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Sophora chathamica; photograph (c) Tom Beard, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Tom Beard, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-09-04

Sophora chathamica Cockayne

Coastal Kōwhai; Chatham Island kowhai

Fabaceae · Chatham Is., New Zealand North

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Sophora chathamica, photograph (c) Tom Beard, some rights reserved (CC BY)Sophora chathamica, photograph (c) Tom Beard, some rights reserved (CC BY)Sophora chathamica, photograph (c) Tom Beard, some rights reserved (CC BY)Sophora chathamica, photograph (c) Christopher Stephens, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Sophora chathamica, photograph (c) Christopher Stephens, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Sophora chathamica, photograph (c) Christopher Stephens, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) 72 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
5.6°C
Record low 3.2 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
22°C
Feb at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,281mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
13–43DLI
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
Rain spread: 70% of the median year's rain takes 8 months, so no short rainy season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Sophora chathamica, the coastal kōwhai, sometimes known as Chatham Island kōwhai, is one of 8 species of native sophora or kōwhai in New Zealand and grows naturally in the north-west of the North Island in New Zealand, as far south as the Tongaporutu River in north Taranaki, and as far north as Te Paki. It can also be found growing near Wellington and the Chatham Islands, although these later plantings are thought to be a result of Māori plantings in the late 18th century and early 19th century. Prior to 2001, it was included as variant of Sophora microphylla, therefore references to either Sophora microphylla var. chathamica or Sophora microphylla subsp. microphylla var. chathamica are considered references to coastal kowhai.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Sophora chathamica", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Sophora

Sophora is a genus of about 45 species of small trees and shrubs in the pea family Fabaceae. The species have a pantropical distribution. The generic name is derived from sophera, an Arabic name for a pea-flowered tree.

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

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads no short rainy season: 70% of the median year's rain (944 mm of 1,281 mm) takes 8 months, April to October and December. Mean temperature moves 7.8 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: October to April and June.

Rain

1,281 mm in the median year at the habitat, 944 mm of it April to October and December. Wettest month July at 151 mm, driest months (2 at 78 mm). Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,156 mm to 1,560 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,281 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,281 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: 13 to 43 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 10, the highest 90th-percentile month 45).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 5.6 °C, the absolute minimum 3.2 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 26.1 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 9.9 °C in July and August (across the grid cells of the range 7.6 °C to 11.5 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 21.5 °C in February (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 5.6 °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: 61 to 62% 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, lapse-corrected -3 m to its elevation; 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, southern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Sophora chathamica through the yearWarmest month February, mean daily high 22 °C; coldest months July and August, mean nightly low 9.9 °C; 1,281 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, southern hemisphere.0°5°10°15°20°25°30°26.1° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER3.2° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200mm rainDLI 13–43RH 61–62%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 154 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 °C21 / 17–2222 / 18–2220 / 17–2118 / 15–1916 / 13–1714 / 12–1514 / 11–1514 / 11–1515 / 12–1616 / 13–1718 / 14–1820 / 16–21
Night °C17 / 14–1818 / 14–1816 / 14–1715 / 12–1613 / 10–1411 / 9–1210 / 8–1210 / 8–1111 / 9–1212 / 10–1314 / 11–1416 / 13–16
Rain mm78 / 69–9978 / 69–10191 / 80–11399 / 87–121121 / 109–147141 / 123–173151 / 136–182131 / 116–163109 / 98–13897 / 87–13090 / 77–11395 / 85–120
DLI43 / 41–4537 / 35–3930 / 29–3122 / 20–2216 / 13–1613 / 10–1314 / 11–1519 / 17–2026 / 24–2734 / 31–3440 / 38–4243 / 41–45
RH %62 / 61–6462 / 61–6461 / 60–6461 / 60–6462 / 61–6462 / 60–6462 / 61–6562 / 61–6462 / 61–6562 / 61–6562 / 61–6462 / 61–65
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 154 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (326 records in those cells; 4 more cells hold records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cells are left out), 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 2535:7094 (-36.775, 174.725). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 3.2 °C, 1st-percentile night 5.6 °C, 99th-percentile day 26.1 °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 154 distinct grid cells holding 326 of the 333 in-range records (4 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2535:7094 (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 -37.00_175.000, lapse-corrected -3 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 47 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.
NativeChatham Is., New Zealand North · 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-36.666, 174.727 · in the densest population, 524 records (82% of those in range)
Kew's description“tree” · “subtropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 642 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 326 of them in the land cells it reads, of 333 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 421 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 3 km away. 4 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 309 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 642 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Sophora chathamica, photograph 1did not loadSophora chathamica, photograph 2did not loadSophora chathamica, photograph 3did not loadSophora chathamica, photograph 4did not loadSophora chathamica, photograph 5did not loadSophora chathamica, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Tom Beard, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Christopher Stephens, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (3).

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

Blechnum zeelandicum Aspleniaceae Metrosideros × subtomentosa Metrosideros × subtomentosa Myrtaceae Photo: CC BY, Jacqui GeuxFuchsia procumbens Fuchsia procumbens Creeping fuchsia Photo: CC BY, Angus CampbellPennantia baylisiana Pennantia baylisiana Three Kings Kaikomako Photo: Public domain, LawrieM at English Wikipedia Piper melchior Piperaceae Alternanthera nahui Alternanthera nahui Nahui Photo: CC BY, William Harland

Other Sophora 20 in the reference

Sophora alopecuroides Sophora alopecuroides Fabaceae Photo: CC BY, Islam GalymzhanovSophora cassioides Sophora cassioides Fabaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Bruno AlzugaraySophora chrysophylla Sophora chrysophylla Mamani Photo: CC0, author not statedSophora davidii Sophora davidii Fabaceae Photo: CC BY, Jay PruettSophora fernandeziana Sophora fernandeziana Fabaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedSophora flavescens Sophora flavescens Shrubby sophora Photo: CC BY, Violetta DzizyurovaSophora fraseri Sophora fraseri Brush sophora Photo: CC BY, Gordon CocksSophora fulvida Sophora fulvida Waitakere Kowhai Photo: CC BY, DwayneSophora godleyi Sophora godleyi Godley’s Kōwhai Photo: CC BY-SA, Christopher StephensSophora howinsula Sophora howinsula Lord Howe Kowhai Photo: CC BY, ian_mcallanSophora longicarinata Sophora longicarinata Fabaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Christopher StephensSophora macrocarpa Sophora macrocarpa Fabaceae Photo: CC0, author not stated all 21 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Sophora microphylla var. chathamica. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Fabaceae
Described by
Cockayne
Native to
Chatham Is., New Zealand North
Wild records
642 in range · 421 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; 13 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (6 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 3 at a herbarium, 4 at a zoo; 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 -37.00_175.000, lapse-corrected -3 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
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 2026-10-22
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 7 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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