Species
+

Spathodea campanulata Beauverd

African Flame Tree, African Tulip Tree, African tulip tree, Fireball, Flame of the forest, Fountain tree, African tuliptree

Climate known 58 photographs
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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

Spathodea is a genus in the plant family Bignoniaceae. The single species it contains, Spathodea campanulata, is commonly known as the African tulip tree or the Nandi Flame. The tree grows between 7–25 m (23–82 ft) tall and is native to tropical dry forests of Africa. It has been nominated as among 100 of the "World's Worst" invaders.

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

About the genus · Spathodea

Spathodea is a genus in the plant family Bignoniaceae. The single species it contains, Spathodea campanulata, is commonly known as the African tulip tree or the Nandi Flame. The tree grows between 7–25 m (23–82 ft) tall and is native to tropical dry forests of Africa. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Spathodea”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Bignoniaceae
Described by
Beauverd
Native to
Benin, Gambia, The, Guinea-Bissau +20
Wild records
144 in range· 103 open

At a glance

Warmest month
29°C
Feb, mean day; nights 21 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1369mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Oct 162 mm (CHELSA)
Light
28–37DLI
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 sharp rainy season, March to June and September to November at the habitat (not shifted); the temperature curve is flat (2.1 °C of range), so no growing season is inferred. Habitat rain 1369 mm a year, wettest October at 162 mm, driest January at 47 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 28 to 37 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 17.7 °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 Bignonia tulipifera Schum.; Bignonia tulipifera Thonn.; Spathodea campanulata subsp. congolana Bidgood; Spathodea campanulata subsp. nilotica (Seem.) Bidgood; Spathodea danckelmaniana Büttner and 3 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a sharp rainy season, March to June and September to November at the habitat (not shifted); the temperature curve is flat (2.1 °C of range), so no growing season is inferred.

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

The rain rule reads a sharp season: 70% of the year's rain (1008 mm of 1369 mm) falls in March to June and September to November. The temperature curve is flat, 2.1 °C between the warmest and coldest month, so the growing-season rule does not infer a growing season from it. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere, within 10° of the equator; with no thermal season there there is no season to reverse, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

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 1369 mm a year, wettest October at 162 mm, driest January at 47 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1369 mm a year at the habitat, 1008 mm of it March to June and September to November. Wettest month October at 162 mm, driest January at 47 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1031 mm to 3048 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: 28 to 37 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 28 to 37 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 24, the highest 90th-percentile month 41).

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 17.7 °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 17.7 °C, the absolute minimum 15.1 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 35.6 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 19.8 °C in December (across the envelope cells 13.9 °C to 24.2 °C), warmest day 29.1 °C in February (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 17.7 °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: 59 to 67% 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 27 °C in Jul to 29 °C in Feb; mean night from 20 °C in Dec to 21 °C in Mar. The cold quarter, Nov to Jan, is the three months around the coldest night. 1369 mm of rain a year, most in Oct. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 123 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 15.1 °C and the 99th-percentile day 35.6 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°15°20°25°30°35°40°35.6° 99th-percentile day (undated)15.1° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 28–37RH 59–67 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 123 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 °C29 / 24–3429 / 25–3529 / 25–3429 / 24–3328 / 23–3127 / 22–3027 / 21–2927 / 22–2927 / 23–2927 / 24–3028 / 23–3128 / 24–33
Night °C20 / 14–2421 / 14–2521 / 15–2521 / 15–2521 / 14–2420 / 13–2420 / 12–2320 / 12–2320 / 13–2320 / 14–2420 / 14–2420 / 14–24
Rain mm47 / 8–17956 / 20–167121 / 65–237161 / 115–316157 / 88–302131 / 18–259101 / 10–26395 / 16–331152 / 37–368162 / 88–437124 / 30–33762 / 10–210
DLI35 / 31–3937 / 32–4135 / 32–4034 / 30–3632 / 28–3530 / 25–3328 / 24–3329 / 24–3432 / 26–3732 / 27–3932 / 28–3733 / 29–37
RH %60 / 52–6859 / 52–6762 / 56–6964 / 60–6966 / 60–7066 / 55–7066 / 55–7066 / 54–7167 / 57–7167 / 58–7165 / 58–7163 / 54–69

Each figure is the median across the 123 grid cells holding the 143 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 1849:3825 (-2.475, 11.275). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 15.1 °C, 1st-percentile night 17.7 °C, 99th-percentile day 35.6 °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 123 distinct grid cells holding the 143 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1849:3825 (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 -2.50_11.250, lapse-corrected -66 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 165 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.
NativeBenin, Gambia, The, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo, Burundi, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Congo, Gabon, Gulf of Guinea Is., Rwanda, Zaïre, Ethiopia, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Angola· introduced: Madeira, Chad, Eritrea, Kenya, Comoros, Assam, Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Fiji, Samoa, Vanuatu, Cook Is., Line Is., Society Is., Caroline Is., Marianas, Marshall Is., Hawaii, Mexico Central, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Southwest, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Cayman Is., Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Puerto Rico, Southwest Caribbean, Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuelan Antilles, Windward Is., Ecuador
Kew's description“tree” · “wet tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker0.668, 30.14 · in the densest population, 55 records (38% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 144 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 103 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 3235 km away. 1453 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 1 in-range record is placed to worse than 10 km and stays 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 4° block of the 144 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Spathodea campanulataSpathodea campanulataSpathodea campanulataSpathodea campanulataSpathodea campanulataSpathodea campanulataSpathodea campanulataSpathodea campanulata

Photographs: (c) Ricard Busquets Reverte, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Abu Hamas, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA); (c) Jay Pruett, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Annika Lindqvist, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) M Kriek, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA).

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 Spathodea campanulata, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Methylene blue adsorption from aqueous solution using activated carbon of spathodea campanulata
Derese Dimbo, Mikiyas Abewaa, Eba Adino, Ashagrie Mengistu (2024) · Results in Engineering
RIPARIAN VEGETATION AND STREAM CONDITION IN A TROPICAL AGRICULTURE–SECONDARY FOREST MOSAIC
Tamara Heartsill Scalley, T. Mitchell Aide (2003) · Ecological Applications
Efficient adsorptive removal of Congo Red dye using activated carbon derived from Spathodea campanulata flowers
Sujesh Sudarsan, Gokulakrishnan Murugesan, Thivaharan Varadavenkatesan, Ramesh Vinayagam (2025) · Scientific Reports
Cytotoxicity of methanol extracts of 10 Cameroonian medicinal plants towards multi-factorial drug-resistant cancer cell lines
Victor Kuete, Cedric F. Tchinda, Flora T. Mambe, Véronique Penlap Beng (2016) · BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine
Hurricane Disturbance Alters Secondary Forest Recovery in Puerto Rico
Dan F. B. Flynn, María Uriarte, Tanja Crk, John B. Pascarella (2009) · Biotropica
In Vitro evaluation of effects of two ghanaian plants relevant to wound healing
Abraham Yeboah Mensah, Peter J. Houghton, Rita A. Dickson, Tracey C. Fleischer (2006) · Phytotherapy Research
Phytochemical screening and antibacterial activity of medicinal plants used to treat typhoid fever in Bamboutos division, West Cameroon
Tsobou Roger, Pierre-Marie Mapongmetsem, Voukeng Igor, Van Patrick (2015) · Journal of Applied Pharmaceutical Science
The Antimalarial Activity ofSpathodea campanulataStem Bark Extract onPlasmodium berghei bergheiin Mice
J. M. Makinde, O.O.G. Amusan, E. K. Adesogan (1988) · Planta Medica
Antimalarial Active Principles ofSpathodea campanulata Stem Bark
Oluwole O. G. Amusan, E. K. Adesogan, Janet M. Makinde (1996) · Phytotherapy Research

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