 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 21.4 °C in July and August (across the grid cells of the range 17.5 °C to 22.9 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 29.6 °C in August (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 21.7 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).
Relative humidity at the habitat: 67 to 72% 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 -171 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 Musa in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “herbaceous tree”, “wet tropical”. 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, northern hemisphere
Mean daily high from 28 °C in Jan and Dec to 30 °C in Aug; mean nightly low from 21 °C in Jul and Aug to 22 °C in Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Sep, Oct, Nov and Dec. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low, centred on the 2 months in a row that tie for it. 4,641 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added), the wettest month Jan. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 12 habitat cells. Over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER) the absolute minimum was 19.3 °C and the 99th-percentile day 32.5 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.
Figures by month
| Figure | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day °C | 28 / 25–29 | 29 / 25–29 | 29 / 26–30 | 29 / 26–31 | 29 / 26–31 | 29 / 26–31 | 29 / 26–30 | 30 / 26–31 | 29 / 26–31 | 29 / 26–30 | 29 / 25–30 | 28 / 25–29 |
| Night °C | 22 / 18–23 | 22 / 18–23 | 22 / 18–23 | 22 / 18–23 | 22 / 18–24 | 22 / 18–23 | 21 / 18–23 | 21 / 18–23 | 22 / 18–23 | 22 / 18–23 | 22 / 18–23 | 22 / 18–23 |
| Rain mm | 688 / 427–898 | 545 / 277–613 | 373 / 305–678 | 351 / 276–601 | 312 / 251–459 | 246 / 229–376 | 239 / 215–423 | 264 / 226–444 | 316 / 275–517 | 361 / 301–579 | 397 / 334–675 | 549 / 369–707 |
| DLI | 28 / 23–32 | 31 / 27–35 | 33 / 30–36 | 34 / 30–35 | 33 / 30–34 | 33 / 30–34 | 34 / 31–35 | 35 / 33–36 | 34 / 31–36 | 32 / 29–34 | 29 / 25–33 | 28 / 23–32 |
| RH % | 71 / 69–75 | 70 / 68–75 | 71 / 67–73 | 70 / 68–72 | 70 / 67–71 | 68 / 65–69 | 68 / 65–69 | 67 / 64–68 | 69 / 65–69 | 70 / 67–72 | 71 / 68–74 | 72 / 69–75 |
How this section is made
Natural habitat
How this section is made
Photographs
Photographs: (c) Cheongweei Gan, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Tony Eales, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA).
Related
Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.
Amorphophallus hewittii Araceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Rhonda Ridley
Coelogyne swaniana Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY, Bernard DUPONT Drynaria speciosa Polypodiaceae
Aeschynanthus tricolor Gesneriaceae Photo: CC BY, Kai Squires
Globba atrosanguinea "Dancing Lady" Ginger Photo: CC BY, Ben CostamagnaOther Musa 29 in the reference
Musa acuminata Edible banana Photo: CC BY-SA, Ong Jyh Seng
Musa balbisiana Plantain Photo: CC BY, Mark Wagner
Musa banksii Maroon-stemmed Banana Photo: CC BY-SA, Steve Fitzgerald
Musa basjoo Japanese banana Photo: CC BY, rhiz
Musa beccarii Pisang Tajak Photo: CC BY, Brodie Cass Talbott Musa bukensis Musaceae
Musa campestris Swamp Banana Photo: CC BY, Kai Squires
Musa cheesmanii Cheesman's Banana Photo: CC BY, Wang.QG
Musa coccinea Scarlet banana Photo: CC BY, Luis G Restrepo
Musa gracilis Johore Banana Photo: CC BY, Cheongweei Gan
Musa ingens Giant Highland Banana Photo: CC BY, Shawn O'Donnell all 30 ›Names & registers
The record
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 answeredasked 2026-10-22gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21climate answeredasked 2026-10-22climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 4.50_115.000, lapse-corrected -171 m at 6.5 °C/kmwikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22inat.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 2026-10-22inat.photos.cultivated not askedgbif.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 rulescommons nothing to reportasked 2026-10-22openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshotEvery 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 5 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.



