Species
+

Phoenix reclinata Jacq.

Cape Date Palm, Coffee Palm, Dwarf Datepalm, False Datepalm

Climate known 42 photographs Tropical foliage plant
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

Phoenix reclinata, the wild date palm or Senegal date palm, is a species of flowering plant in the palm family native to tropical Africa, the Arabian Peninsula and Madagascar. It is introduced in Florida, Puerto Rico, Bermuda, Trinidad and Tobago, the Leeward Islands, Tunisia and Vietnam. The plants are found from sea level to 3000 m, in rain forest clearings, monsoonal forests and rocky mountainsides.

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

Family
Arecaceae
Described by
Jacq.
Native to
Benin, Burkina, Gambia, The +40
Wild records
1539 in range· 463 open

At a glance

Warmest month
28°C
Feb, mean day; nights 21 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
947mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jan 126 mm (CHELSA)
Light
24–38DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a tropical foliage plant by Arecaceae, which is usually but not always one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a summer growing season, April to October in the northern hemisphere (October to April at the habitat, southern). Habitat rain 947 mm a year, wettest January at 126 mm, driest July at 34 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 24 to 38 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 12 °C (archetype minimum for a tropical foliage plant, above the 8.3 °C habitat night).
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 Fulchironia senegalensis Lesch.; Phoenix abyssinica Drude; Phoenix baoulensis A.Chev.; Phoenix comorensis Becc.; Phoenix djalonensis A.Chev. and 10 more.

Cultivation

Grouped as a tropical foliage plant by Arecaceae, which is usually but not always one kind of plant (archetype table). The table supplies one figure for this group, a conventional minimum for the cold floor, and no prose.

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, April to October in the northern hemisphere (October to April at the habitat, southern).

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

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (726 mm of 947 mm) falls in October to April, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 23.3 °C against a yearly mean of 21.7 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: April to October.

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 947 mm a year, wettest January at 126 mm, driest July at 34 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

947 mm a year at the habitat, 726 mm of it October to April. Wettest month January at 126 mm, driest July at 34 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 643 mm to 1757 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, southern 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: 24 to 38 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 24 to 38 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 19, the highest 90th-percentile month 43).

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 12 °C (archetype minimum for a tropical foliage plant, above the 8.3 °C habitat night).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 8.3 °C, the absolute minimum 3.9 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 34.0 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 14.1 °C in July (across the envelope cells 8.8 °C to 22.8 °C), warmest day 27.6 °C in February (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 12 °C. The habitat figure, the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER), is 8.3 °C; the archetype table's conventional minimum for a tropical foliage plant (grouped by Arecaceae, which is usually but not always one kind of plant) is 12 °C, which is higher, and the floor rule takes the higher.

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, and the archetype table's group minimum where that is higher. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 57 to 63% 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 23 °C in Jul to 28 °C in Feb; mean night from 14 °C in Jul to 21 °C in Feb. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest night. 947 mm of rain a year, most in Jan. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 770 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 3.9 °C and the 99th-percentile day 34.0 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°20°30°40°34.0° 99th-percentile day (undated)3.9° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250300mm rainDLI 24–38RH 57–63 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 770 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 °C27 / 24–3228 / 25–3327 / 24–3326 / 23–3224 / 22–3123 / 20–2923 / 20–2823 / 21–2825 / 21–3025 / 21–3126 / 22–3327 / 24–32
Night °C20 / 16–2421 / 16–2520 / 16–2519 / 14–2517 / 12–2515 / 10–2414 / 9–2315 / 11–2316 / 12–2318 / 13–2419 / 15–2420 / 15–24
Rain mm126 / 8–232112 / 16–214101 / 48–19772 / 34–17843 / 12–19736 / 5–19234 / 4–20743 / 6–25165 / 12–21797 / 29–161112 / 34–153106 / 11–202
DLI38 / 34–4137 / 34–4133 / 31–4029 / 26–3827 / 22–3524 / 19–3324 / 20–3226 / 24–3630 / 28–4133 / 30–4236 / 32–4338 / 32–42
RH %63 / 51–6863 / 51–6763 / 55–6762 / 56–6760 / 55–6758 / 53–6757 / 52–6859 / 52–6861 / 52–6862 / 54–6762 / 52–6663 / 53–67

Each figure is the median across the 770 grid cells holding the 1525 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 1652:3879 (7.375, 13.975). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 3.9 °C, 1st-percentile night 8.3 °C, 99th-percentile day 34.0 °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 770 distinct grid cells holding the 1525 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1652:3879 (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 7.50_13.750, lapse-corrected +382 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1400 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.
NativeBenin, Burkina, Gambia, The, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo, Burundi, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Congo, Gabon, Rwanda, Zaïre, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Angola, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Cape Provinces, Caprivi Strip, Namibia, KwaZulu-Natal, Swaziland, Northern Provinces, Comoros, Madagascar, Saudi Arabia, Yemen· introduced: Tunisia, Vietnam, Florida, El Salvador, Bermuda, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Puerto Rico, Trinidad-Tobago
Kew's description“tree” · “seasonally dry tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-30.237, 30.784 · in the densest population, 577 records (37% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1539 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 463 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 80 km away. 152 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 1539 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Phoenix reclinataPhoenix reclinataPhoenix reclinataPhoenix reclinataPhoenix reclinataPhoenix reclinataPhoenix reclinataPhoenix reclinata

Photographs: (c) Karen Eichholz, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Suvarna Parbhoo Mohan, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (2); (c) Tony Rebelo, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (3); (c) Dave Richardson, 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 Phoenix reclinata, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

New and Interesting Fungi. 4
P.W. Crous, Margarita Hernández‐Restrepo, R.K. Schumacher, Don A. Cowan (2021) · Fungal Systematics and Evolution
Plant distribution in islands of the Okavango Delta, Botswana: determinants and feedback interactions
W.N. Ellery, Karen Ellery, T.S. McCarthy (1993) · African Journal of Ecology
Ritual uses of palms in traditional medicine in sub-Saharan Africa: a review
Marta Gruca, Tinde van Andel, Henrik Balslev (2014) · Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine
A comparative study on characterisations of Cissus quadrangularis and Phoenix reclinata natural fibres
K Mayandi, N. Rajini, P. Pitchipoo, V.S. Sreenivasan (2015) · Journal of Reinforced Plastics and Composites
Income, sap yield and effects of sap tapping on palms in south-eastern Africa
Anthony B. Cunningham (1990) · South African Journal of Botany
Ethnobotanical survey of pesticidal plants used in South Uganda: Case study of Masaka district
Julius Mwine, Patrick Van Damme, G. Kamoga, Kudamba (2011) · Journal of Medicinal Plants Research
TRADITIONAL TAPPING AND DISTILLATION METHODS OF COCONUT WINE (Mnazi) AS PRACTISED IN THE COASTAL REGION OF KENYA
TT Kadere, RK Oniang’o, PM Kutima, S.M. Muhoho (2004) · African Journal of Food Agriculture Nutrition and Development

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.

Other Phoenix 5 in the reference

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 103 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.