Sophora microphylla Aiton
Kowhai, Small-leaved kowhai, Small-leaved kōwhai, Weeping kōwhai
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
Sophora microphylla, commonly known as kōwhai, weeping kōwhai, and small-leaved kōwhai, is a species of tree in the family Fabaceae. It reaches 25 metres in height, with a trunk up to 90 cm (35 in) in diameter. It is endemic to New Zealand; its range mainly covers the South Island, but is also present in the North Island. S. microphylla is found in various habitats. More on Wikipedia ›
The opening of Wikipedia, “Sophora microphylla”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.
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.
Text from Wikipedia, “Sophora”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.
At a glance
Also known as Edwardsia grandiflora var. microphylla (Aiton) Hook.f.; Edwardsia microphylla (Aiton) Salisb.; Sophora tetraptera L.f.; Sophora tetraptera var. microphylla (Aiton) Hook.f.
Cultivation
Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (October to April and June in the northern hemisphere).
This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.
The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (852 mm of 1184 mm) takes 8 months, April to October and December. Mean temperature moves 9.7 °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.
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 1184 mm a year, wettest July at 125 mm, driest February at 77 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
1184 mm a year at the habitat, 852 mm of it April to October and December. Wettest month July at 125 mm, driest February at 77 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 701 mm to 2110 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: 10 to 42 mol/m²/day.
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
Open sky over the habitat: 10 to 42 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 8, the highest 90th-percentile month 45).
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 3.6 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 3.6 °C, the absolute minimum 1.1 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 20.8 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 3.2 °C in July (across the envelope cells -1.9 °C to 9.3 °C), warmest day 19.9 °C in January (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 3.6 °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.
Relative humidity at the habitat: 61 to 63% 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
Figures by month
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day °C | 20 / 17–22 | 20 / 17–22 | 18 / 16–21 | 15 / 13–18 | 13 / 9–16 | 10 / 5–14 | 9 / 4–13 | 10 / 6–14 | 13 / 9–15 | 14 / 12–16 | 16 / 14–18 | 18 / 16–21 |
| Night °C | 12 / 9–16 | 12 / 9–17 | 11 / 8–16 | 8 / 5–14 | 6 / 2–12 | 4 / -1–10 | 3 / -2–9 | 4 / -1–9 | 5 / 1–10 | 7 / 3–12 | 9 / 6–13 | 11 / 8–15 |
| Rain mm | 80 / 49–154 | 77 / 50–124 | 88 / 56–150 | 90 / 51–163 | 108 / 63–201 | 120 / 60–222 | 125 / 65–207 | 116 / 61–193 | 99 / 48–195 | 99 / 60–203 | 87 / 54–165 | 95 / 58–180 |
| DLI | 42 / 38–45 | 36 / 33–38 | 28 / 25–31 | 20 / 17–22 | 13 / 10–16 | 10 / 8–13 | 11 / 9–14 | 17 / 14–19 | 25 / 22–27 | 33 / 30–35 | 40 / 36–42 | 42 / 38–45 |
| RH % | 61 / 58–64 | 61 / 59–64 | 62 / 59–64 | 62 / 60–66 | 63 / 60–68 | 63 / 60–69 | 63 / 61–69 | 63 / 60–68 | 62 / 59–66 | 61 / 59–65 | 61 / 58–64 | 61 / 58–65 |
Each figure is the median across the 867 grid cells holding the 1687 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 2717:7011 (-45.875, 170.575). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 1.1 °C, 1st-percentile night 3.6 °C, 99th-percentile day 20.8 °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 867 distinct grid cells holding the 1687 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2717:7011 (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 -46.00_170.625, lapse-corrected +62 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 109 m (cell mean).
Natural habitat
Photographs
Photographs: (c) Jon Sullivan, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Joe Potter Butler, some rights reserved (CC BY) (6).
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 Sophora microphylla, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.
Related
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.
Pittosporum tenuifolium Black Matipo
Pittosporum eugenioides Lemonwood
Pseudopanax ferox Fierce lancewood
Dicksonia antarctica Australian Tree Ferns
Podocarpus totara totara
Dacrycarpus dacrydioides New Zealand dacryberryOther Sophora 3 in the reference
Sophora molloyi Cook Strait Kowhai
Sophora tetraptera Large-leaved Kōwhai
Sophora tomentosa Bead tree 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 answeredgbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zamclimate answeredwikidata 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: skippedinat.taxon not askedinat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skippedinat.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 answeredopenalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skippedEvery 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.








