Species
+

Calodendrum capense (L.fil.) Thunb.

Cape Chestnut, Cape-chestnut, Wild Chest Nut, isau

Climate known 61 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

Calodendrum capense, the Cape chestnut, is an African tree which was first studied at The Cape in South Africa and cultivated widely for its prolific flower display. The tree obtained the common name of "Cape chestnut" because explorer William Burchell saw a resemblance to the horse chestnut in terms of flowers and fruit, though the two are not closely related.

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

About the genus · Calodendrum

Calodendrum is a genus of medium-sized evergreen trees comprising two species from Africa. Calodendrum capense, the Cape chestnut, is a well known tree that is widely cultivated, while Calodendrum eickii is a rare forest tree from Tanzania. The botanical name comes from Greek, kalos means beautiful and dendrum means tree. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Calodendrum”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Rutaceae
Described by
(L.fil.) Thunb.
Native to
Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda +8
Wild records
770 in range· 331 open

At a glance

Warmest month
26°C
Feb, mean day; nights 17 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
768mm/yr
11 wet months · peak Jan 109 mm (CHELSA)
Light
21–42DLI
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 summer growing season, April to September in the northern hemisphere (October to March at the habitat, southern). Habitat rain 768 mm a year, wettest January at 109 mm, driest July at 23 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 21 to 42 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 3.2 °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 Dictamnus calodendrum Poir.; Dictamnus capensis L.fil.; Pallasia capensis Christm.; Pallassia capensis Christm.; Tarenna papyracea Burtt Davy.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, April to September in the northern hemisphere (October to March 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 (561 mm of 768 mm) falls in October to March, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 20.1 °C against a yearly mean of 17.8 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: April to September.

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 768 mm a year, wettest January at 109 mm, driest July at 23 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

768 mm a year at the habitat, 561 mm of it October to March. Wettest month January at 109 mm, driest July at 23 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 556 mm to 1141 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: 21 to 42 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 21 to 42 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 17, 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 3.2 °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 3.2 °C, the absolute minimum 0.0 °C, 1 frost night in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 40.5 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 8.3 °C in July (across the envelope cells 3.3 °C to 13.1 °C), warmest day 25.8 °C in February (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 3.2 °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: 54 to 62% 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 19 °C in Jun to 26 °C in Feb; mean night from 8 °C in Jul to 17 °C in Feb. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest night. 768 mm of rain a year, most in Jan. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 501 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 0.0 °C and the 99th-percentile day 40.5 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-10°10°20°30°40°50°frost40.5° 99th-percentile day (undated)0.0° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200mm rainDLI 21–42RH 54–62 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 501 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 °C26 / 23–2926 / 23–2925 / 22–2823 / 21–2621 / 19–2419 / 16–2219 / 16–2221 / 17–2322 / 18–2623 / 19–2724 / 21–2725 / 22–28
Night °C17 / 13–2017 / 13–2116 / 13–2014 / 10–1811 / 7–169 / 4–148 / 3–139 / 5–1411 / 8–1513 / 10–1614 / 11–1816 / 13–19
Rain mm109 / 47–15990 / 40–14687 / 57–12855 / 35–16731 / 13–11225 / 7–6223 / 3–5935 / 6–8038 / 13–7775 / 44–111101 / 61–14099 / 50–146
DLI41 / 36–4739 / 35–4334 / 31–3827 / 25–3323 / 20–3121 / 17–2822 / 18–2826 / 23–3231 / 29–3937 / 32–4140 / 34–4542 / 36–48
RH %62 / 56–6662 / 55–6662 / 56–6561 / 55–6457 / 51–6254 / 50–6054 / 49–6056 / 48–6058 / 47–6260 / 52–6361 / 55–6562 / 56–65

Each figure is the median across the 501 grid cells holding the 762 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 2471:4116 (-33.575, 25.825). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 0.0 °C, 1st-percentile night 3.2 °C, 99th-percentile day 40.5 °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 501 distinct grid cells holding the 762 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2471:4116 (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 -33.50_25.625, lapse-corrected +63 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 303 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.
NativeKenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Cape Provinces, Lesotho, KwaZulu-Natal, Free State, Swaziland, Northern Provinces
Kew's description“tree” · “seasonally dry tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-33.312, 26.524 · in the densest population, 572 records (74% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 770 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 331 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 17 km away. 40 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 8 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 4° block of the 770 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Calodendrum capenseCalodendrum capenseCalodendrum capenseCalodendrum capenseCalodendrum capenseCalodendrum capenseCalodendrum capenseCalodendrum capense

Photographs: no rights reserved · CC0 (2); (c) Shaun Swanepoel, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Brian du Preez, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (2); (c) Tony Rebelo, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (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 Calodendrum capense, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

A Survey for ‘Candidatus Liberibacter’ Species in South Africa Confirms the Presence of Only ‘Ca. L. africanus’ in Commercial Citrus
Gerhard Pietersen, Eva Arrebola, Johannes H. J. Breytenbach, Lisé Korsten (2010) · Plant Disease
Presence of “Candidatus Liberibacter africanus” in the Western Cape province of South Africa
M. Garnier, J.M. Bové, C. Cronjé, Gina M. Sanders (2000) · International Organization of Citrus Virologists Conference Proceedings (1957-2010)
Antifungal efficacy of ten selected South African plant species againstCryptococcus neoformans
Tsholofelo Mokoka, Lyndy J. McGaw, J.N. Eloff (2010) · Pharmaceutical Biology
Indigenous oil crops as a source for production of biodiesel in Kenya
Agatha W. Wagutu, SC Chhabra, C. L. Thoruwa, TF Thoruwa (2009) · Bulletin of the Chemical Society of Ethiopia
Widespread occurrence of “Candidatus liberibacter africanus subspecies capensis” in Calodendrum capense in South Africa
McLedwaba Nkgobe Baby Phahladira, R. Viljoen, Gerhard Pietersen (2012) · European Journal of Plant Pathology
The structure of calodendrolide, a novel terpenoid from Calodendrum capense Thunb.
John M. Cassady, Chiung-sheue Liu (1972) · Journal of the Chemical Society Chemical Communications
Limonoids as Larvicidal Components against Mosquito Larvae (Aedes aegypti Linn.)
Ambrose Kiprop, Paul C. Kiprono, Mohammed S. Rajab, Mathew Kipchumba Kosgei (2007) · Zeitschrift für Naturforschung C

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