Species
+

Dombeya wallichii (Lindl.) Benth. & Hook.fil.

dombeya

Climate known 46 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

Dombeya wallichii is a flowering shrub of the family Malvaceae known by the common names pinkball, pink ball tree, and tropical hydrangea.

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

About the genus · Dombeya

Dombeya is a flowering plant genus. Traditionally included in the family Sterculiaceae, it is included in the expanded Malvaceae in the APG and most subsequent systematics. These plants are known by a number of vernacular names which sometimes, misleadingly, allude to the superficial similarity of flowering Dombeya to pears or hydrangeas. More on Wikipedia ›

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

Family
Malvaceae
Described by
(Lindl.) Benth. & Hook.fil.
Native to
Madagascar
Wild records
5 in range· 5 open

At a glance

Warmest month
26°C
Jan, mean day; nights 21 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
2591mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Feb 455 mm (CHELSA)
Light
22–42DLI
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, May to October in the northern hemisphere (November to April at the habitat, southern). Habitat rain 2591 mm a year, wettest February at 455 mm, driest September at 93 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 22 to 42 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 16.3 °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 Assonia wallichii (Lindl.) Kuntze; Astrapaea penduliflora DC.; Astrapaea speciosa F.Dietr.; Astrapaea wallichii Lindl.; Astrapea wallichii Lindl., 1822 and 5 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, May to October in the northern hemisphere (November to April 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 (1877 mm of 2591 mm) falls in November to April, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 22.7 °C against a yearly mean of 20.9 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: May to October.

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 2591 mm a year, wettest February at 455 mm, driest September at 93 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

2591 mm a year at the habitat, 1877 mm of it November to April. Wettest month February at 455 mm, driest September at 93 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 2324 mm to 3565 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: 22 to 42 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 22 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 20, the highest 90th-percentile month 44).

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 16.3 °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 16.3 °C, the absolute minimum 14.1 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 33.6 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 14.6 °C in July (across the envelope cells 10.0 °C to 19.1 °C), warmest day 26.4 °C in January (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 16.3 °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: 64 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 yearMean day from 22 °C in Jul to 26 °C in Jan; mean night from 15 °C in Jul to 21 °C in Jan. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest night. 2591 mm of rain a year, most in Feb. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 4 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 14.1 °C and the 99th-percentile day 33.6 °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°33.6° 99th-percentile day (undated)14.1° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500600mm rainDLI 22–42RH 64–68 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 4 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 / 25–2826 / 24–2826 / 24–2725 / 23–2624 / 21–2522 / 19–2322 / 19–2223 / 19–2324 / 21–2525 / 23–2626 / 24–2626 / 25–27
Night °C21 / 17–2421 / 17–2420 / 16–2419 / 15–2317 / 13–2215 / 11–2015 / 10–1915 / 10–1915 / 12–2017 / 14–2118 / 15–2220 / 16–23
Rain mm402 / 317–543455 / 323–499346 / 304–457190 / 125–373158 / 60–337103 / 31–294137 / 33–331101 / 35–22493 / 37–138122 / 111–152162 / 152–215322 / 277–369
DLI38 / 35–4236 / 33–3835 / 31–3730 / 28–3425 / 23–3022 / 20–2723 / 21–2828 / 25–3334 / 31–3939 / 35–4242 / 39–4440 / 37–43
RH %68 / 66–7068 / 66–7067 / 63–7167 / 61–7167 / 59–7165 / 58–7065 / 56–7064 / 55–6964 / 55–6864 / 57–6865 / 60–6767 / 64–69

Each figure is the median across the 4 grid cells holding the 5 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 2299:4540 (-24.975, 47.025). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 14.1 °C, 1st-percentile night 16.3 °C, 99th-percentile day 33.6 °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 4 distinct grid cells holding the 5 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2299:4540 (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 -25.00_46.875, lapse-corrected -211 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 7 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeMadagascar· introduced: Mauritius, Réunion, Thailand, Marianas, Mexico Southwest, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Windward Is.
Kew's description“shrub” · “wet tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 5 georeferenced records inside the native range, all openly licensed and shown on the map. 248 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. Under a dozen records: treat the map and the climate as indicative.

Photographs

Dombeya wallichiiDombeya wallichiiDombeya wallichiiDombeya wallichiiDombeya wallichiiDombeya wallichiiDombeya wallichiiDombeya wallichii

Photographs: (c) agujaceratops, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Jefferson Ferreira, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) LPB, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) anaghion, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Emma Walker, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3).

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

Iron oxide (Fe2O3) prepared via green route and adsorption efficiency evaluation for an anionic dye: kinetics, isotherms and thermodynamics studies
Saima Noreen, Ghulam Mustafa, Sobhy M. Ibrahim, Saima Naz (2020) · Journal of Materials Research and Technology
Plants and pollinating bees in Maringá, State of Paraná, Brazil
Vagner de Alencar Arnaut de Toledo, Adriano Ernesto de Toledo Fritzen, Carolina Antunes Neves, Maria Cláudia Colla Ruvolo-Takasusuki (2003) · Brazilian Archives of Biology and Technology
Anatomia e histoquímica dos nectários florais de Dombeya wallichii (Lindl.) K. Schum. e Dombeya natalensis Sond. (Malvaceae)
Joecildo Francisco Rocha, Rafael Ribeiro Pimentel, Maria Mercedes Teixeira da Rosa, Sílvia Rodrigues Machado (2011) · Americanae (AECID Library)
Neuroprotective potential of dombeya wallichii ameliorates Parkinson's activity in paraquat-induced Rat's model via modulation of neuro-inflammatory cytokines
Hafsa Tariq, Khizra Ishfaq, Talha Chauhdari, Fatima Sarwar (2025) · Journal of Ayurveda and Integrative Medicine
Antibacterial activity by Dombeya wallichii plant extracts obtained by ultrasound-assisted extraction
Suvratha Herur, Shreeadithya Kashyap, Sachin Vashisht, Dhruva Shankara (2023) · Journal of Emerging Investigators
Uso de substratos na estaquia de astrapéia (Dombeya wallichii L.)
Michel Anderson Masiero, Karina Gabrielle Reges Orives, Lorena Clara Cruz, Jean da Silva Amancio (2019) · Revista Cultura Agronômica
Foraging Behaviour of Apis mellifera L. and Scaptotrigona bipunctata on Dombeya wallichii Flowers in Southern Brazil
Sandra Milena Diaz Puentes, Jessica C. C. Lopez, Douglas Galhardo, José Washington Santos Oliveira (2019) · Agricultural Sciences
Anatomia, dos nectános de algumas espécies da flora apícola
Clóvis Ferraz de Oliveira Santos (1959) · Anais da Escola Superior de Agricultura Luiz de Queiroz
Antioxidant Activity and In-vitro Cytotoxicity Study of Novel Dombeya wallichii (An invasive plant) against Human Lung Cancer Cell Line
Deepak Kumar U, L Nivetha, Devipriya Nisha P (2021) · International Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences Review and Research
CHEMICAL INTERACTION BETWEEN Struthanthus marginatus (Desr.) Blume AND TWO DIFFERENT HOSTS
Aline Moreira de Siqueira, Bruno Esteves Conde, Arthur Ladeira Macedo, Luciana Moreira Chedier (2016) · Revista Eletrônica de Farmácia
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · 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: filled 2026-09-20
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 81 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.