Voacanga africana Stapf
Small-fruit wild frangipani
Cited as Kew's World Checklist cites it, Voacanga africana Stapf: GBIF's backbone key for this page carries the name with another author, Stapf ex Scott Elliot.
19 photographs › At a glance
- Jan
- Feb
- Mar
- Apr
- May, shaded
- Jun, shaded
- Jul, shaded
- Aug, shaded
- Sep, shaded
- Oct, shaded
- Nov
- Dec
Summary
Voacanga africana is a small tree native to tropical Africa belonging to the family Apocynaceae that grows to 6 m (20 ft) in height and bears leaves that are up to 30 cm (12 in) in length. The yellow or white flowers are succeeded by paired, follicular, dehiscent fruit with a mottled green exocarp and a pulpy, yellow mesocarp surrounding the seeds. The plant contains alkaloids acting as CNS depressants and hypotensives.
Quoted from Wikipedia, "Voacanga africana", CC BY-SA 4.0.
Cultivation
Seasons
The rain rule reads a sharp season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,121 mm of 1,408 mm) falls in May to October. The temperature curve is flat, 3.5 °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. 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
1,408 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,121 mm of it May to October. Wettest month June at 216 mm, driest month January at 10 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,096 mm to 2,735 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,307 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,408 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: 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 42).
Warmth and air
Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 15.5 °C, the absolute minimum 11.7 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 38.4 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 21.7 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 18.3 °C to 24.1 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 33.1 °C in February (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 15.5 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).
Relative humidity at the habitat: 57 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 +55 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
Mean daily high from 28 °C in Jul, Aug and Sep to 33 °C in Jan, Feb and Mar; mean nightly low from 22 °C in Jan, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct and Dec to 24 °C in Mar, Apr and May. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low, around the first of the 6 months that tie for it. 1,408 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added), the wettest month Jun. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 183 habitat cells. Over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER) the absolute minimum was 11.7 °C and the 99th-percentile day 38.4 °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 | 33 / 29–34 | 33 / 30–36 | 33 / 30–37 | 32 / 30–36 | 30 / 29–33 | 29 / 27–31 | 28 / 26–29 | 28 / 26–29 | 28 / 27–29 | 29 / 28–31 | 31 / 29–33 | 32 / 29–34 |
| Night °C | 22 / 18–24 | 23 / 20–25 | 24 / 21–26 | 24 / 21–26 | 24 / 21–25 | 23 / 21–24 | 22 / 20–24 | 22 / 20–23 | 22 / 20–24 | 22 / 20–24 | 23 / 20–25 | 22 / 19–25 |
| Rain mm | 10 / 1–27 | 29 / 2–52 | 73 / 12–126 | 120 / 56–202 | 169 / 111–290 | 216 / 151–325 | 192 / 111–448 | 182 / 53–391 | 203 / 126–455 | 159 / 84–338 | 41 / 7–99 | 14 / 0–29 |
| DLI | 35 / 33–39 | 36 / 34–41 | 35 / 32–42 | 34 / 30–41 | 31 / 27–39 | 27 / 24–33 | 26 / 22–30 | 25 / 23–29 | 28 / 24–32 | 30 / 25–36 | 32 / 29–38 | 32 / 31–37 |
| RH % | 57 / 37–65 | 59 / 38–65 | 62 / 45–66 | 64 / 54–68 | 66 / 60–70 | 67 / 63–71 | 68 / 65–71 | 69 / 66–72 | 69 / 66–72 | 67 / 63–71 | 65 / 49–68 | 62 / 40–66 |
Records on both sides of the equator: the 9 cells at least 10° south of it have seasons six months apart and are left out, not combined into a year no place has. These figures are across the 183 cells that remain: the 27 at least 10° north and the 156 within 10° of the equator, which stay in either way.
How this section is made
Natural habitat
How this section is made
Photographs
Photographs: (c) i_c_riddell, some rights reserved (CC BY) (6).
Related
Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.
Ficus exasperata Moraceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Dinesh Valke
Euclinia longiflora Rubiaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, 阿橋 HQ
Costus afer Spiral-ginger Photo: CC BY, Philippe Hornus
Emilia praetermissa Pale Tasselflower Photo: CC BY, Nathaniel Isabella
Crinum jagus Rattrayii Crinum Photo: CC BY, Doreen
Milicia excelsa Iroko Photo: CC BY, Sunday Berlioz KAKPOOther Voacanga 1 in the reference
Names & registers
Also known as Voacanga africana var. auriculata; Voacanga africana var. glabra; Voacanga africana var. lutescens; Voacanga angolensis; Voacanga angustifolia and 14 more. (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's key 3616169 is Voacanga africana Stapf ex Scott Elliot; the page links Kew's Voacanga africana Stapf, and the name is cited as Kew cites itgbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04gbif.occurrences answeredasked 2026-10-22GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 900 records of GBIF's key 8354529, Voacanga africana Stapf (Kew's file holds it as Voacanga africana Stapf (accepted)): GBIF occurrence search API; 7 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (5 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 2 at a herbarium; Wikidata's list)climate answeredasked 2026-10-22climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 7.50_-1.250, lapse-corrected +55 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 2026-10-22read from the page's key and its other keys: 9 from GBIF's key 8354529openalex 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 96 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.