22 photographs › At a glance
- Jan
- Feb
- Mar
- Apr
- May
- Jun, shaded
- Jul, shaded
- Aug, shaded
- Sep, shaded
- Oct, shaded
- Nov, shaded
- Dec
Summary
Sphaeropteris intermedia, synonym Cyathea intermedia, is a species of tree fern endemic to the east coast of New Caledonia. S. intermedia is the world's largest extant species of fern.
Quoted from Wikipedia, "Sphaeropteris intermedia", CC BY-SA 4.0.
About the genus · Sphaeropteris
Sphaeropteris is a genus of tree ferns in the family Cyatheaceae. It has been treated as a subgenus within the genus Cyathea, but is accepted in the Pteridophyte Phylogeny Group classification of 2016.
Quoted from Wikipedia, "Sphaeropteris", CC BY-SA 4.0.
Cultivation
Grouped as a fern or moss, listed under the family Cyatheaceae in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “tree”.
Seasons
The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,418 mm of 2,005 mm) falls in December to May, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 23.7 °C against a yearly mean of 21.8 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: June to November.
Rain
2,005 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,418 mm of it December to May. Wettest month March at 339 mm, driest month September at 69 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,302 mm to 2,630 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 2,008 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 2,005 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: 20 to 42 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 19, the highest 90th-percentile month 45).
Warmth and air
Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 16.5 °C, the absolute minimum 14.9 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 28.4 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 15.7 °C in August (across the grid cells of the range 13.2 °C to 19.2 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 27.3 °C in February (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 16.5 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).
Relative humidity at the habitat: 62 to 69% 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 +307 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.
Group. Listed under the family Cyatheaceae in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “tree”. A group is taken only where Kew's description of the species agrees with the table's listing. The table gives no figure and no prose; the cold floor is the habitat's alone.
Climate across the habitat
Habitat months, southern hemisphere
Mean daily high from 21 °C in Jul and Aug to 27 °C in Jan, Feb and Dec; mean nightly low from 16 °C in Jul, Aug and Sep to 22 °C in Jan, Feb and Mar. The cold quarter, Jul to Sep, is the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low, centred on the 3 months in a row that tie for it. 2,005 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added), the wettest month Mar. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 41 habitat cells. Over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER) the absolute minimum was 14.9 °C and the 99th-percentile day 28.4 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.
Figures by month
| Figure | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day °C | 27 / 26–28 | 27 / 26–28 | 26 / 25–28 | 25 / 24–26 | 24 / 22–25 | 22 / 21–24 | 21 / 19–23 | 21 / 20–23 | 23 / 21–24 | 25 / 22–25 | 26 / 23–27 | 27 / 25–28 |
| Night °C | 22 / 20–24 | 22 / 20–25 | 22 / 20–24 | 20 / 18–23 | 19 / 16–22 | 17 / 15–21 | 16 / 13–19 | 16 / 13–19 | 16 / 14–20 | 18 / 16–21 | 19 / 17–22 | 21 / 19–24 |
| Rain mm | 270 / 172–351 | 293 / 194–384 | 339 / 216–429 | 161 / 118–237 | 148 / 107–214 | 125 / 91–165 | 91 / 67–123 | 94 / 65–130 | 69 / 36–100 | 79 / 44–126 | 129 / 77–178 | 207 / 127–260 |
| DLI | 39 / 38–43 | 36 / 36–40 | 32 / 31–35 | 28 / 28–31 | 23 / 22–25 | 20 / 19–23 | 22 / 21–24 | 27 / 26–29 | 34 / 33–36 | 39 / 38–41 | 41 / 40–43 | 42 / 41–45 |
| RH % | 67 / 63–70 | 68 / 64–71 | 69 / 64–71 | 67 / 62–69 | 66 / 60–68 | 65 / 60–67 | 62 / 58–65 | 62 / 58–64 | 62 / 59–64 | 62 / 59–65 | 63 / 60–65 | 65 / 62–68 |
How this section is made
Natural habitat
How this section is made
Photographs
Photographs: (c) Irisa Hudson, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Patrick Lam, some rights reserved (CC BY); author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0 (2).
Related
Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.
Hernandia cordigera Hernandiaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Guilhem Guépy
Bulbophyllum longiflorum Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY, Laura Gaudette
Blechnum gibbum Aspleniaceae Photo: Public domain, Daderot
Blechnum moorei Aspleniaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Stan Shebs
Neuburgia novocaledonica Loganiaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, vanessa_147
Eria rostriflora Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY, Dominik Maximilián RamíkOther Sphaeropteris 11 in the reference
Sphaeropteris cooperi Scaly tree fern Photo: CC BY, Kevin Faccenda
Sphaeropteris excelsa Norfolk tree fern Photo: CC0, author not stated Sphaeropteris felina Cyatheaceae 
Sphaeropteris glauca Cyatheaceae Photo: CC BY, Fabian Brambach
Sphaeropteris lunulata Balabala Photo: CC BY, Cheng-Wei CHEN
Sphaeropteris medullaris Black tree fern Photo: CC BY-SA, Tony Wills
Sphaeropteris quindiuensis Cyatheaceae Photo: CC BY, Dick Culbert from Gibsons, B.C., Canada
Sphaeropteris robusta Cyatheaceae Photo: CC BY, ian_mcallan
Sphaeropteris tomentosissima Cyatheaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Magnus Manske Names & registers
Also known as Alsophila francii; Alsophila intermedia; Cyathea francii; Cyathea intermedia. (GBIF Backbone)
The record
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 answeredasked 2026-10-22gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21climate answeredasked 2026-10-22climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -20.50_164.375, lapse-corrected +307 m at 6.5 °C/kmwikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22inat.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 2026-10-22inat.photos.cultivated not askedgbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22none of the photographs on this page is credited to GBIF: those shown are other sources', and GBIF's were the same photographs or were set aside by the photograph rulesopenalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshotEvery 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 9 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.