Ziziphus mauritiana Lam.
Bekul, Buffalo Thorn, Chinee Apple, Chinee apple
Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.
Summary
Ziziphus mauritiana, also known as Indian jujube, Indian plum, Chinese apple, ber and dunks, is a tropical, spiny, evergreen shrub or small tree in the buckthorn family Rhamnaceae. It is often confused with the closely related Chinese jujube : Z. mauritiana is common is tropical and subtropical climates, while Z. jujuba prefers temperate climates.
Text from Wikipedia, “Ziziphus mauritiana”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.
About the genus · Ziziphus
Ziziphus is a genus of spiny shrubs and small trees in the buckthorn family, Rhamnaceae. It includes 68 species native to tropical and subtropical parts of Africa, Eurasia, Australia and South America. The leaves are alternate, entire, with three prominent basal veins, and often aromatic. More on Wikipedia ›
The opening of Wikipedia, “Ziziphus”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.
At a glance
Also known as Rhamnus jujuba L.; Sarcomphalus mauritianus (Lam.) Raf.; Ziziphus hysundrica (Edgew.) Hole; Ziziphus indica Chaz.; Ziziphus insularis C.Sm. and 24 more.
Cultivation
Its year Rain rule: a rainy season, July to September in the northern hemisphere, at the year's mean temperature, so called neither winter nor summer.
This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.
The rain rule reads a rainy season with no name: 70% of the year's rain (447 mm of 582 mm) falls in July to September, whose mean temperature, 27.5 °C, is within half a degree of the year's, 27.9 °C, so it is neither the cooler nor the warmer part of the year. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: January to March.
Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: 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 gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.
Rain Habitat rain 582 mm a year, wettest August at 180 mm, driest December at 0 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
582 mm a year at the habitat, 447 mm of it July to September. Wettest month August at 180 mm, driest December at 0 mm; 5 months under 5 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 273 mm to 1565 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).
CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.
Light Open sky over the habitat: 33 to 46 mol/m²/day.
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
Open sky over the habitat: 33 to 46 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 25, the highest 90th-percentile month 48).
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.
Warmth and air Cold floor 12.4 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 12.4 °C, the absolute minimum 9.3 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 43.6 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 16.2 °C in January (across the envelope cells 10.4 °C to 19.3 °C), warmest day 39.0 °C in May (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 12.4 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).
NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.
Relative humidity at the habitat: 33 to 64% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.
CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.
The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.
Climate across the habitat
Figures by month
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day °C | 30 / 23–33 | 33 / 25–36 | 36 / 28–39 | 39 / 29–41 | 39 / 29–41 | 36 / 28–40 | 32 / 28–36 | 30 / 27–35 | 31 / 28–36 | 34 / 28–38 | 34 / 26–36 | 31 / 24–34 |
| Night °C | 16 / 10–19 | 18 / 13–21 | 21 / 17–24 | 24 / 20–26 | 26 / 21–28 | 25 / 22–28 | 24 / 22–26 | 24 / 21–25 | 24 / 21–25 | 23 / 19–25 | 20 / 15–22 | 17 / 11–20 |
| Rain mm | 1 / 0–21 | 1 / 0–25 | 1 / 0–45 | 6 / 0–94 | 26 / 2–158 | 70 / 13–214 | 154 / 56–374 | 180 / 95–337 | 113 / 50–253 | 29 / 7–134 | 1 / 0–51 | 0 / 0–20 |
| DLI | 37 / 29–40 | 40 / 34–43 | 44 / 38–46 | 46 / 38–48 | 44 / 35–48 | 40 / 31–46 | 35 / 26–43 | 33 / 25–40 | 37 / 28–41 | 39 / 30–41 | 37 / 28–40 | 35 / 27–38 |
| RH % | 36 / 33–57 | 33 / 30–56 | 34 / 29–57 | 39 / 31–61 | 46 / 37–63 | 53 / 45–66 | 60 / 53–68 | 64 / 57–68 | 61 / 52–67 | 51 / 40–64 | 39 / 34–62 | 37 / 34–59 |
Each figure is the median across the 500 grid cells holding the 554 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1533:3608 (13.325, 0.425). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 9.3 °C, 1st-percentile night 12.4 °C, 99th-percentile day 43.6 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 500 distinct grid cells holding the 554 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1533:3608 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 13.50_0.625, lapse-corrected -14 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 254 m (cell mean).
Natural habitat
Photographs
Photographs: (c) Ong Jyh Seng, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (3); (c) Dinesh Valke, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (2); no rights reserved · CC0 (3).
Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.
Papers naming this species
Works whose title or abstract names Ziziphus mauritiana, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.
Related
Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.
Commiphora africana Hairy Corkwood
Boswellia dalzielii Burseraceae
Ceropegia sudanica Apocynaceae
Cyphostemma waterlotii VitaceaeOther Ziziphus 1 in the reference
History & registers
Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)wcvp.distribution answeredgbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zamclimate answeredwikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skippedinat.taxon not askedinat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skippedinat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)gbif.media answeredopenalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skippedEvery upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 107 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.








