Species
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Coprosma robusta Raoul

Glossy Karamū

Climate known 62 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

Coprosma robusta, commonly known as karamū, is a flowering plant in the family Rubiaceae that is endemic to New Zealand. It can survive in many climates, but is most commonly found in coastal areas, lowland forests, or shrublands. Karamū can grow to be around 6 meters tall, and grow leaves up to 12 centimeters long. Karamū is used for a variety of purposes in human culture. More on Wikipedia ›

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

About the genus · Coprosma

Coprosma is a genus of flowering plants in the family Rubiaceae. It is found in New Zealand, Hawaiian Islands, Borneo, Java, New Guinea, islands of the Pacific Ocean to Australia and the Juan Fernández Islands.

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

Family
Rubiaceae
Described by
Raoul
Native to
Chatham Is., New Zealand North, New Zealand South
Wild records
1735 in range· 586 open

At a glance

Warmest month
20°C
Feb, mean day; nights 13 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1481mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jul 157 mm (CHELSA)
Light
11–43DLI
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 April and June in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 1481 mm a year, wettest July at 157 mm, driest February at 94 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 11 to 43 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 0.6 °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 Coprosma coffaeoides Colenso.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (October to April and June in the northern hemisphere).

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

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (1072 mm of 1481 mm) takes 8 months, April to October and December. Mean temperature moves 9.1 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: October to April and June.

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 1481 mm a year, wettest July at 157 mm, driest February at 94 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1481 mm a year at the habitat, 1072 mm of it April to October and December. Wettest month July at 157 mm, driest February at 94 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 892 mm to 2157 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: 11 to 43 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 11 to 43 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 9, the highest 90th-percentile month 45).

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 0.6 °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 0.6 °C, the absolute minimum -1.6 °C, about 1 frost night a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 25.9 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 4.7 °C in July (across the envelope cells 1.2 °C to 10.0 °C), warmest day 20.3 °C in February (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 0.6 °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 64% 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 10 °C in Jul to 20 °C in Feb; mean night from 5 °C in Jul to 13 °C in Feb. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest night. 1481 mm of rain a year, most in Jul. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 820 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -1.6 °C and the 99th-percentile day 25.9 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-5°10°15°20°25°30°frost25.9° 99th-percentile day (undated)-1.6° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250mm rainDLI 11–43RH 63–64 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 820 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 °C20 / 18–2220 / 18–2219 / 16–2116 / 14–1813 / 11–1611 / 8–1410 / 8–1411 / 9–1413 / 11–1515 / 12–1616 / 14–1818 / 16–20
Night °C13 / 10–1713 / 10–1812 / 9–1610 / 6–158 / 4–136 / 2–115 / 1–105 / 2–106 / 3–118 / 5–1210 / 7–1412 / 9–16
Rain mm97 / 60–15094 / 63–136107 / 73–156112 / 67–173130 / 81–187153 / 85–219157 / 92–222143 / 85–206126 / 64–207128 / 74–208111 / 67–168123 / 68–187
DLI43 / 39–4536 / 34–3929 / 26–3120 / 18–2214 / 12–1611 / 9–1312 / 10–1417 / 15–1925 / 22–2733 / 29–3539 / 35–4242 / 38–44
RH %63 / 59–6663 / 60–6663 / 60–6664 / 60–6764 / 61–6964 / 61–7064 / 61–6964 / 61–6964 / 60–6864 / 60–6863 / 59–6663 / 59–67

Each figure is the median across the 820 grid cells holding the 1719 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 2566:7100 (-38.325, 175.025). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -1.6 °C, 1st-percentile night 0.6 °C, 99th-percentile day 25.9 °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 820 distinct grid cells holding the 1719 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2566:7100 (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 -38.50_175.000, lapse-corrected +93 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 318 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.
NativeChatham Is., New Zealand North, New Zealand South· introduced: Tasmania, Victoria
Kew's description“shrub or tree” · “subtropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-41.198, 174.876 · in the densest population, 1185 records (68% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1735 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 586 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 766 km away. 25 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 16 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 1735 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Coprosma robustaCoprosma robustaCoprosma robustaCoprosma robustaCoprosma robustaCoprosma robustaCoprosma robustaCoprosma robusta

Photographs: (c) John Barkla, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Joe Dillon, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Saryu Mae 前 朝琉, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Jacqui Geux, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Colin Meurk, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Jon Sullivan, some rights reserved (CC BY).

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

A field survey of mycorrhizas in New Zealand ferns
Karen M. Cooper (1976) · New Zealand Journal of Botany
Endomycorrhizas of Metrosideros umbellata and Weinmannia racemosa
I.R. Hall (1975) · New Zealand Journal of Botany
Fixation of Nitrogen by Non-nodulated Seed Plants
Greta Stevenson (1959) · Annals of Botany
Response of Coprosma robusta to different forms of endomycorrhizal inoculum
I.R. Hall (1976) · Transactions of the British Mycological Society
Endogonaceous mycorrhizas synthesised in Leptospermum (Myrtaceae)
G. T. S. Baylis (1971) · New Zealand Journal of Botany
Potential Use of Biosolids to Reforest Degraded Areas with New Zealand Native Vegetation
María Jesús Gutiérrez Ginés, Brett Robinson, J. Esperschuetz, Engracia Madejón (2017) · Journal of Environmental Quality
Seed dormancy and germination of a panel of New Zealand plants suitable for re‐vegetation
A. C. Mackay, Craig McGill, David W. Fountain, R. C. Southward (2002) · New Zealand Journal of Botany
Direct seeding of indigenous tree and shrub species into New Zealand hill country pasture
Mike Dodd, I.L. Power (2007) · Ecological Management & Restoration
“Candidatus Phytoplasma australiense” in Coprosma robusta in New Zealand
Ross E. Beever, G. A. Wood, Mark T. Andersen, Shaun R. Pennycook (2004) · New Zealand Journal of Botany
Effects of native plants on nitrogen cycling microorganisms in soil
Alexandra Meister, Kristin Bohm, María Jesús Gutiérrez Ginés, Sally Gaw (2023) · Applied Soil Ecology

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 Coprosma 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 26 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.