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Ochrosia oppositifolia; photograph (c) fletchermoore, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) fletchermoore, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2025-04-27

Ochrosia oppositifolia (Lam.) K.Schum.

Twin-apple

Apocynaceae · Chagos Archipelago, Seychelles +37

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Ochrosia oppositifolia, photograph (c) nick_goldwater, some rights reserved (CC BY)Ochrosia oppositifolia, photograph (c) David Thompson, some rights reserved (CC BY)Ochrosia oppositifolia, photograph (c) Gabriel, some rights reserved (CC BY)Ochrosia oppositifolia, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedOchrosia oppositifolia, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedOchrosia oppositifolia, photograph author not stated, no rights reserved 46 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
21.6°C
Record low 19.8 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
28°C
Feb, Mar, Apr and May at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
2,367mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
31–40DLI
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
Rain spread: 70% of the median year's rain takes 8 months, so no short rainy season. rain rule, CHELSA
Not shifted: the shift rule does not apply to this habitat. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Ochrosia oppositifolia grows as a small to medium-sized tree up to 25 m (80 ft) tall, with a trunk diameter of up to 50 cm (20 in). Its flowers feature a creamy to white corolla. Its habitat is coastal forest, bush or open areas to 100 m (300 ft) altitude, rarely inland. Local medicinal uses include as a carminative and in high doses as an abortifacient. More on Wikipedia ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Ochrosia oppositifolia", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads no short rainy season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,746 mm of 2,347 mm) takes 8 months, November to May and September. Mean temperature moves 1.7 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern 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

2,347 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,746 mm of it November to May and September. Wettest month January at 280 mm, driest month June at 137 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,779 mm to 3,534 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 2,367 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 2,347 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: 31 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 22, the highest 90th-percentile month 43).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 21.6 °C, the absolute minimum 19.8 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 31.0 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 24.6 °C in July and August (across the grid cells of the range 21.5 °C to 26.1 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 27.9 °C in March and April (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 21.6 °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: 63 to 65% 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 +191 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, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Ochrosia oppositifolia through the yearWarmest months February, March, April and May, mean daily high 28 °C; coldest months July and August, mean nightly low 24.6 °C; 2,347 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, northern hemisphere.15°20°25°30°35°31.0° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER19.8° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 31–40RH 63–65%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 64 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 °C27 / 26–2828 / 27–2828 / 27–2828 / 26–2928 / 25–2927 / 24–2826 / 23–2826 / 23–2826 / 23–2827 / 24–2827 / 25–2827 / 26–28
Night °C25 / 25–2626 / 25–2626 / 25–2726 / 25–2726 / 23–2725 / 23–2725 / 22–2625 / 21–2625 / 22–2625 / 22–2625 / 23–2625 / 24–26
Rain mm280 / 106–428245 / 44–330226 / 60–298195 / 115–294183 / 133–265137 / 111–255142 / 90–249142 / 90–226184 / 114–268180 / 96–299206 / 120–285227 / 168–363
DLI37 / 33–4240 / 35–4137 / 35–4234 / 30–4032 / 25–3631 / 22–3431 / 23–3533 / 28–3736 / 33–3938 / 36–4140 / 33–4138 / 32–43
RH %64 / 62–6764 / 61–6764 / 61–6763 / 62–6664 / 60–6664 / 59–6663 / 58–6763 / 58–6764 / 59–6664 / 60–6664 / 62–6765 / 62–68

Records on both sides of the equator: the 22 cells at least 10° north of it have seasons six months apart and are left out, not combined into a year no place has. These figures are across the 64 cells that remain: the 25 at least 10° south and the 39 within 10° of the equator, which stay in either way.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 64 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (96 records in those cells; 27 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 1906:6598 (-5.325, 149.925). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 19.8 °C, 1st-percentile night 21.6 °C, 99th-percentile day 31.0 °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 64 distinct grid cells holding 96 of the 175 in-range records (27 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out) on the southern side of the equator (22 cells poleward of 10° north, 25 poleward of 10° south: the two sides' seasons are not combined, and cells within 10° of the equator stay in); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1906:6598 (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 -5.50_150.000, lapse-corrected +191 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 287 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.
NativeChagos Archipelago, Seychelles, China Southeast, Laccadive Is., Maldives, Sri Lanka, Andaman Is., Cambodia, Nicobar Is., South China Sea, Thailand, Vietnam, Borneo, Cocos (Keeling) I., Jawa, Malaya, Maluku, Philippines, Sulawesi, Sumatera, Bismarck Archipelago, New Guinea, Solomon Is., Fiji, Gilbert Is., Niue, New Caledonia, Samoa, Tokelau-Manihiki, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, Wallis-Futuna Is., Line Is., Society Is., Tubuai Is., Caroline Is., Marianas, Marshall Is. · 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 marker13.65, 144.857 · in the densest population, 50 records (17% of those in range)
Kew's description“tree” · “wet tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 301 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 96 of them in the land cells it reads, of 175 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 187 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 8332 km away. 31 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 126 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 301 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Ochrosia oppositifolia, photograph 1did not loadOchrosia oppositifolia, photograph 2did not loadOchrosia oppositifolia, photograph 3did not loadOchrosia oppositifolia, photograph 4did not loadOchrosia oppositifolia, photograph 5did not loadOchrosia oppositifolia, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) nick_goldwater, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) David Thompson, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Gabriel, some rights reserved (CC BY); author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0 (3).

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

Barringtonia asiatica Barringtonia asiatica Sea putat Photo: CC BY, Shelomi DoylePhoenicophorium borsigianum Phoenicophorium borsigianum Borsig palm Photo: CC BY, Lisa_JamesPandanus balfourii Pandanus balfourii Balfour’s Pandanus Photo: CC0, author not stated Pyrostria bibracteata Rubiaceae Lodoicea maldivica Lodoicea maldivica Double coconut Photo: CC BY, Rafael WürtembergerDeckenia nobilis Deckenia nobilis Cabbage palm Photo: CC BY, Rafael Würtemberger

Other Ochrosia 4 in the reference

Ochrosia borbonica Ochrosia borbonica Apocynaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Marc RoussinOchrosia elliptica Ochrosia elliptica Elliptic yellowwood Photo: CC0, author not statedOchrosia moorei Ochrosia moorei Southern Ochrosia Photo: CC BY-SA, Lachlan CopelandOchrosia poweri Ochrosia poweri Milkbush Photo: CC BY-SA, Greg Tasney

Names & registers

Also known as Bleekeria salubris; Calpicarpum lamarckii; Calpicarpum oppositifolium; Cerbera muricata; Cerbera oppositifolia and 15 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Apocynaceae
Described by
(Lam.) K.Schum.
Native to
Chagos Archipelago, Seychelles, China Southeast +36
Wild records
301 in range · 187 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; 4 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (2 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 2 at a zoo; 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 -5.50_150.000, lapse-corrected +191 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 38 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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