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Sterculia cordata; photograph (c) Ganjar Cahyadi, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Ganjar Cahyadi, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2024-06-08

Sterculia cordata Blume

Malvaceae · Andaman Is., Nicobar Is. +5

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Sterculia cordata, photograph (c) Ganjar Cahyadi, some rights reserved (CC BY)Sterculia cordata, photograph (c) Ganjar Cahyadi, some rights reserved (CC BY)Sterculia cordata, photograph (c) Ganjar Cahyadi, some rights reserved (CC BY)Sterculia cordata, photograph (c) Ganjar Cahyadi, some rights reserved (CC BY)Sterculia cordata, photograph (c) Ganjar Cahyadi, some rights reserved (CC BY)Sterculia cordata, photograph (c) Kristof Zyskowski, some rights reserved (CC BY) 22 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
22.8°C
Record low 20.8 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
29°C
Mar, Apr, May and Jun at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
2,497mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
28–36DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in the habitat's months, not shifted
  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
Not shifted: the shift rule does not apply to this habitat. The chart is in the habitat's months.

About the genus · Sterculia

Sterculia is a genus of about 180 species of flowering plants in the hibiscus family Malvaceae, subfamily Sterculioideae. It was formerly placed in the now obsolete family Sterculiaceae. Members of the genus are colloquially known as tropical chestnuts. More on Wikipedia ›

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

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads no short rainy season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,838 mm of 2,486 mm) takes 8 months, September to January and March to May. Mean temperature moves 1.6 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere. The habitat lies within 10° of the equator, where the shift rule does not apply, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

Rain

2,486 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,838 mm of it September to January and March to May. Wettest month December at 308 mm, driest month February at 141 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 2,337 mm to 2,959 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 2,497 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 2,486 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 28 to 36 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 27, the highest 90th-percentile month 38).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 22.8 °C, the absolute minimum 20.8 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 32.3 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 23.8 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 19.9 °C to 24.8 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 28.9 °C in May (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 22.8 °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: 65 to 68% 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 -10 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, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Sterculia cordata through the yearWarmest months March, April, May and June, mean daily high 29 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 23.8 °C; 2,486 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, northern hemisphere.15°20°25°30°35°32.3° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER20.8° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 28–36RH 65–68%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 14 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 °C28 / 27–3028 / 27–3029 / 28–3129 / 28–3029 / 28–3029 / 27–3028 / 27–3028 / 28–3028 / 27–3028 / 27–3028 / 27–2928 / 26–29
Night °C24 / 20–2524 / 20–2524 / 21–2625 / 21–2625 / 21–2625 / 21–2625 / 20–2625 / 20–2625 / 20–2625 / 21–2624 / 21–2524 / 20–25
Rain mm225 / 177–314141 / 120–283220 / 197–269215 / 197–333206 / 180–261161 / 133–171169 / 95–183177 / 84–197195 / 111–264198 / 166–329271 / 259–356308 / 260–330
DLI31 / 30–3336 / 32–3836 / 33–3834 / 33–3732 / 31–3431 / 31–3331 / 31–3333 / 33–3534 / 33–3733 / 32–3529 / 28–3128 / 27–30
RH %66 / 65–6966 / 64–6966 / 64–7067 / 65–6966 / 65–6965 / 64–6865 / 63–6765 / 63–6865 / 64–6966 / 64–7068 / 66–6968 / 66–70
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 14 grid cells holding the 35 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 1771:5676 (1.425, 103.825). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 20.8 °C, 1st-percentile night 22.8 °C, 99th-percentile day 32.3 °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 14 distinct grid cells holding 35 of the 35 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1771:5676 (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 1.50_103.750, lapse-corrected -10 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 16 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.
NativeAndaman Is., Nicobar Is., Thailand, Borneo, Jawa, Malaya, Philippines · 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 marker1.281, 103.794 · in the densest population, 29 records (43% of those in range)
Kew's description“tree” · “wet tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 68 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 35 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 39 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 967 km away. 5 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 33 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 68 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Sterculia cordata, photograph 1did not loadSterculia cordata, photograph 2did not loadSterculia cordata, photograph 3did not loadSterculia cordata, photograph 4did not loadSterculia cordata, photograph 5did not loadSterculia cordata, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Ganjar Cahyadi, some rights reserved (CC BY) (5); (c) Kristof Zyskowski, some rights reserved (CC BY).

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

Cayratia mollissima Cayratia mollissima Vitaceae Photo: CC BY, TeguhBulbophyllum medusae Bulbophyllum medusae Orchidaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedClerodendrum villosum Clerodendrum villosum Lamiaceae Photo: CC BY, DoreenKopsia singapurensis Kopsia singapurensis White Kopsia Photo: CC BY, Steven BodzinSterculia oblongata Sterculia oblongata Malvaceae Photo: CC BY, Adam KamalLeea angulata Leea angulata Vitaceae Photo: CC BY, Steven Bodzin

Other Sterculia 22 in the reference

Sterculia africana Sterculia africana Large-leaved Star-Chestnut Photo: CC BY, Павлик ЛисицынSterculia alexandri Sterculia alexandri Cape Star-chestnut Photo: CC BY, Karen EichholzSterculia apetala Sterculia apetala Panama tree Photo: CC BY, Alexis López HernándezSterculia balanghas Sterculia balanghas Malvaceae Photo: CC BY, renjus box Sterculia brevissima Malvaceae Sterculia ceramica Sterculia ceramica Malvaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedSterculia foetida Sterculia foetida Hazel sterculia Photo: CC BY, Karthik ThrikkadeeriSterculia guttata Sterculia guttata Spotted Sterculia Photo: CC BY, rajesh rocky Sterculia hainanensis Malvaceae Sterculia lanceolata Sterculia lanceolata Malvaceae Photo: CC BY, Toby YSterculia macrophylla Sterculia macrophylla Malvaceae Photo: CC BY, Steven BodzinSterculia megistophylla Sterculia megistophylla Malvaceae Photo: CC BY, Adam Kamal all 23 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Clompanus cordata; Sterculia javanica; Sterculia pubescens; Triplobus cordata. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataiNaturalist

The record

Family
Malvaceae
Described by
Blume
Native to
Andaman Is., Nicobar Is., Thailand +4
Wild records
68 in range · 39 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; 3 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (2 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 1 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 1.50_103.750, lapse-corrected -10 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia nothing to reportasked 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 2026-10-22none 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 rules
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 11 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

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