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Retrophyllum minus; photograph (c) Alain Le Magueresse, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Alain Le Magueresse, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2010-12-04

Retrophyllum minus (Carrière) C.N.Page

New Caledonia retrophyllum

Podocarpaceae · New Caledonia

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Retrophyllum minus, photograph (c) Alain Le Magueresse, some rights reserved (CC BY)Retrophyllum minus, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedRetrophyllum minus, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedRetrophyllum minus, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedRetrophyllum minus, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedRetrophyllum minus, photograph author not stated, no rights reserved 12 photographs ›
Habitat figuresfrom few records
Coldest month, mean nightly low
17.0°C
Aug at the habitat, not a floor; extremes not used (sea cell) CHELSA
Warmest month, mean daily high
26°C
Jan, Feb and Mar at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
2,533mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
19–42DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Wet summers: the rain comes June to December (December to June at the habitat), read as a summer growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

From few records: 5 records in 4 grid cells. The records.

Summary

Retrophyllum minus, the bois bouchon, is a species of conifer in the family Podocarpaceae. It is a shrub or small tree endemic to New Caledonia.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Retrophyllum minus", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Retrophyllum

Retrophyllum is a genus of conifers in the family Podocarpaceae. It contains five generally recognized extant species with a disjunct distribution in the Southern Hemisphere, found in Papuasia and also in South America. Retrophyllum are trees and shrubs typically occurring in tropical rainforests and cloud forests.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Retrophyllum", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,868 mm of 2,522 mm) falls in December to June, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 22.9 °C against a yearly mean of 21.7 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: June to December.

Rain

2,522 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,868 mm of it December to June. Wettest month March at 379 mm, driest month September at 108 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 2,311 mm to 2,572 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 2,533 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 2,522 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, southern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 19 to 42 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 19, the highest 90th-percentile month 43).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 17.0 °C in August (across the grid cells of the range 16.3 °C to 17.9 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 26.3 °C in February (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: none read. The nearest figure is 17.0 °C, the coldest month's mean nightly low, August, in the median year (CHELSA); a month's mean of its nightly lows is warmer than the nights a floor is read from. The daily extremes were read at a weather cell that is mostly sea and are not used.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 62 to 69% 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. CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. No cold floor is read without a daily extremes series; the coldest month's mean nightly low named in its sentence is not one. 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

From few records: this habitat climate is read from 5 records in 4 grid cells; a page says so under 12 records or 5 cells, and shows the figures as read.

Habitat months, southern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Retrophyllum minus through the yearWarmest months January, February and March, mean daily high 26 °C; coldest month August, mean nightly low 17.0 °C; 2,522 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA. Habitat months, southern hemisphere.15°20°25°30°°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 19–42RH 62–69%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 4 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C26 / 26–2626 / 26–2726 / 25–2624 / 24–2523 / 22–2321 / 21–2220 / 20–2120 / 20–2121 / 21–2223 / 22–2324 / 23–2425 / 25–26
Night °C23 / 22–2323 / 23–2423 / 22–2321 / 21–2220 / 19–2119 / 18–1917 / 17–1817 / 16–1818 / 17–1919 / 18–2020 / 20–2122 / 21–22
Rain mm269 / 245–283339 / 309–354379 / 345–394255 / 234–259200 / 185–202171 / 159–173131 / 122–133138 / 127–140108 / 99–111132 / 117–135145 / 131–151255 / 232–256
DLI40 / 40–4137 / 36–3832 / 31–3228 / 27–2822 / 22–2319 / 19–2021 / 21–2126 / 25–2633 / 33–3339 / 38–3941 / 40–4142 / 42–43
RH %69 / 67–6969 / 68–7069 / 68–7067 / 66–6865 / 64–6665 / 63–6562 / 61–6262 / 61–6263 / 61–6363 / 62–6464 / 63–6567 / 65–67

The daily extremes were read at a NASA POWER cell that is 28% land: neither it nor the next candidates whose coldest month's mean nightly low is within 2 °C of the median across cells sit in a POWER cell that is mostly land, and the rule reads a cold floor only from a cell that is mostly land, so none is read for this species. Nor is the coldest month's mean nightly low taken as one: it is a mean of a month's lows, not its coldest night. What that cell gave over 44 years: absolute minimum 14.7 °C, 1st-percentile night 17.1 °C, 99th-percentile day 27.4 °C.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 4 grid cells holding the 5 in-range records, 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 2245:6936 (-22.275, 166.825). 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 4 distinct grid cells holding 5 of the 5 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2245:6936 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells, though its NASA POWER cell is only 28% land and none of the 3 next candidates within 2 °C of the median was mostly land); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -22.50_166.875, lapse-corrected +188 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 228 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.
NativeNew Caledonia · 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 marker-22.271, 166.887 · in the densest population, 139 records (99% of those in range)
Kew's description“shrub or tree” · “wet tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 140 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 5 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 57 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 4 km away. Under a dozen records behind the climate. 135 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 140 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Retrophyllum minus, photograph 1did not loadRetrophyllum minus, photograph 2did not loadRetrophyllum minus, photograph 3did not loadRetrophyllum minus, photograph 4did not loadRetrophyllum minus, photograph 5did not loadRetrophyllum minus, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Alain Le Magueresse, some rights reserved (CC BY); author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0 (5).

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

Arillastrum gummiferum Arillastrum gummiferum Myrtaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Jean-Pierre Chéreau & Roger Culos Podocarpus novae-caledoniae Podocarpaceae Nepenthes vieillardii Nepenthes vieillardii New Caledonia Pitcher Plant Photo: CC BY, anguspritchardSyzygium acre Syzygium acre Myrtaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, didierMetrosideros operculata Metrosideros operculata Myrtaceae Photo: CC BY, Irisa HudsonDacrydium araucarioides Dacrydium araucarioides Podocarpaceae Photo: CC BY, Irisa Hudson

Other Retrophyllum 3 in the reference

Retrophyllum comptonii Retrophyllum comptonii Podocarpaceae Photo: CC BY, Irisa HudsonRetrophyllum piresii Retrophyllum piresii Podocarpaceae Photo: Public domain, Tomás Queiroz (me) Plant enthusiast and…Retrophyllum rospigliosii Retrophyllum rospigliosii Podocarpaceae Photo: CC BY, Ariel Gallego

Names & registers

Also known as Decussocarpus minor; Decussocarpus minus; Nageia minor; Nageia minus; Podocarpus minor and 3 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Podocarpaceae
Described by
(Carrière) C.N.Page
Native to
New Caledonia
Wild records
140 in range · 57 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; 7 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (7 at a botanic garden or arboretum; 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 -22.50_166.875, lapse-corrected +188 m at 6.5 °C/km; read, and set aside: NASA POWER's cell is mostly sea (28% land), so no cold floor is shown
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22IPNI and POWO linked by Kew's number for Retrophyllum minus (Carrière) C.N.Page (the item's: IPNI none, POWO 946469-1)
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 2026-10-22none 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 rules
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 11 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

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