Species
+

Aleurites moluccanus (L.) Willd.

Candle-nut Tree, Candlenut Tree, Indian walnut, Indian walnut

Climate known 46 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

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

Aleurites moluccanus, commonly known as candlenut, Indian walnut or, in Hawaii, kukui, is a tree in the spurge family Euphorbiaceae. It grows to about 30 m (98 ft) tall and produces drupe fruit.

Text from Wikipedia, “Aleurites moluccanus”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Aleurites

Aleurites is a small genus of arborescent flowering plants in the Euphorbiaceae, first described as a genus in 1776. It is native to China, the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia, Papuasia, and Queensland. It is also reportedly naturalized on various islands as well as scattered locations in Africa, South America, and Florida.

Text from Wikipedia, “Aleurites”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Euphorbiaceae
Described by
(L.) Willd.
Native to
China South-Central, Hainan, China Southeast +25
Wild records
522 in range· 265 open

At a glance

Warmest month
28°C
Aug, mean day; nights 22 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
2025mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jan 192 mm (CHELSA)
Light
30–34DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (December to July at the habitat (not shifted)). Habitat rain 2025 mm a year, wettest January at 192 mm, driest October at 101 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 30 to 34 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 16.6 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Aleurites ambinux Pers.; Aleurites angustifolius Vieill.; Aleurites angustifolius Vieill. ex Guill.; Aleurites commutatus Geiseler; Aleurites cordifolius (Gaertn.) Steud. and 40 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (December to July at the habitat (not shifted)).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (1470 mm of 2025 mm) takes 8 months, December to July. Mean temperature moves 2.3 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; with a flat temperature curve there is no season to reverse, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

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 2025 mm a year, wettest January at 192 mm, driest October at 101 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

2025 mm a year at the habitat, 1470 mm of it December to July. Wettest month January at 192 mm, driest October at 101 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1305 mm to 3435 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: 30 to 34 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 30 to 34 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 19, the highest 90th-percentile month 43).

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 16.6 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 16.6 °C, the absolute minimum 14.7 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 29.0 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 20.2 °C in November (across the envelope cells 15.1 °C to 24.8 °C), warmest day 27.7 °C in August (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 16.6 °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.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 64 to 67% 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

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 26 °C in Apr to 28 °C in Aug; mean night from 20 °C in Nov to 23 °C in May. The cold quarter, Oct to Dec, is the three months around the coldest night. 2025 mm of rain a year, most in Jan. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 368 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 14.7 °C and the 99th-percentile day 29.0 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°15°20°25°30°35°29.0° 99th-percentile day (undated)14.7° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 30–34RH 64–67 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 368 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C27 / 18–3027 / 19–2927 / 21–3026 / 24–3027 / 23–3028 / 21–3028 / 21–3028 / 22–3128 / 24–3027 / 24–3027 / 23–3027 / 19–29
Night °C21 / 10–2521 / 12–2520 / 15–2521 / 17–2523 / 16–2522 / 15–2622 / 14–2622 / 14–2622 / 15–2521 / 16–2520 / 15–2520 / 11–25
Rain mm192 / 23–417174 / 35–415182 / 53–407185 / 81–304191 / 87–327184 / 51–436183 / 39–411172 / 25–418165 / 25–358101 / 39–316117 / 43–317179 / 26–339
DLI31 / 19–4032 / 21–3733 / 25–3832 / 27–3831 / 25–3630 / 24–3531 / 24–3632 / 28–3634 / 29–4034 / 26–4331 / 23–4230 / 21–41
RH %66 / 59–7166 / 62–7167 / 62–7167 / 62–7167 / 62–7166 / 62–7166 / 61–7066 / 60–7065 / 60–6964 / 59–6965 / 58–7066 / 58–71

Each figure is the median across the 368 grid cells holding the 505 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 1943:6533 (-7.175, 146.675). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 14.7 °C, 1st-percentile night 16.6 °C, 99th-percentile day 29.0 °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 368 distinct grid cells holding the 505 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1943:6533 (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 -7.00_146.875, lapse-corrected +312 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 917 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 every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeChina South-Central, Hainan, China Southeast, Taiwan, Assam, Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Borneo, Jawa, Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Maluku, Philippines, Sulawesi, Sumatera, Bismarck Archipelago, New Guinea, Solomon Is., Queensland, Vanuatu, Caroline Is., Marianas, Marshall Is.· introduced: Rwanda, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Swaziland, Comoros, Madagascar, Christmas I., Kermadec Is., Fiji, Niue, New Caledonia, Samoa, Tonga, Wallis-Futuna Is., Cook Is., Marquesas, Pitcairn Is., Society Is., Tuamotu, Tubuai Is., Hawaii, Florida, Bahamas, Cayman Is., Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Puerto Rico, Trinidad-Tobago, Windward Is., Brazil Northeast, Argentina Northeast, Paraguay
Kew's description“tree” · “wet tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker22.283, 114.137 · in the densest population, 124 records (24% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 522 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 265 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 5474 km away. 995 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 17 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 522 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Aleurites moluccanusAleurites moluccanusAleurites moluccanusAleurites moluccanusAleurites moluccanusAleurites moluccanusAleurites moluccanusAleurites moluccanus

Photographs: (c) Matt B, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Robin White, some rights reserved (CC BY); no rights reserved · CC0; (c) Richard Littauer, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Jon Sullivan, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Barry Cottam, some rights reserved (CC BY).

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 Aleurites moluccanus, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Synopsis of the plants known as medicinal and poisonous in Northeast of Brazil
Maria de Fátima Agra, Patrícia França de Freitas, José Maria Barbosa‐Filho (2007) · Revista Brasileira de Farmacognosia
Unlocking plant resources to support food security and promote sustainable agriculture
Tiziana Ulian, Mauricio Diazgranados, Samuel Pironon, S. Padulosi (2020) · Plants People Planet
An “ideal lignin” facilitates full biomass utilization
Yanding Li, Li Shuai, Hoon Kim, Ali Hussain Motagamwala (2018) · Science Advances
Chromium toxicity, speciation, and remediation strategies in soil-plant interface: A critical review
Usman Zulfiqar, Fasih Ullah Haider, Muhammad Ahmad, Saddam Hussain (2023) · Frontiers in Plant Science
Soil Organic Matter, Mitigation of and Adaptation to Climate Change in Cocoa–Based Agroforestry Systems
Sikstus Gusli, Sri Sumeni, Riyami Sabodin, Ikram Hadi Muqfi (2020) · Land
Ecomimicry in Indigenous resource management: optimizing ecosystem services to achieve resource abundance, with examples from Hawaiʻi
Kāwika B. Winter, Noa Kekuewa Lincoln, Fikret Berkes, Rosanna A. Alegado (2020) · Ecology and Society
The potential of selected Australian medicinal plants with anti-Proteus activity for the treatment and prevention of rheumatoid arthritis
Ian Edwin Cock, Veronica Winnett, Joseph Sirdaarta, Ben Matthews (2015) · Pharmacognosy Magazine
Mainstreaming Ecosystem Services from Indonesia’s Remaining Forests
Hunggul Yudono Setio Hadi Nugroho, Fitri Nurfatriani, Yonky Indrajaya, Tri Wira Yuwati (2022) · Sustainability
Diversity of sambals, traditional Indonesian chili pastes
Reggie Surya, Felicia Tedjakusuma (2022) · Journal of Ethnic Foods
Ethnobotanical investigation of spice and condiment plants used by the Taming tribe in Aceh, Indonesia
Zidni Ilman Navia, Dita Audira, Nurul Afifah, Kasanova Turnip (2020) · Biodiversitas Journal of Biological Diversity

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.

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 answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (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); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 135 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.