Species
+

Cananga odorata (Lam.) Hook.f. & Thomson

Alangilang, Cananga tree, Ilang ilang, Ilang-ilang

Climate known 64 photographs
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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

Cananga odorata, commonly known as ylang-ylang, Macassar oil tree, perfume tree or cananga, is a species of plant in the custard apple family Annonaceae. It is native to areas from Indochina to northeastern Australia, and has been introduced to many other regions. It is valued for the essential oil, also called ylang-ylang, which is extracted from the flowers. Ylang-ylang is one of the most extensively used natural fragrances in the perfume industry.

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

About the genus · Cananga

Cananga is a small genus of only two species in the custard apple family Annonaceae, native to areas from Indo-China through Malesia to Australia. One of the species, Cananga odorata, is the source of the fragrant oil ylang-ylang.

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

Family
Annonaceae
Described by
(Lam.) Hook.f. & Thomson
Native to
Thailand, Vietnam, Borneo +9
Wild records
635 in range· 491 open

At a glance

Warmest month
29°C
Apr, mean day; nights 24 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
2671mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jan 293 mm (CHELSA)
Light
31–35DLI
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 (October to May at the habitat (not shifted)). Habitat rain 2671 mm a year, wettest January at 293 mm, driest August at 164 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 31 to 35 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 21.8 °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 Cananga blainii var. fruticosum (Craib) Corner; Cananga mitrastigma (F.Muell.) Domin; Cananga odoratum (Lam.) Baill.; Cananga odoratum (Lam.) Baill. ex King; Canangium mitrastigma (F.Muell.) Domin and 20 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (October to May 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 (1980 mm of 2671 mm) takes 8 months, October to May. Mean temperature moves 0.7 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern 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 2671 mm a year, wettest January at 293 mm, driest August at 164 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

2671 mm a year at the habitat, 1980 mm of it October to May. Wettest month January at 293 mm, driest August at 164 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1774 mm to 3735 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: 31 to 35 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 31 to 35 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 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 21.8 °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 21.8 °C, the absolute minimum 20.2 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 32.1 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 22.8 °C in July (across the envelope cells 17.5 °C to 25.4 °C), warmest day 28.7 °C in April (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 21.8 °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: 66 to 68% 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 yearA flat year: mean day about 29 °C and mean night about 23 °C in every month, so the cold quarter is shaded by rounding only. 2671 mm of rain a year, most in Jan. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 505 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 20.2 °C and the 99th-percentile day 32.1 °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°32.1° 99th-percentile day (undated)20.2° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 31–35RH 66–68 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 505 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 / 26–3028 / 26–3029 / 27–3129 / 26–3129 / 24–3128 / 23–3128 / 22–3028 / 23–3128 / 25–3128 / 26–3128 / 26–3028 / 26–30
Night °C23 / 20–2523 / 20–2523 / 20–2524 / 20–2624 / 20–2623 / 18–2623 / 18–2523 / 18–2523 / 19–2523 / 20–2523 / 20–2523 / 20–25
Rain mm293 / 57–485269 / 44–461273 / 68–437239 / 91–350206 / 120–312176 / 81–285169 / 63–324164 / 44–305182 / 55–314204 / 81–331227 / 116–363269 / 116–416
DLI32 / 28–3734 / 30–3734 / 31–3933 / 30–4032 / 27–3631 / 25–3431 / 25–3533 / 29–3735 / 30–4034 / 29–4232 / 28–4231 / 26–39
RH %68 / 63–7268 / 62–7268 / 63–7268 / 63–7267 / 64–7267 / 63–7166 / 63–7266 / 62–7166 / 62–7167 / 63–7168 / 63–7268 / 64–72

Each figure is the median across the 505 grid cells holding the 618 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 1790:5946 (0.475, 117.325). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 20.2 °C, 1st-percentile night 21.8 °C, 99th-percentile day 32.1 °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 505 distinct grid cells holding the 618 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1790:5946 (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 0.50_117.500, lapse-corrected +55 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 108 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.
NativeThailand, Vietnam, Borneo, Jawa, Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Philippines, Sulawesi, Sumatera, New Guinea, Solomon Is., Queensland· introduced: Guinea, Senegal, Gulf of Guinea Is., Kenya, Tanzania, Comoros, Réunion, Seychelles, China South-Central, Hainan, China Southeast, Taiwan, Assam, Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Andaman Is., Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Nicobar Is., Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, Vanuatu, Wallis-Futuna Is., Cook Is., Marquesas, Society Is., Tuamotu, Tubuai Is., Caroline Is., Marianas, Mexico Southwest, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Puerto Rico, Trinidad-Tobago, Windward Is.
Kew's description“tree” · “wet tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker1.298, 103.848 · in the densest population, 152 records (24% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 635 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 491 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 4853 km away. 794 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 inside the densest 4° block of the 635 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Cananga odorataCananga odorataCananga odorataCananga odorataCananga odorataCananga odorataCananga odorataCananga odorata

Photographs: (c) Philippe Hornus, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4); no rights reserved · CC0 (3); (c) Satyaji Wibowo, 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 Cananga odorata, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Antimicrobial and antioxidant properties of some commercial essential oils
M. Tiziana Baratta, H. J. Damien Dorman, Stanley G. Deans, A. Cristina Figueiredo (1998) · Flavour and Fragrance Journal
Traditional Uses, Phytochemistry, and Bioactivities ofCananga odorata(Ylang-Ylang)
Loh Teng‐Hern Tan, Learn−Han Lee, Wai Fong Yin, Chim Kei Chan (2015) · Evidence-based Complementary and Alternative Medicine
Repellent Activity of Essential Oils and Some of Their Individual Constituents against Tribolium castaneum Herbst
Karina Caballero-Gallardo, Jesús Olivero‐Verbel, Elena E. Stashenko (2011) · Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
Enzymatic activity of endophytic fungi from the medicinal plants Terminalia catappa, Terminalia mantaly and Cananga odorata
Rufin Marie Kouipou Toghueo, Íñigo Zabalgogeazcoa, Beatriz R. Vázquez de Aldana, F. Fekam Boyom (2017) · South African Journal of Botany
Cytotoxic Constituents of the Fruits of Cananga odorata
Tian-Jye Hsieh, Fang‐Rong Chang, Yi-Chen Chia, Chung‐Yi Chen (2001) · Journal of Natural Products
In vitro radical scavenging activity of essential oils from Columbian plants and fractions from oregano (Origanum vulgare L.) essential oil
Miguel A Puertas-Mejía, Silke Hillebrand, Elena E. Stashenko, Peter Winterhalter (2002) · Flavour and Fragrance Journal
Antimicrobial and antioxidant properties of medicinal plants used by the Bentian tribe from Indonesia
Irawan Wijaya Kusuma, Murdiyanto, Enos Tangke Arung, Syafrizal Syafrizal (2014) · Food Science and Human Wellness
Correlation Between Chemical Composition and Antimicrobial Activity. VI. Activity of Some African Essential Oils
Jean‐Claude Chalchat, Raymond-Philippe Garry, Chantal Menut, G. Lamaty (1997) · Journal of Essential Oil Research

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.