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Sterculia lanceolata; photograph (c) Toby Y, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Toby Y, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-08-23

Sterculia lanceolata Cav.

Malvaceae · China South-Central, China Southeast +12

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Sterculia lanceolata, photograph (c) Thomas Gyselinck, some rights reserved (CC BY)Sterculia lanceolata, photograph (c) Thomas Gyselinck, some rights reserved (CC BY)Sterculia lanceolata, photograph (c) Thomas Gyselinck, some rights reserved (CC BY)Sterculia lanceolata, photograph (c) Thomas Gyselinck, some rights reserved (CC BY)Sterculia lanceolata, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedSterculia lanceolata, photograph author not stated, no rights reserved 79 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
7.4°C
Record low 3.4 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
30°C
Jul and Aug at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
2,205mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
22–35DLI
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
Wet summers: the rain comes May to September, read as a summer growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Sterculia lanceolata is a tree species, belonging to the genus Sterculia and the family Malvaceae (previously the Sterculiaceae, now relegated to a subfamily). The species can be found in southern China (including Hainan island) and Vietnam (where it is variously known as: trôm mề gà, sang sé, sảng, trôm lá mác, trôm thon, che van, chóc móc or tròm thon). The flowers contain five free carpels, or follicles, each of which splits open shortly after pollination so that the seeds grow while fully exposed to the elements. Each scarlet or orange follicle has up to six oblong black seeds.

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

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 a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,716 mm of 2,185 mm) falls in May to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 27.4 °C against a yearly mean of 22.8 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to March.

Rain

2,185 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,716 mm of it May to September. Wettest month June at 407 mm, driest month January at 26 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,900 mm to 2,589 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 2,205 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 2,185 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: 22 to 35 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 37).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 7.4 °C, the absolute minimum 3.4 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 31.6 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 12.5 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 10.3 °C to 20.1 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 29.5 °C in July and August (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 7.4 °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: 58 to 70% 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 +84 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 lanceolata through the yearWarmest months July and August, mean daily high 30 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 12.5 °C; 2,185 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.0°5°10°15°20°25°30°35°31.6° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER3.4° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 22–35RH 58–70%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 136 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 °C18 / 18–2719 / 18–2822 / 21–2925 / 24–3027 / 26–3029 / 28–3030 / 28–3130 / 28–3129 / 28–3027 / 26–2824 / 23–2820 / 19–27
Night °C13 / 10–2014 / 12–2117 / 15–2221 / 19–2223 / 22–2425 / 23–2626 / 23–2726 / 23–2624 / 22–2522 / 19–2318 / 15–2114 / 11–20
Rain mm26 / 19–5955 / 30–8177 / 52–121166 / 95–214302 / 202–340407 / 186–475354 / 203–416372 / 231–437281 / 203–33672 / 59–21745 / 35–23028 / 22–80
DLI22 / 19–3022 / 20–3526 / 24–3630 / 27–3731 / 28–3432 / 28–3335 / 31–3733 / 30–3431 / 28–3330 / 26–3225 / 23–2822 / 21–27
RH %61 / 58–6665 / 60–6866 / 60–6968 / 63–7269 / 65–7270 / 65–7368 / 65–7268 / 66–7166 / 64–6962 / 59–6759 / 57–6758 / 56–67
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 136 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (807 records in those cells; 1 more cell holds records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cell is left out), 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 1352:5879 (22.375, 113.975). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 3.4 °C, 1st-percentile night 7.4 °C, 99th-percentile day 31.6 °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 136 distinct grid cells holding 807 of the 808 in-range records (1 further cell with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1352:5879 (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 22.50_113.750, lapse-corrected +84 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 102 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.
NativeChina South-Central, China Southeast, Assam, Bangladesh, East Himalaya, Nepal, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Borneo, Jawa, Malaya · introduced: Panama, Cuba · 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 marker22.352, 114.154 · in the densest population, 849 records (76% 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 1116 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 807 of them in the land cells it reads, of 808 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 236 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 10 km away. 46 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 308 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 1116 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 lanceolata, photograph 1did not loadSterculia lanceolata, photograph 2did not loadSterculia lanceolata, photograph 3did not loadSterculia lanceolata, photograph 4did not loadSterculia lanceolata, photograph 5did not loadSterculia lanceolata, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Thomas Gyselinck, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4); author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0 (2).

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

Syzygium jambos Syzygium jambos Malabar plum Photo: CC BY, Denis BastianelliAporosa octandra Aporosa octandra Phyllanthaceae Photo: CC BY, Toby YDesmos chinensis Desmos chinensis Chinese Desmos Photo: CC0, author not statedCallicarpa nudiflora Callicarpa nudiflora Lamiaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedSpiranthes × hongkongensis Spiranthes × hongkongensis Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY, Lawrence HyltonElaeocarpus hainanensis Elaeocarpus hainanensis Hainan Elaeocarpus Photo: CC0, author not stated

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 cordata Sterculia cordata Malvaceae Photo: CC BY, Ganjar CahyadiSterculia foetida Sterculia foetida Hazel sterculia Photo: CC BY, Karthik ThrikkadeeriSterculia guttata Sterculia guttata Spotted Sterculia Photo: CC BY, rajesh rocky Sterculia hainanensis Malvaceae Sterculia 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 Camaion undulata; Helicteres undulata; Sterculia balansae. (GBIF Backbone)

Kew accepts as species of their own Sterculia tonkinensis: older names in GBIF's record of this species that Kew's World Checklist accepts as other species. (WCVP, RBG Kew, file of 2026-06-04)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Malvaceae
Described by
Cav.
Native to
China South-Central, China Southeast, Assam +11
Wild records
1116 in range · 236 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; 63 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (53 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 10 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 22.50_113.750, lapse-corrected +84 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 35 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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