Species
+

Polyscias scutellaria (Burm.fil.) Fosberg

Kob, Shield Aralia, Tapak leman, dinnerplate-aralia

Climate known 30 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

Polyscias scutellaria, the shield aralia, or plum aralia, is a tropical shrub or small tree reaching 2–6 meters in height. A native of eastern Malesia and southwest Pacific islands, it is commonly grown in gardens.

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

About the genus · Polyscias

Polyscias is a genus of flowering plants in the family Araliaceae with a natural distribution from tropical Africa through Southeast Asia and Australia to islands of the Pacific. As of February 2026, Plants of the World Online recognises 28 synonyms and about 180 species for the genus.

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

Family
Araliaceae
Described by
(Burm.fil.) Fosberg
Native to
Maluku, New Guinea, Solomon Is. +2
Wild records
43 in range· 36 open

At a glance

Warmest month
28°C
Feb, mean day; nights 25 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
2489mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Feb 311 mm (CHELSA)
Light
25–41DLI
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 the genus Polyscias, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a sharp rainy season, November to May at the habitat (not shifted); the temperature curve is flat (2.9 °C of range), so no growing season is inferred. Habitat rain 2489 mm a year, wettest February at 311 mm, driest July at 121 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 25 to 41 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 20.7 °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 Aralia cochleata Lam.; Aralia latifolia Wight & Arn.; Aralia rotunda W.Bull; Aralia rotundifolia Truff.; Crassula scutellaria Burm.fil. and 15 more.

Cultivation

Grouped as a tropical foliage plant by the genus Polyscias, which is reliably 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 sharp rainy season, November to May at the habitat (not shifted); the temperature curve is flat (2.9 °C of range), so no growing season is inferred.

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

The rain rule reads a sharp season: 70% of the year's rain (1819 mm of 2489 mm) falls in November to May. The temperature curve is flat, 2.9 °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, southern hemisphere; with a flat temperature curve 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 2489 mm a year, wettest February at 311 mm, driest July at 121 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

2489 mm a year at the habitat, 1819 mm of it November to May. Wettest month February at 311 mm, driest July at 121 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 2012 mm to 4162 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: 25 to 41 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 25 to 41 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 22, 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 20.7 °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 20.7 °C, the absolute minimum 19.0 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 26.7 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 22.6 °C in August (across the envelope cells 19.3 °C to 24.7 °C), warmest day 27.7 °C in February (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 20.7 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER); the archetype table's minimum for a tropical foliage plant, 12 °C, is lower and does not raise it.

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: 64 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 25 °C in Aug to 28 °C in Feb; mean night from 23 °C in Aug to 25 °C in Jan. The cold quarter, Jul to Sep, is the three months around the coldest night. 2489 mm of rain a year, most in Feb. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 33 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 19.0 °C and the 99th-percentile day 26.7 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.15°20°25°30°26.7° 99th-percentile day (undated)19.0° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 25–41RH 64–68 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 33 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 / 25–2928 / 25–2828 / 25–2827 / 24–2826 / 24–2826 / 23–2725 / 22–2725 / 22–2725 / 23–2726 / 23–2826 / 24–2827 / 24–28
Night °C25 / 22–2625 / 22–2625 / 22–2625 / 22–2624 / 21–2623 / 20–2523 / 19–2523 / 19–2523 / 19–2523 / 20–2524 / 21–2525 / 22–26
Rain mm271 / 243–411311 / 254–405309 / 271–410279 / 214–474212 / 167–379157 / 115–310121 / 77–318125 / 78–295128 / 76–273139 / 105–302204 / 129–393233 / 171–409
DLI39 / 31–4237 / 31–3935 / 31–3732 / 29–3327 / 25–3025 / 22–2825 / 23–2830 / 27–3134 / 32–3539 / 32–4040 / 32–4241 / 31–43
RH %67 / 64–7368 / 64–7368 / 64–7468 / 63–7566 / 61–7466 / 60–7364 / 59–7364 / 59–7365 / 60–7165 / 61–7266 / 62–7367 / 62–73

Each figure is the median across the 33 grid cells holding the 41 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 2076:6949 (-13.825, 167.475). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 19.0 °C, 1st-percentile night 20.7 °C, 99th-percentile day 26.7 °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 33 distinct grid cells holding the 41 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2076:6949 (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 -14.00_167.500, lapse-corrected +451 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 482 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.
NativeMaluku, New Guinea, Solomon Is., Santa Cruz Is., Vanuatu· introduced: Thailand, Gilbert Is., Line Is., Society Is., Caroline Is., Marianas, Marshall Is., Dominican Republic, Haiti, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Puerto Rico, Trinidad-Tobago
Kew's description“shrub or tree” · “wet tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-13.349, 166.639 · in the densest population, 22 records (51% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 43 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 36 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 513 km away. 167 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 2 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 inside the densest 2° block of the 43 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Polyscias scutellariaPolyscias scutellariaPolyscias scutellariaPolyscias scutellariaPolyscias scutellariaPolyscias scutellariaPolyscias scutellariaPolyscias scutellaria

Photographs: (c) Kurt Miller, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA); (c) Louis Aureglia, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Matt B, some rights reserved (CC BY) (5).

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 Polyscias scutellaria, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Triterpenic glycosides from Polyscias scutellaria
S. Paphassarang, Jean Raynaud, M. Lussignol, Michel Becchi (1989) · Phytochemistry
Lactogenic effect of Polyscias scutellaria extract to maintain postpartum prolactin and oxytocin in lactating rats
Budiono Budiono, Sumirah Budi Pertami, Kasiati, Siti Nur Arifah (2022) · Journal of Ayurveda and Integrative Medicine
FTIR spectral correlation with alpha-glucosidase inhibitory activities of selected leafy plants extracts
Savani Ulpathakumbura, Nazrim Marikkar, Lalith Jayasinghe (2023) · International Journal of Plant Based Pharmaceuticals
A New Oleanolic Glycoside from Polyscias scutellaria
S. Paphassarang, Jean Raynaud, M. Lussignol, Pierre Cabalion (1990) · Journal of Natural Products
Triterpenoid Saponins from Polyscias scutellaria
S. Paphassarang, Jean Raynaud, M. Lussignol, Michel Becchi (1989) · Journal of Natural Products
Studies on wound healing property of Polyscias scutellaria leaf saponins
Madhu C. Divakar, S. Lakshmi Devi, Puspendra Kumar, S. B. Rao (2001) · Indian Journal of Natural Products
ANTIBACTERIAL ACTIVITY OF POLYSCIAS SCUTELLARIA FOSBERG AGAINST ACINETOBACTER SP.
Dela Rosa, Yuniwaty Halim, Kam Natania, Marcelia Sugata (2019) · Asian Journal of Pharmaceutical and Clinical Research
AKTIVITAS ANTIOKSIDAN EKSTRAK METANOL DAUN MANGKOKAN (Polyscias scutellaria (Burn.f.)Fosberg)
Willy Tirza Eden, Buanasari Buanasari, Shihabuddin Shihabuddin, Nilam Kencana Badahdah (2016) · STIFAR - Sekolah Tinggi Ilmu Farmasi
Determination of the major component of water fraction of katuk (Sauropus androgynous (L.) Merr.) leaves by liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry
Resmi Mustarichie, Tiara Salsabila, Yoppi Iskandar (2019) · Journal of Pharmacy And Bioallied Sciences

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 Polyscias 3 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 40 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.