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An example collection, so you can see what this page does. Nothing added here is kept: leaving deletes it.
Scaphium affine; photograph scallions, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF CC BYscallions, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF

Scaphium affine (Mast.) Pierre

Malvaceae · Cambodia, Laos +5

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Scaphium affine, photograph scallions, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFScaphium affine, photograph scallions, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFScaphium affine, photograph scallions, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFScaphium affine, photograph scallions, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFScaphium affine, photograph scallions, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFScaphium affine, photograph scallions, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF 16 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
22.8°C
Record low 20.8 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
29°C
Mar, Apr, May and Jun at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
2,528mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
27–36DLI
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

Scaphium affine is a tree species in the family Malvaceae, subfamily Sterculioideae (previously placed in the Sterculiaceae and synonyms include Sterculia lychnophora Hance).The species is endemic to mainland Southeast Asia, and no subspecies are recognized in the Catalogue of Life.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Scaphium affine", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads no short rainy season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,834 mm of 2,480 mm) takes 8 months, September to January and March to May. Mean temperature moves 1.8 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere. The habitat lies within 10° of the equator, where the shift rule does not apply, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

Rain

2,480 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,834 mm of it September to January and March to May. Wettest month December at 315 mm, driest month February at 129 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 2,445 mm to 2,725 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 2,528 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 2,480 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: 27 to 36 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 27, the highest 90th-percentile month 38).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 22.8 °C, the absolute minimum 20.8 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 32.3 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 24.3 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 20.3 °C to 24.5 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 29.0 °C in April (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 22.8 °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: 65 to 67% 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, with a lapse correction of 0 m or none (the two are recorded alike); 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 Scaphium affine through the yearWarmest months March, April, May and June, mean daily high 29 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 24.3 °C; 2,480 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°32.3° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER20.8° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 27–36RH 65–67%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 6 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 °C28 / 27–3028 / 28–3229 / 28–3229 / 29–3229 / 29–3129 / 29–3028 / 28–2928 / 28–2928 / 28–2928 / 28–2928 / 28–2928 / 27–29
Night °C24 / 20–2525 / 21–2525 / 22–2526 / 23–2626 / 23–2626 / 23–2625 / 22–2625 / 23–2625 / 22–2525 / 22–2525 / 21–2525 / 21–25
Rain mm227 / 92–247129 / 75–164208 / 131–243205 / 166–266210 / 203–259166 / 161–241172 / 168–283179 / 174–323198 / 192–329200 / 195–320271 / 204–307315 / 145–336
DLI31 / 30–3336 / 36–3736 / 35–3834 / 34–3832 / 31–3431 / 31–3231 / 31–3233 / 32–3334 / 31–3433 / 30–3329 / 28–3027 / 27–30
RH %66 / 61–6765 / 60–6766 / 62–6766 / 64–6766 / 66–6765 / 65–6765 / 64–6865 / 64–6866 / 65–6866 / 65–6967 / 66–6867 / 64–68
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 6 grid cells holding the 14 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 1772:5676 (1.375, 103.825). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 20.8 °C, 1st-percentile night 22.8 °C, 99th-percentile day 32.3 °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 6 distinct grid cells holding 14 of the 14 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1772:5676 (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 1.50_103.750, lapse-corrected 0 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 26 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.
NativeCambodia, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam, Borneo, Malaya, Sumatera · 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 marker1.349, 103.779 · in the densest population, 18 records (56% 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 32 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 14 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 20 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 7 km away. 18 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 32 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Scaphium affine, photograph 1did not loadScaphium affine, photograph 2did not loadScaphium affine, photograph 3did not loadScaphium affine, photograph 4did not loadScaphium affine, photograph 5did not loadScaphium affine, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: scallions, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF (6).

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

Podocarpus polystachyus Podocarpus polystachyus Podocarpaceae Photo: CC BY, fmunoz Mitrephora maingayi Annonaceae Elaeocarpus mastersii Elaeocarpus mastersii Elaeocarpaceae Photo: CC BY, Lucas ChristofidesPalaquium obovatum Palaquium obovatum Sapotaceae Photo: CC BY, Nasser HalawehTarenna fragrans Tarenna fragrans River Tarenna Photo: CC BY, grass_0Sindora wallichii Sindora wallichii Fabaceae Photo: CC BY, Cheongweei Gan

Other Scaphium 2 in the reference

Scaphium macropodum Scaphium macropodum Malva Nut Photo: Public domain, Patrice78500 Scaphium scaphigerum Malva Nut Tree

Names & registers

Also known as Clompanus affinis; Firmiana affinis; Firmiana lychnophora; Scaphium beccarianum; Scaphium lychnophorum and 3 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipedia

The record

Family
Malvaceae
Described by
(Mast.) Pierre
Native to
Cambodia, Laos, Thailand +4
Wild records
32 in range · 20 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
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 1.50_103.750, lapse-corrected 0 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist taxon inat.taxon not asked
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild not asked
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 5 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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