Species
+

Averrhoa carambola L.

Asam sewa, Carambola, Carambold, Five-Finger (Trinidad & Tobago)

Climate known 60 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

Averrhoa carambola is a species of tree in the family Oxalidaceae native to tropical Southeast Asia; it has a number of common names, including carambola, star fruit and five-corner. It is a small tree or shrub that grows 5 to 12 m tall, with rose to red-purple flowers. The flowers are small and bell-shaped, with five petals that have whitish edges. The flowers are often produced year round under tropical conditions. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Averrhoa carambola”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Averrhoa

Averrhoa is a genus of understorey trees in the wood sorrel family Oxalidaceae. It includes four species native to Maritime Southeast Asia, Java, the Maluku Islands, New Guinea, and Sulawesi. The genus is named after Averroes, a 12th-century astronomer and philosopher from Al-Andalus.

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

Family
Oxalidaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Jawa, Maluku, Sulawesi
Wild records
81 in range· 31 open

At a glance

Warmest month
30°C
Sep, mean day; nights 23 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
2438mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jan 375 mm (CHELSA)
Light
30–39DLI
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: a sharp rainy season, November to April at the habitat (not shifted); the temperature curve is flat (0.9 °C of range), so no growing season is inferred. Habitat rain 2438 mm a year, wettest January at 375 mm, driest August at 53 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 30 to 39 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 19.8 °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 Averrhoa acutangula Stokes; Averrhoa microphylla Tardieu; Averrhoa pentandra Blanco; Connaropsis philippica Fern.-Vill.; Sarcotheca philippica (Fern.-Vill.) Hallier fil.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a sharp rainy season, November to April at the habitat (not shifted); the temperature curve is flat (0.9 °C of range), so no growing season is inferred.

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

The rain rule reads a sharp season: 70% of the year's rain (1802 mm of 2438 mm) falls in November to April. The temperature curve is flat, 0.9 °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, within 10° of the equator; with no thermal season there 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 2438 mm a year, wettest January at 375 mm, driest August at 53 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

2438 mm a year at the habitat, 1802 mm of it November to April. Wettest month January at 375 mm, driest August at 53 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1944 mm to 3102 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, southern 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 39 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 30 to 39 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 28, the highest 90th-percentile month 42).

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 19.8 °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 19.8 °C, the absolute minimum 16.8 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 35.0 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 21.9 °C in July (across the envelope cells 18.5 °C to 24.1 °C), warmest day 30.2 °C in September (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 19.8 °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: 61 to 69% 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 28 °C in Jan to 30 °C in Sep; mean night from 22 °C in Jul to 23 °C in Nov. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest night. 2438 mm of rain a year, most in Jan. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 66 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 16.8 °C and the 99th-percentile day 35.0 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.15°20°25°30°35°40°35.0° 99th-percentile day (undated)16.8° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 30–39RH 61–69 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 66 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 °C28 / 26–2928 / 26–2929 / 26–3029 / 27–3029 / 27–3029 / 26–3029 / 26–3130 / 26–3230 / 27–3330 / 27–3229 / 27–3128 / 26–30
Night °C23 / 20–2523 / 20–2523 / 20–2523 / 20–2523 / 20–2523 / 19–2522 / 19–2422 / 19–2423 / 19–2523 / 20–2523 / 20–2523 / 20–25
Rain mm375 / 294–452334 / 272–417307 / 254–401244 / 185–309167 / 115–264105 / 70–16172 / 36–13253 / 16–12381 / 26–138158 / 70–240244 / 189–337298 / 264–402
DLI30 / 28–3331 / 28–3433 / 30–3533 / 31–3433 / 30–3431 / 29–3333 / 31–3437 / 34–3839 / 37–4139 / 36–4234 / 31–3731 / 29–33
RH %69 / 67–7469 / 67–7368 / 66–7368 / 65–7167 / 63–7065 / 62–6963 / 60–6861 / 58–6861 / 58–6863 / 60–6866 / 63–7168 / 66–73

Each figure is the median across the 66 grid cells holding the 78 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 1926:5735 (-6.325, 106.775). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 16.8 °C, 1st-percentile night 19.8 °C, 99th-percentile day 35.0 °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 66 distinct grid cells holding the 78 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1926:5735 (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 -6.50_106.875, lapse-corrected -322 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 50 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.
NativeJawa, Maluku, Sulawesi· introduced: Gulf of Guinea Is., Comoros, China South-Central, Hainan, China Southeast, Taiwan, Assam, Bangladesh, East Himalaya, Andaman Is., Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Nicobar Is., Thailand, Vietnam, Borneo, Philippines, Solomon Is., Samoa, Society Is., Caroline Is., Marianas, Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Bolivia, Ecuador, Brazil West-Central, Brazil Northeast, Brazil North, Paraguay
Kew's description“tree” · “wet tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-6.824, 107.597 · in the densest population, 61 records (75% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 81 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 31 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 122 km away. 1659 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 3 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 inside the densest 2° block of the 81 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Averrhoa carambolaAverrhoa carambolaAverrhoa carambolaAverrhoa carambolaAverrhoa carambolaAverrhoa carambolaAverrhoa carambolaAverrhoa carambola

Photographs: no rights reserved · CC0 (4); (c) 謝麗霦, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Sandy, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3).

Photographs: iNaturalist and Wikimedia Commons 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 Averrhoa carambola, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Edible insects: future prospects for food and feed security
A. van Huis, Joost Van Itterbeeck, Harmke C. Klunder, Elly Mertens (2013) · Socio-Environmental Systems Modeling
The Therapeutic Potential of Apigenin
Bahare Salehi, Alessandro Venditti, Mehdi Sharifi‐Rad, Dorota Kręgiel (2019) · International Journal of Molecular Sciences
Antidiabetic Potential of Medicinal Plants and Their Active Components
Bahare Salehi, Athar Ata, N. V. Anil Kumar, Farukh Sharopov (2019) · Biomolecules
Synthesis of green nanoparticles for energy, biomedical, environmental, agricultural, and food applications: A review
Ahmed I. Osman, Yubin Zhang, Mohamed Farghali, Ahmed K. Rashwan (2024) · Environmental Chemistry Letters
The Potential of Plant Phenolics in Prevention and Therapy of Skin Disorders
Magdalena Działo, Justyna Mierziak, Urszula Korzun, Marta Preisner (2016) · International Journal of Molecular Sciences
Survey of medicinal plants used in the region Northeast of Brazil
Maria de Fátima Agra, Kiriaki Nurit Silva, Ionaldo José Lima Diniz Basílio, Patrícia França de Freitas (2008) · Revista Brasileira de Farmacognosia
Carotenoids and Their Isomers: Color Pigments in Fruits and Vegetables
Hock Eng Khoo, K. Nagendra Prasad, Kin Weng Kong, Yueming Jiang (2011) · Molecules
Fruits and vegetables quality evaluation using computer vision: A review
Anuja Bhargava, Atul Bansal (2018) · Journal of King Saud University - Computer and Information Sciences
INVASIVE PHYTOPHAGOUS PESTS ARISING THROUGH A RECENT TROPICAL EVOLUTIONARY RADIATION: The Bactrocera dorsalis Complex of Fruit Flies
Anthony R. Clarke, Karen Armstrong, Amy Elizabeth Carmichael, J. R. Milne (2004) · Annual Review of Entomology
Plant-derived natural products for drug discovery: current approaches and prospects
Noohi Nasim, I. Sriram Sandeep, Sujata Mohanty (2022) · The Nucleus
Phylogenetics of Flowering Plants Based on Combined Analysis of Plastid atpB and rbcL Gene Sequences
Vincent Savolainen, Mark W. Chase, Sara B. Hoot, Cynthia M. Morton (2000) · Systematic Biology
A Review on Anti-Inflammatory Activity of Monoterpenes
Rita de Cássia da Silveira e Sá, Luciana Dantas Farias de Andrade, Damião Pergentino de Sousa (2013) · Molecules

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.

Other Averrhoa 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 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 not askedcarried 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 160 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.