Species
+

Cassia javanica L.

Apple Blossom, Java cassia, Javanese cassia, Mahimbou Nana

Climate known 59 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

Cassia javanica, also known as Java cassia, pink shower, apple blossom tree, rainbow shower tree, and Palawan cherry, is a species of tree in the family Fabaceae. Its origin is in Southeast Asia, but it has been extensively grown in tropical areas worldwide as a garden tree owing to its beautiful crimson and pink flower bunches.

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

Family
Fabaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
China South-Central, China Southeast, Assam +18
Wild records
220 in range· 148 open

At a glance

Warmest month
30°C
Apr, mean day; nights 23 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1849mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Sep 257 mm (CHELSA)
Light
29–37DLI
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, May to October at the habitat (not shifted); the temperature curve is flat (1.8 °C of range), so no growing season is inferred. Habitat rain 1849 mm a year, wettest September at 257 mm, driest January at 36 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 29 to 37 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 17.4 °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 Bactyrilobium javanica (L.) Hornem.; Cassia bacillus Roxb.; Cassia fistula Blanco; Cassia javanica var. javanica; Cassia javanica var. pubifolia Merr. and 1 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a sharp rainy season, May to October at the habitat (not shifted); the temperature curve is flat (1.8 °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 (1317 mm of 1849 mm) falls in May to October. The temperature curve is flat, 1.8 °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, 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 1849 mm a year, wettest September at 257 mm, driest January at 36 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1849 mm a year at the habitat, 1317 mm of it May to October. Wettest month September at 257 mm, driest January at 36 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1319 mm to 3372 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: 29 to 37 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 29 to 37 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 23, the highest 90th-percentile month 41).

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 17.4 °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 17.4 °C, the absolute minimum 13.8 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 41.2 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 20.7 °C in December (across the envelope cells 12.4 °C to 25.0 °C), warmest day 29.6 °C in April (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 17.4 °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: 63 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 28 °C in Dec to 30 °C in Apr; mean night from 21 °C in Dec to 24 °C in Jun. The cold quarter, Nov to Jan, is the three months around the coldest night. 1849 mm of rain a year, most in Sep. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 179 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 13.8 °C and the 99th-percentile day 41.2 °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°41.2° 99th-percentile day (undated)13.8° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 29–37RH 63–67 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 179 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 / 22–3028 / 23–3129 / 26–3330 / 26–3429 / 27–3229 / 26–3129 / 25–3129 / 25–3129 / 25–3129 / 25–3128 / 24–3028 / 22–30
Night °C21 / 12–2522 / 13–2522 / 16–2523 / 18–2623 / 19–2624 / 19–2623 / 19–2623 / 19–2623 / 18–2522 / 18–2522 / 15–2521 / 12–25
Rain mm36 / 9–39046 / 14–35890 / 25–365148 / 57–305209 / 112–329201 / 94–447228 / 53–483230 / 43–480257 / 45–437192 / 55–338116 / 28–34196 / 8–343
DLI31 / 24–3633 / 27–3736 / 31–4037 / 30–4133 / 27–3730 / 25–3430 / 24–3430 / 25–3631 / 26–3930 / 26–4130 / 24–4129 / 23–36
RH %63 / 54–7063 / 53–7064 / 51–7065 / 55–7066 / 61–7066 / 63–7167 / 62–7267 / 62–7267 / 62–7166 / 61–7064 / 57–7163 / 55–70

Each figure is the median across the 179 grid cells holding the 213 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 1571:5747 (11.425, 107.375). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 13.8 °C, 1st-percentile night 17.4 °C, 99th-percentile day 41.2 °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 179 distinct grid cells holding the 213 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1571:5747 (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 11.50_107.500, lapse-corrected -211 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 134 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, China Southeast, Assam, Bangladesh, East Himalaya, Andaman Is., Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Borneo, Jawa, Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Philippines, Sumatera, Bismarck Archipelago, New Guinea, Solomon Is., Queensland· introduced: Gambia, The, Ghana, Nigeria, Gulf of Guinea Is., Zaïre, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Angola, Comoros, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, West Himalaya, Society Is., Marianas, Hawaii, Nicaragua, Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador
Kew's description“tree” · “wet tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker14.433, 101.367 · in the densest population, 57 records (26% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 220 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 148 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 5495 km away. 328 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 7 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 220 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Cassia javanicaCassia javanicaCassia javanicaCassia javanicaCassia javanicaCassia javanicaCassia javanicaCassia javanica

Photographs: no rights reserved · CC0; (c) Alexis López Hernández, some rights reserved (CC BY) (7).

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

Solution properties of the galactomannans extracted from the seeds of Caesalpinia pulcherrima and Cassia javanica: comparison with locust bean gum
Paula B. Andrade, Edwin G. Azero, L. Luciano, Maria P. Gonçalves (1999) · International Journal of Biological Macromolecules
Acute and Subacute Toxicity Studies on the Polyherbal Antidiabetic Formulation Diakyur in Experimental Animal Models
Chandra Shekhar Joshi, Ekambaram Sanmuga Priya, Subramanian Venkataraman (2007) · Eisei kagaku
Green synthesis of selenium nanoparticles from Cassia javanica flowers extract and their medical and agricultural applications
Mohamed K. Y. Soliman, Mohamed A. Amin, Abdelatti I. Nowwar, Mahmoud H. Hendy (2024) · Scientific Reports
Microwave induced poly(acrylic acid) modification of Cassia javanica seed gum for efficient Hg(II) removal from solution
Vandana Singh, Somit Kumar Singh, Sadhana Maurya (2010) · Chemical Engineering Journal
ANTI-ULCER ACTIVITY OF LEGUMINOSAE PLANTS
Noemi D. Paguigan, Darryl Hannah B. CASTILLO, Christine L. Chichioco-Hernandez (2014) · Arquivos de Gastroenterologia
ent-Epiafzelechin-(4α→8)-epiafzelechin extracted from Cassia javanica inhibits herpes simplex virus type 2 replication
Hua‐Yew Cheng, Chien‐Min Yang, Ta‐Chen Lin, Den‐En Shieh (2006) · Journal of Medical Microbiology
In-vitro antioxidant and in-vivo anti-inflammatory activities of aerial parts of Cassia species
Jignasu P. Mehta, Pravin H. Parmar, Sohil H. Vadia, Mahendra K. Patel (2013) · Arabian Journal of Chemistry
Rheological properties of mixtures of κ-carrageenan from Hypnea musciformis and galactomannan from Cassia javanica
Paula B. Andrade, Edwin G. Azero, L. Luciano, Maria P. Gonçalves (2000) · International Journal of Biological Macromolecules
Rheological study of the effect of Cassia javanica galactomannans on the heat-set gelation of a whey protein isolate at pH 7
Maria P. Gonçalves, Duarte Torres, Paula B. Andrade, Edwin G. Azero (2003) · Food Hydrocolloids

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 Cassia 4 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 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 103 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.