Species
+

Simmondsia chinensis (Link) C.K.Schneid.

Jojoba, goatnut, goatnut, jojoba

Climate known 71 photographs
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

Jojoba – also commonly called goat nut, deer nut, pignut, wild hazel, quinine nut, coffeeberry, and gray box bush – is an evergreen, dioecious shrub native to the Southwestern United States and northern Mexico. Simmondsia chinensis is the sole species of the family Simmondsiaceae, placed in the order Caryophyllales. The name "jojoba" is a hispanicization from hohohwi in Oʼodham, not to be confused with the almost homographic but unrelated "jujube" commonly grown in China.

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

About the genus · Simmondsia

Jojoba – also commonly called goat nut, deer nut, pignut, wild hazel, quinine nut, coffeeberry, and gray box bush – is an evergreen, dioecious shrub native to the Southwestern United States and northern Mexico. Simmondsia chinensis is the sole species of the family Simmondsiaceae, placed in the order Caryophyllales. The name "jojoba" is a hispanicization from hohohwi in Oʼodham, not to be confused with the almost homographic but unrelated "jujube" commonly grown in China.

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

Family
Simmondsiaceae
Described by
(Link) C.K.Schneid.
Native to
Arizona, California, Utah +3
Wild records
1744 in range· 585 open

At a glance

Warmest month
36°C
Jul, mean day; nights 23 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
231mm/yr
4 wet months · peak Feb 35 mm (CHELSA)
Light
21–54DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: a winter growing season, November to March and August in the northern hemisphere (November to March and August at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 231 mm a year, wettest February at 35 mm, driest June at 2 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 21 to 54 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -0.8 °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 Brocchia dichotoma Mauri; Buxus californica hort.; Buxus californica hort. ex Baill.; Buxus chinensis Link; Celastrus obtusatus C.Presl and 3 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a winter growing season, November to March and August in the northern hemisphere (November to March and August at the habitat, northern).

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

The rain rule reads a winter growing season: 70% of the year's rain (173 mm of 231 mm) falls in November to March and August, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 16.0 °C against a yearly mean of 20.2 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: February and May to September.

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 231 mm a year, wettest February at 35 mm, driest June at 2 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

231 mm a year at the habitat, 173 mm of it November to March and August. Wettest month February at 35 mm, driest June at 2 mm; 2 months under 5 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 116 mm to 396 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern 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: 21 to 54 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 21 to 54 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 55).

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 -0.8 °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 -0.8 °C, the absolute minimum -6.9 °C, about 6 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 43.0 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 5.9 °C in December (across the envelope cells 2.4 °C to 14.1 °C), warmest day 35.6 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -0.8 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

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. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 39 to 50% 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 17 °C in Dec to 36 °C in Jul; mean night from 6 °C in Dec to 23 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Nov to Jan, is the three months around the coldest night. 231 mm of rain a year, most in Feb. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 636 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -6.9 °C and the 99th-percentile day 43.0 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-10°10°20°30°40°50°frost43.0° 99th-percentile day (undated)-6.9° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075mm rainDLI 21–54RH 39–50 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 636 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 °C17 / 15–2019 / 16–2222 / 18–2525 / 19–2830 / 20–3334 / 22–3836 / 25–4035 / 26–3932 / 25–3628 / 23–3021 / 19–2517 / 14–21
Night °C6 / 2–147 / 3–149 / 5–1412 / 8–1615 / 12–1920 / 15–2423 / 18–2723 / 19–2720 / 17–2515 / 12–2110 / 6–176 / 2–14
Rain mm33 / 15–5535 / 9–6530 / 5–5510 / 1–223 / 0–82 / 1–512 / 2–4824 / 3–6316 / 5–4715 / 7–2719 / 7–3132 / 14–48
DLI23 / 21–2728 / 27–3338 / 36–4247 / 45–4952 / 50–5354 / 51–5549 / 47–5145 / 42–4740 / 39–4133 / 31–3625 / 23–2921 / 19–25
RH %50 / 45–5749 / 44–5847 / 42–6043 / 37–6042 / 35–6339 / 33–6344 / 40–6347 / 42–6345 / 41–6245 / 40–6046 / 41–5750 / 44–57

Each figure is the median across the 636 grid cells holding the 1706 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 1126:1290 (33.675, -115.475). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -6.9 °C, 1st-percentile night -0.8 °C, 99th-percentile day 43.0 °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 636 distinct grid cells holding the 1706 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1126:1290 (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 33.50_-115.625, lapse-corrected +221 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 602 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.
NativeArizona, California, Utah, New Mexico, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Northwest· introduced: Canary Is.
Kew's description“shrub” · “desert or dry shrubland”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker33.61, -116.42 · in the densest population, 1044 records (60% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1744 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 585 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 58 km away. 3 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 38 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 1744 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Simmondsia chinensisSimmondsia chinensisSimmondsia chinensisSimmondsia chinensisSimmondsia chinensisSimmondsia chinensisSimmondsia chinensisSimmondsia chinensis

Photographs: no rights reserved · CC0 (7); (c) Justin Johnsen, 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 Simmondsia chinensis, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Surface structure and properties of plant seed oil bodies
Jason T. C. Tzen, Alice H. Huang (1992) · The Journal of Cell Biology
CER4 Encodes an Alcohol-Forming Fatty Acyl-Coenzyme A Reductase Involved in Cuticular Wax Production in Arabidopsis
Owen Rowland, Huanquan Zheng, Shelley R. Hepworth, Patricia Lam (2006) · PLANT PHYSIOLOGY
Estimation of Mesophyll Conductance to CO2 Flux by Three Different Methods
Francesco Loreto, P. C. Harley, Giorgio Di Marco, Thomas D. Sharkey (1992) · PLANT PHYSIOLOGY
Pheromone gland-specific fatty-acyl reductase of the silkmoth, Bombyx mori
Ken’ichi Moto, Toyoshi Yoshiga, Masanobu Yamamoto, Shunya Takahashi (2003) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Purification of a Jojoba Embryo Fatty Acyl-Coenzyme A Reductase and Expression of Its cDNA in High Erucic Acid Rapeseed
James G. Metz, Michael R. Pollard, Lana J. Anderson, Thomas R. Hayes (2000) · PLANT PHYSIOLOGY
Purification of a Jojoba Embryo Wax Synthase, Cloning of its cDNA, and Production of High Levels of Wax in Seeds of Transgenic Arabidopsis
Kathryn Lardizabal, James G. Metz, Tetsuo Sakamoto, William Hutton (2000) · PLANT PHYSIOLOGY

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.

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