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Sophora prostrata; photograph (c) Genevieve Early, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Genevieve Early, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-09-21

Sophora prostrata Buchanan

Prostrate kowhai

Fabaceae · New Zealand South

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Sophora prostrata, photograph (c) Genevieve Early, some rights reserved (CC BY)Sophora prostrata, photograph (c) Genevieve Early, some rights reserved (CC BY)Sophora prostrata, photograph (c) Genevieve Early, some rights reserved (CC BY)Sophora prostrata, photograph (c) Genevieve Early, some rights reserved (CC BY)Sophora prostrata, photograph (c) Oscar Dove, some rights reserved (CC BY)Sophora prostrata, photograph (c) Oscar Dove, some rights reserved (CC BY) 77 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
1.9°C
Record low -0.2 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
21°C
Jan at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
847mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
10–44DLI
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 prostrata is commonly known as kōwhai, prostrate kōwhai or dwarf kōwhai and is endemic to the eastern South Island from Marlborough to the Waitaki Valley in New Zealand although most commonly found on the Banks Peninsula.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Sophora prostrata", 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 (604 mm of 842 mm) takes 8 months, March, May to August and October to December. Mean temperature moves 10.9 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: November to February, April to June and September.

Rain

842 mm in the median year at the habitat, 604 mm of it March, May to August and October to December. Wettest month July at 90 mm, driest month January at 56 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 656 mm to 1,191 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 847 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 842 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: 10 to 44 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 8, 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 1.9 °C, the absolute minimum -0.2 °C, 1 frost night in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 24.3 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 1.1 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range -1.9 °C to 4.3 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 20.5 °C in January (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 1.9 °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: 59 to 63% 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 +184 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 prostrata through the yearWarmest month January, mean daily high 21 °C; coldest month July, mean nightly low 1.1 °C; 842 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.-5°0°5°10°15°20°25°30°frost24.3° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-0.2° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125mm rainDLI 10–44RH 59–63%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 148 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 / 18–2220 / 18–2218 / 16–2015 / 13–1712 / 9–139 / 5–118 / 4–1010 / 6–1112 / 9–1414 / 12–1617 / 14–1819 / 16–20
Night °C12 / 10–1312 / 10–1310 / 8–127 / 5–105 / 2–72 / -1–51 / -2–42 / -1–54 / 1–66 / 3–88 / 6–1010 / 8–12
Rain mm56 / 43–8258 / 45–8168 / 48–9563 / 49–8975 / 61–9979 / 63–11190 / 65–11785 / 64–11861 / 44–9474 / 55–11768 / 50–9965 / 52–99
DLI44 / 41–4537 / 34–3829 / 27–3120 / 18–2213 / 11–1510 / 8–1111 / 10–1316 / 15–1925 / 24–2734 / 32–3541 / 39–4244 / 41–44
RH %59 / 57–6160 / 58–6260 / 59–6261 / 60–6362 / 60–6462 / 60–6663 / 61–6762 / 60–6560 / 59–6360 / 58–6259 / 58–6159 / 57–62
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 148 grid cells holding the 411 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 2657:7057 (-42.875, 172.875). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -0.2 °C, 1st-percentile night 1.9 °C, 99th-percentile day 24.3 °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 148 distinct grid cells holding 411 of the 411 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2657:7057 (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 -43.00_173.125, lapse-corrected +184 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 300 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 Zealand South · 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-43.559, 172.702 · in the densest population, 531 records (87% of those in range)
Kew's description“shrub” · “temperate” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 611 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 411 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 378 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 5 km away. 4 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 200 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 611 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 prostrata, photograph 1did not loadSophora prostrata, photograph 2did not loadSophora prostrata, photograph 3did not loadSophora prostrata, photograph 4did not loadSophora prostrata, photograph 5did not loadSophora prostrata, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Genevieve Early, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4); (c) Oscar Dove, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2).

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

Muehlenbeckia ephedroides Muehlenbeckia ephedroides Leafless Pōhuehue Photo: CC BY, Liadan DickiePachystegia insignis Pachystegia insignis Marlborough daisy Photo: CC BY, Andrew ParkerClematis afoliata Clematis afoliata Rush-stem clematis Photo: CC BY, Rock McLarenVeronica hulkeana Veronica hulkeana Marlborough hebe Photo: CC BY, naturewatchwidowConvolvulus verecundus Convolvulus verecundus Tussock Bindweed Photo: CC0, author not statedBossiaea riparia Bossiaea riparia River Leafless Bossiaea Photo: CC0, Cowirrie

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 chathamica Sophora chathamica Coastal Kōwhai Photo: CC BY, Tom BeardSophora 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 Stephens all 21 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Edwardsia prostrata; Sophora tetraptera var. prostrata. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Fabaceae
Described by
Buchanan
Native to
New Zealand South
Wild records
611 in range · 378 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; 29 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (5 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 21 at a herbarium, 3 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 -43.00_173.125, lapse-corrected +184 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 13 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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