Species
+

Bismarckia nobilis Hildebrandt & H.Wendl.

Bismarck Palm, Moukoma mbole, Satrana be

Climate known 48 photographs Tropical foliage plant
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

Bismarckia is a monotypic genus of flowering plant in the palm family with Bismarckia nobilis being the only species in the genus and is endemic to western and northern Madagascar, where it grows in open grassland.

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

About the genus · Bismarckia

Bismarckia is a monotypic genus of flowering plant in the palm family with Bismarckia nobilis being the only species in the genus and is endemic to western and northern Madagascar, where it grows in open grassland.

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

Family
Arecaceae
Described by
Hildebrandt & H.Wendl.
Native to
Madagascar
Wild records
182 in range· 52 open

At a glance

Warmest month
31°C
Oct, mean day; nights 22 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1400mm/yr
7 wet months · peak Jan 400 mm (CHELSA)
Light
30–45DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a tropical foliage plant by Arecaceae, which is usually but not always one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a summer growing season, June to August in the northern hemisphere (December to February at the habitat, southern). Habitat rain 1400 mm a year, wettest January at 400 mm, driest June at 1 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 30 to 45 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 14.2 °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 Medemia nobilis (Hildebr. & H.Wendl.) Gall.; Medemia nobilis (Hildebrandt & H.Wendl.) Bureau; Medemia nobilis (Hildebrandt & H.Wendl.) Drude.

Cultivation

Grouped as a tropical foliage plant by Arecaceae, which is usually but not always one kind of plant (archetype table). The table supplies one figure for this group, a conventional minimum for the cold floor, and no prose.

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, June to August in the northern hemisphere (December to February at the habitat, southern).

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

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (1006 mm of 1400 mm) falls in December to February, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 27.0 °C against a yearly mean of 26.0 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: June to August.

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 1400 mm a year, wettest January at 400 mm, driest June at 1 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1400 mm a year at the habitat, 1006 mm of it December to February. Wettest month January at 400 mm, driest June at 1 mm; 3 months under 5 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 850 mm to 1731 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 45 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 30 to 45 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 27, the highest 90th-percentile month 47).

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 14.2 °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 14.2 °C, the absolute minimum 11.9 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 39.1 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 18.6 °C in July (across the envelope cells 10.9 °C to 21.0 °C), warmest day 31.4 °C in October (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 14.2 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER); the archetype table's minimum for a tropical foliage plant, 12 °C, is lower and does not raise it.

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, and the archetype table's group minimum where that is higher. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 52 to 66% 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 29 °C in Jul to 31 °C in Oct; mean night from 19 °C in Jul to 24 °C in Mar. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest night. 1400 mm of rain a year, most in Jan. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 81 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 11.9 °C and the 99th-percentile day 39.1 °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°40°45°39.1° 99th-percentile day (undated)11.9° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500600mm rainDLI 30–45RH 52–66 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 81 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 °C29 / 27–3129 / 27–3130 / 27–3231 / 27–3230 / 25–3229 / 23–3129 / 23–3029 / 24–3130 / 27–3331 / 28–3431 / 29–3430 / 28–32
Night °C23 / 19–2523 / 19–2524 / 18–2523 / 16–2522 / 14–2420 / 12–2219 / 11–2119 / 12–2120 / 13–2222 / 15–2423 / 17–2523 / 18–25
Rain mm400 / 213–531368 / 172–435180 / 113–25755 / 29–7112 / 6–221 / 1–72 / 1–83 / 1–97 / 3–1529 / 16–50105 / 53–123238 / 160–296
DLI36 / 34–4235 / 34–4138 / 37–3937 / 35–3833 / 30–3430 / 27–3231 / 28–3335 / 34–3741 / 40–4345 / 44–4645 / 44–4741 / 40–45
RH %65 / 62–6866 / 63–6863 / 61–6659 / 56–6256 / 53–6053 / 51–5852 / 50–5752 / 49–5753 / 49–5954 / 51–5957 / 54–6062 / 60–65

Each figure is the median across the 81 grid cells holding the 171 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 2133:4541 (-16.675, 47.075). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 11.9 °C, 1st-percentile night 14.2 °C, 99th-percentile day 39.1 °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 81 distinct grid cells holding the 171 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2133:4541 (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 -16.50_46.875, lapse-corrected -51 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 61 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.
NativeMadagascar· introduced: Comoros
Kew's description“tree” · “seasonally dry tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-22.653, 45.307 · in the densest population, 99 records (54% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 182 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 52 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 2 km away. 61 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 11 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 182 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Bismarckia nobilisBismarckia nobilisBismarckia nobilisBismarckia nobilisBismarckia nobilisBismarckia nobilisBismarckia nobilisBismarckia nobilis

Photographs: (c) Rosario Douglas, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) amantedarmanin, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); no rights reserved · CC0 (2); (c) avocat, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2).

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

A new species of Scotophilus (Chiroptera: Vespertilionidae) from western Madagascar
Steven M. Goodman, Fanja H. Ratrimomanarivo, Félicien H. Randrianandrianina (2006) · Acta Chiropterologica
Genomic signatures of past megafrugivore‐mediated dispersal in Malagasy palms
Laura Méndez, Christopher D. Barratt, Walter Durka, W. Daniel Kissling (2024) · Journal of Ecology
An experimental study on piezoelectric energy harvesting from palm tree induced by wind
Mohammad Y. Al‐Haik, Mohammad Mazedul Kabir, Waseem Siddique, Saeed AlNuaimi (2020) · Engineering Research Express
First Report of the 16SrIV-D Phytoplasma Associated with Decline of a Bismarck Palm (Bismarckia nobilis)
K. K. Dey, Ayyamperumal Jeyaprakash, Jesper Hansen, Davey L. Jones (2018) · Plant Health Progress
Methods for overcoming seed dormancy in blue palm
Rubens de Oliveira Meireles, Vinicius Mendes Meireles, Welliton de Lima Sena, Brenda Oliveira da Costa (2024) · Ornamental Horticulture
Synthesis and Biological Activity of Silver Nanoparticles from Medicinal Palm Tree Bismarckia nobilis Seeds
Tanveer Alam, Sapna Tyagi, Goutam Kumar, Azhar U. Khan (2020) · Asian Journal of Chemistry
Genomic signatures of past megafrugivore-mediated dispersal in Malagasy palms
Laura Méndez, Christopher D. Barratt, Walter Durka, W. Daniel Kissling (2023) · bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)
Occurrence Download
GBIF.Org User (2023) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility

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 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 29 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.