Species
+

Nephelium lappaceum L.

Buluan, Ngo, Rambutan, Rambutan

Climate known 51 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Rambutan is a medium-sized tropical tree in the family Sapindaceae, and the edible fruit of this tree. The fruit is sweet, with a hairy leathery rind and a single seed. The rambutan is native to Southeast Asia; its centre of diversity is in Indonesia.

Text from Wikipedia, “Rambutan”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Nephelium

Nephelium is a genus of about 25 species of flowering plants in the family Sapindaceae, native to southeastern Asia.

Text from Wikipedia, “Nephelium”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Sapindaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
China South-Central, Hainan, China Southeast +9
Wild records
455 in range· 264 open

At a glance

Warmest month
30°C
Apr, mean day; nights 23 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
2717mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Nov 287 mm (CHELSA)
Light
28–35DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (April to May and July to December at the habitat (not shifted)). Habitat rain 2717 mm a year, wettest November at 287 mm, driest February at 164 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 28 to 35 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 20.2 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Dimocarpus crinitus Lour.; Euphoria chrysea Korth.; Euphoria chrysea Korth. ex Miq.; Euphoria crinita (Lour.) Poir.; Euphoria glabra (Noronha) Blume and 23 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (April to May and July to December at the habitat (not shifted)).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (1945 mm of 2717 mm) takes 8 months, April to May and July to December. Mean temperature moves 1.4 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere, within 10° of the equator; with no thermal season there there is no season to reverse, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: 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 gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 2717 mm a year, wettest November at 287 mm, driest February at 164 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

2717 mm a year at the habitat, 1945 mm of it April to May and July to December. Wettest month November at 287 mm, driest February at 164 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1851 mm to 3916 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 28 to 35 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 28 to 35 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 23, the highest 90th-percentile month 39).

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.

Warmth and air Cold floor 20.2 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 20.2 °C, the absolute minimum 16.8 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 30.3 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 22.0 °C in January (across the envelope cells 13.9 °C to 24.4 °C), warmest day 29.9 °C in April (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 20.2 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 66 to 68% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 28 °C in Jan to 30 °C in Apr; mean night from 22 °C in Jan to 23 °C in May. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 2717 mm of rain a year, most in Nov. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 340 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 16.8 °C and the 99th-percentile day 30.3 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°15°20°25°30°35°30.3° 99th-percentile day (undated)16.8° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 28–35RH 66–68 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 340 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C28 / 22–3029 / 24–3029 / 26–3130 / 27–3130 / 28–3130 / 27–3129 / 27–3130 / 27–3129 / 27–3129 / 26–3029 / 25–3028 / 23–29
Night °C22 / 14–2422 / 15–2523 / 17–2523 / 19–2523 / 21–2623 / 21–2623 / 21–2623 / 21–2523 / 21–2523 / 19–2523 / 17–2522 / 14–25
Rain mm205 / 26–442164 / 28–326203 / 51–360223 / 83–344231 / 167–336200 / 141–316207 / 143–329209 / 136–342241 / 156–366278 / 161–379287 / 80–404269 / 31–457
DLI30 / 25–3434 / 28–3735 / 30–3935 / 30–3933 / 30–3633 / 29–3533 / 29–3534 / 30–3734 / 29–3732 / 27–3429 / 24–3228 / 23–31
RH %67 / 61–7266 / 61–7066 / 62–7167 / 62–7167 / 64–7167 / 64–7067 / 63–7066 / 63–6967 / 64–7068 / 64–7168 / 63–7268 / 61–72

Each figure is the median across the 340 grid cells holding the 441 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1812:5842 (-0.625, 112.125). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 16.8 °C, 1st-percentile night 20.2 °C, 99th-percentile day 30.3 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 340 distinct grid cells holding the 441 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1812:5842 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -0.50_111.875, lapse-corrected +14 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 206 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 every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeChina South-Central, Hainan, China Southeast, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Borneo, Malaya, Maluku, Philippines, Sulawesi, Sumatera· introduced: Angola, Sri Lanka, Laos, Jawa, Lesser Sunda Is., Caroline Is., Costa Rica, Trinidad-Tobago
Kew's description“tree” · “wet tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker1.399, 103.776 · in the densest population, 151 records (33% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 455 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 264 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 7 km away. 302 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 14 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 455 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Nephelium lappaceumNephelium lappaceumNephelium lappaceumNephelium lappaceumNephelium lappaceumNephelium lappaceumNephelium lappaceumNephelium lappaceum

Photographs: (c) Svend Hansen, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Fabrício Mil Homens Riella, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Diogo Luiz, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Ong Jyh Seng, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (2); (c) Eric Watts, some rights reserved (CC BY).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Nephelium lappaceum, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Novel green synthetic strategy to prepare ZnO nanocrystals using rambutan (Nephelium lappaceum L.) peel extract and its antibacterial applications
R. Yuvakkumar, J. Suresh, A. Joseph Nathanael, M. Sundrarajan (2014) · Materials Science and Engineering C
Antioxidant and antibacterial activities of Nephelium lappaceum L. extracts
Nont Thitilertdecha, Aphiwat Teerawutgulrag, Nuansri Rakariyatham (2008) · LWT
Current trends of tropical fruit waste utilization
Choon Yoong Cheok, Noranizan Mohd Adzahan, Russly Abdul Rahman, Z.A. Nur Hanani (2016) · Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition
Rapid isolation of geraniin from Nephelium lappaceum rind waste and its anti-hyperglycemic activity
Uma Devi Palanisamy, Lai Teng Ling, Thamilvaani Manaharan, David R. Appleton (2010) · Food Chemistry
Identification of Major Phenolic Compounds from Nephelium lappaceum L. and Their Antioxidant Activities
Nont Thitilertdecha, Aphiwat Teerawutgulrag, Jeremy Kilburn, Nuansri Rakariyatham (2010) · Molecules
Ultrasound-assisted extraction of polysaccharide from Nephelium lappaceum L. fruit peel
J. Prakash Maran, Bhanu Priya (2014) · International Journal of Biological Macromolecules
Relationship between browning and related enzymes (PAL, PPO and POD) in rambutan fruit (Nephelium lappaceum Linn.) cvs. Rongrien and See-Chompoo
P. Yingsanga, V. Srilaong, S. Kanlayanarat, Sompoch Noichinda (2008) · Postharvest Biology and Technology
Rind of the rambutan, Nephelium lappaceum, a potential source of natural antioxidants
Uma Devi Palanisamy, Hwee Ming Cheng, Theanmalar Masilamani, Thavamanithevi Subramaniam (2007) · Food Chemistry

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 68 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.