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Toona sureni (Blume) Merr.

Red Cedar

Meliaceae · China South-Central, Hainan +19

Photographs not checked iNaturalist was skipped (not asked) when this page was built. Not asked, or not answered, is not "none": nothing here claims there is none. Why the site says it this way.
Add one to my plants
Sow seed
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
12.1°C
Record low 8.1 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
26°C
Sep and Oct at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
3,077mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
25–36DLI
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
A sharp rainy season, November to April (the habitat's months, not shifted), in a year of even temperature. rain rule, CHELSA
Not shifted: the shift rule does not apply to this habitat. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Toona sureni is a species of tree in the mahogany family. It is native to South Asia, Indochina, Malesia, China, and Papua New Guinea. It is commonly known as the suren toon, surian, limpaga, iron redwood or the red cedar (a name also shared with various other trees). It is also known as the Indonesian mahogany or the Vietnamese mahogany. More on Wikipedia ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Toona sureni", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Toona

Toona, commonly known as red cedar, toon or toona, tooni is a genus in the mahogany family, Meliaceae, native from Afghanistan south to India, and east to North Korea, Papua New Guinea and eastern Australia. In older texts, the genus was often incorporated within a wider circumscription of the related genus Cedrela, but that genus is now restricted to species from the Americas.

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

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a sharp season: 70% of the median year's rain (2,288 mm of 3,169 mm) falls in November to April. The temperature curve is flat, 2.3 °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, southern 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

3,169 mm in the median year at the habitat, 2,288 mm of it November to April. Wettest month February at 488 mm, driest month August at 80 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 2,488 mm to 4,544 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 3,077 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 3,169 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: 25 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 22, 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 12.1 °C, the absolute minimum 8.1 °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 15.9 °C in August (across the grid cells of the range 13.5 °C to 24.6 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 25.8 °C in October (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 12.1 °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: 66 to 73% 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 +652 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 Toona sureni through the yearWarmest months September and October, mean daily high 26 °C; coldest month August, mean nightly low 15.9 °C; 3,169 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°10°15°20°25°30°28.4° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER8.1° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500600mm rainDLI 25–36RH 66–73%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 9 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 °C23 / 20–2623 / 20–2624 / 22–2625 / 22–2725 / 22–2925 / 22–2925 / 22–2925 / 22–2826 / 22–2826 / 22–2824 / 22–2723 / 20–26
Night °C16 / 13–2016 / 14–2016 / 15–2018 / 16–2118 / 15–2317 / 14–2516 / 14–2516 / 14–2517 / 14–2418 / 15–2117 / 15–2116 / 13–20
Rain mm463 / 296–591488 / 264–574373 / 251–512302 / 206–447207 / 152–319154 / 112–27297 / 63–19980 / 45–188152 / 68–219191 / 106–392304 / 222–491358 / 273–540
DLI25 / 22–2825 / 22–2928 / 25–3129 / 26–3230 / 28–3229 / 27–3131 / 29–3334 / 32–3636 / 33–3734 / 32–3629 / 27–3226 / 24–29
RH %73 / 67–7573 / 67–7472 / 66–7371 / 67–7169 / 66–7067 / 66–6966 / 63–6966 / 62–6867 / 63–6968 / 63–7269 / 66–7572 / 66–75
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 9 grid cells holding the 13 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 1945:5797 (-7.275, 109.875). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 8.1 °C, 1st-percentile night 12.1 °C, 99th-percentile day 28.4 °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 9 distinct grid cells holding 13 of the 13 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1945:5797 (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 -7.50_110.000, lapse-corrected +652 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1277 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, Hainan, Assam, Bangladesh, East Himalaya, Nepal, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Borneo, Jawa, Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Maluku, Philippines, Sulawesi, Sumatera, New Guinea, Solomon Is. · 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-7.361, 110.4 · in the densest population, 34 records (27% 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 127 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 13 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 100 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 56 km away. 4 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 114 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 inside the densest 2° block of the 127 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Not checked. iNaturalist was skipped (not asked) when this page was built; GBIF's observation records with coordinates hold none. Not a statement that none exist.

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

Dendrobium mutabile Dendrobium mutabile Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY, ꦥꦤ꧀ꦗꦶꦒꦸꦱ꧀ꦠꦶꦄꦏ꧀ꦧꦂPinanga coronata Pinanga coronata Ivory cane palm Photo: CC BY, Leon PerrieImpatiens platypetala Impatiens platypetala Balsaminaceae Photo: CC BY, smathichong Thelypteris ferox Aspleniaceae Coelogyne speciosa Coelogyne speciosa Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY, Fathurrahman SidiqMacodes petola Macodes petola Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY, Fathurrahman Sidiq

Other Toona 2 in the reference

Toona ciliata Toona ciliata Australian redcedar Photo: CC BY, Martin Hannan-JonesToona sinensis Toona sinensis Red toon Photo: CC BY, Eugene Popov

Names & registers

Also known as Azedarach recisum; Cedrela brevipetiolulata; Cedrela celebica; Cedrela febrifuga; Cedrela febrifuga var. glabrior and 19 more. (GBIF Backbone)

Registers not checked Wikidata did not answer when this page was built, so the links it gives (POWO, IPNI, World Flora Online, Wikipedia) were not checked; any shown here are kept from an earlier build. Not asked, or not answered, is not "none": nothing here claims there is none. Why the site says it this way.
GBIFWikipedia

The record

Family
Meliaceae
Described by
(Blume) Merr.
Native to
China South-Central, Hainan, Assam +18
Wild records
127 in range · 100 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 (3 at a botanic garden or arboretum; 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 -7.50_110.000, lapse-corrected +652 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata failedasked 2026-10-22query.wikidata.org 502 (batched: Wikidata's query service, 100 GBIF keys)
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist taxon inat.taxon not asked
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild not asked
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media nothing to reportasked 2026-10-22
Wikimedia Commons commons nothing to reportasked 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 17 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…