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Xanthostemon oppositifolius; photograph (c) Greg Tasney, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) CC BY-SA(c) Greg Tasney, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) · observed growing wild · 2026-06-02

Xanthostemon oppositifolius F.M.Bailey

Southern penda; Luyas hardwood; Penda

Myrtaceae · Queensland

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Xanthostemon oppositifolius, photograph (c) Greg Tasney, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Xanthostemon oppositifolius, photograph (c) Greg Tasney, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Xanthostemon oppositifolius, photograph (c) Greg Tasney, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Xanthostemon oppositifolius, photograph (c) Greg Tasney, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Xanthostemon oppositifolius, photograph (c) Greg Tasney, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Xanthostemon oppositifolius, photograph (c) Greg Tasney, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) 98 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
10.8°C
Record low 8.4 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
28°C
Jan and Dec at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,438mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
20–40DLI
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 November (November to May at the habitat), 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

Xanthostemon oppositifolius is a species of flowering plant in the family Myrtaceae. It is a tree endemic to southeastern Queensland in Australia. It is a tall tree, up to 40 metres tall. It flowering from May to September and produces fruits in September and October. More on Wikipedia ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Xanthostemon oppositifolius", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,098 mm of 1,442 mm) falls in November to May, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 22.5 °C against a yearly mean of 20.3 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: May to November.

Rain

1,442 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,098 mm of it November to May. Wettest month February at 221 mm, driest month September at 51 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,057 mm to 1,550 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,438 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,442 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 40 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 20, the highest 90th-percentile month 41).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 10.8 °C, the absolute minimum 8.4 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 30.8 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 10.9 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range 9.7 °C to 12.8 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 27.9 °C in January and December (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 10.8 °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: 55 to 64% 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 +60 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 Xanthostemon oppositifolius through the yearWarmest months January and December, mean daily high 28 °C; coldest month July, mean nightly low 10.9 °C; 1,442 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°35°30.8° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER8.4° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250mm rainDLI 20–40RH 55–64%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 26 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 / 27–3027 / 27–2926 / 26–2824 / 24–2621 / 21–2319 / 19–2019 / 19–2020 / 20–2223 / 23–2525 / 25–2726 / 26–2828 / 27–30
Night °C21 / 20–2321 / 20–2320 / 19–2118 / 16–1915 / 14–1712 / 11–1411 / 10–1312 / 10–1414 / 13–1617 / 15–1818 / 17–2020 / 19–22
Rain mm147 / 121–160221 / 169–239172 / 117–186147 / 73–163127 / 64–13593 / 53–9758 / 40–6461 / 42–6451 / 41–5481 / 67–86119 / 89–131165 / 135–180
DLI39 / 39–4035 / 35–3532 / 32–3327 / 26–2822 / 22–2320 / 20–2122 / 22–2327 / 27–2834 / 34–3537 / 37–3939 / 39–4040 / 40–41
RH %62 / 60–6364 / 61–6463 / 60–6462 / 59–6361 / 59–6158 / 57–5956 / 55–5755 / 55–5657 / 55–5759 / 57–5960 / 58–6162 / 59–62
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 26 grid cells holding the 180 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 2324:6657 (-26.225, 152.875). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 8.4 °C, 1st-percentile night 10.8 °C, 99th-percentile day 30.8 °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 26 distinct grid cells holding 180 of the 180 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2324:6657 (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 -26.00_153.125, lapse-corrected +60 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 91 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.
NativeQueensland · 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-26.285, 152.909 · in the densest population, 190 records (100% of those in range)
Kew's description“tree” · “subtropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 190 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 180 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 178 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker in the same place. 10 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 190 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Xanthostemon oppositifolius, photograph 1did not loadXanthostemon oppositifolius, photograph 2did not loadXanthostemon oppositifolius, photograph 3did not loadXanthostemon oppositifolius, photograph 4did not loadXanthostemon oppositifolius, photograph 5did not loadXanthostemon oppositifolius, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Greg Tasney, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (6).

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

Petalostigma triloculare Petalostigma triloculare Long-leaved Bitter Bark Photo: CC BY, Bruce CathieAcacia bakeri Acacia bakeri Baker's wattle Photo: CC BY-SA, Greg TasneyElaeocarpus eumundi Elaeocarpus eumundi Smooth-leaved Quandong Photo: CC BY-SA, Greg TasneyBeilschmiedia obtusifolia Beilschmiedia obtusifolia Black-walnut Photo: CC BY-SA, Greg TasneyHedraianthera porphyropetala Hedraianthera porphyropetala Hedraianthera Photo: CC BY-SA, O.NeateSannantha bidwillii Sannantha bidwillii Tall baeckea Photo: CC BY, Tony van Kampen

Other Xanthostemon 5 in the reference

Xanthostemon chrysanthus Xanthostemon chrysanthus Golden Penda Photo: CC BY, Hannah HickliXanthostemon graniticus Xanthostemon graniticus Granite penda Photo: CC BY-SA, Steve FitzgeraldXanthostemon verdugonianus Xanthostemon verdugonianus Myrtaceae Photo: CC BY, P1898Xanthostemon verticillatus Xanthostemon verticillatus Myrtaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, CasliberXanthostemon youngii Xanthostemon youngii Myrtaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Vengolis

Names & registers

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Myrtaceae
Described by
F.M.Bailey
Native to
Queensland
Wild records
190 in range · 178 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; 1 record within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (1 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 -26.00_153.125, lapse-corrected +60 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 9 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…