Species
+

Ekebergia capensis Sparrm.

Cape Ash, Cape-ash, Dog Plum, Ekebergia

Climate known 76 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

Ekebergia capensis is a tree in the family Meliaceae. It is commonly known as the Cape ash. Its range extends from the Eastern Cape of South Africa to Sudan and Ethiopia. It has been introduced onto Ascension Island.

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

About the genus · Ekebergia

Ekebergia is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Meliaceae. They are dioecious trees or shrubs, with odd-pinnate leaves.

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

Family
Meliaceae
Described by
Sparrm.
Native to
Benin, Burkina, Gambia, The +31
Wild records
1472 in range· 1015 open

At a glance

Warmest month
27°C
Feb, mean day; nights 18 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
808mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Mar 87 mm (CHELSA)
Light
26–39DLI
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 (April to November in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 808 mm a year, wettest March at 87 mm, driest July at 41 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 26 to 39 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 10.3 °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 Charia chevalieri C.DC.; Charia indeniensis A.Chev.; Ekebergia buchananii Harms; Ekebergia chevalieri (C.DC.) Harms; Ekebergia complanata Baker fil. and 24 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (April to November 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 (613 mm of 808 mm) takes 8 months, October to May. Mean temperature moves 5.6 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: April to November.

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 808 mm a year, wettest March at 87 mm, driest July at 41 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

808 mm a year at the habitat, 613 mm of it October to May. Wettest month March at 87 mm, driest July at 41 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 625 mm to 1818 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: 26 to 39 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 26 to 39 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 10.3 °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 10.3 °C, the absolute minimum 7.4 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 34.3 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 12.0 °C in July (across the envelope cells 7.1 °C to 21.5 °C), warmest day 26.5 °C in February (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 10.3 °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: 58 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 21 °C in Jul to 27 °C in Feb; mean night from 12 °C in Jul to 18 °C in Feb. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest night. 808 mm of rain a year, most in Mar. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 956 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 7.4 °C and the 99th-percentile day 34.3 °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°34.3° 99th-percentile day (undated)7.4° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250300mm rainDLI 26–39RH 58–62 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 956 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 / 22–3427 / 22–3526 / 22–3624 / 20–3423 / 19–3222 / 17–3021 / 16–2822 / 17–2824 / 18–2924 / 19–3125 / 20–3326 / 21–33
Night °C18 / 13–2218 / 13–2318 / 13–2316 / 12–2414 / 10–2313 / 8–2212 / 7–2213 / 8–2114 / 10–2115 / 11–2216 / 12–2117 / 13–22
Rain mm71 / 2–21862 / 6–20287 / 24–19375 / 40–22764 / 15–21843 / 7–20141 / 5–24054 / 6–28257 / 11–23480 / 35–16987 / 9–15987 / 2–196
DLI39 / 34–4739 / 35–4335 / 31–4131 / 26–3928 / 20–3726 / 17–3426 / 18–3327 / 23–3632 / 29–4036 / 31–4238 / 33–4538 / 33–48
RH %61 / 39–6661 / 40–6662 / 48–6662 / 55–6760 / 55–6859 / 53–6758 / 53–6959 / 52–7061 / 52–6961 / 54–6561 / 49–6562 / 42–66

Each figure is the median across the 956 grid cells holding the 1469 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 1863:4330 (-3.175, 36.525). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 7.4 °C, 1st-percentile night 10.3 °C, 99th-percentile day 34.3 °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 956 distinct grid cells holding the 1469 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1863:4330 (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 -3.00_36.250, lapse-corrected +93 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1412 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.
NativeBenin, Burkina, Gambia, The, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, Togo, Burundi, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Rwanda, Zaïre, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Angola, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Cape Provinces, Caprivi Strip, KwaZulu-Natal, Swaziland, Northern Provinces· introduced: Ascension
Kew's description“tree” · “seasonally dry tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-34.058, 18.5 · in the densest population, 533 records (36% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1472 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 1015 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 321 km away. 1 record outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 3 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 1472 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Ekebergia capensisEkebergia capensisEkebergia capensisEkebergia capensisEkebergia capensisEkebergia capensisEkebergia capensisEkebergia capensis

Photographs: (c) Tony Rebelo, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (3); (c) Rosemary Harrison, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (3); (c) Henry de Lange, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2).

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

Effects of differential drying rates on viability retention of recalcitrant seeds of Ekebergia capensis
N.W. Pammenter, Valerie Greggains, J.I. Kioko, James Wesley‐Smith (1998) · Seed Science Research
Antioxidant and acetylcholinesterase-inhibitory properties of long-term stored medicinal plants
Stephen O. Amoo, Adeyemi O. Aremu, Mack Moyo, Johannes Van Staden (2012) · BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine
Anti‐plasmodial activity of some Kenyan medicinal plant extracts singly and in combination with chloroquine
Francis W. Muregi, S.C. Chhabra, E.N.M. Njagi, Caroline Langat‐Thoruwa (2004) · Phytotherapy Research
Germination ecology of forest species from the highlands of Ethiopia
Demel Teketay, Anders Granström (1997) · Journal of Tropical Ecology
Antiplasmodial Triterpenoids from Ekebergia capensis
Toshihiro Murata, Toshio Miyase, Francis W. Muregi, Yasuko Naoshima-Ishibashi (2008) · Journal of Natural Products
Constituents of the Roots and Leaves of Ekebergia capensis and Their Potential Antiplasmodial and Cytotoxic Activities
Beatrice Irungu, Jennifer Orwa, Amra Gruhonjic, Paul Fitzpatrick (2014) · Molecules
Antibacterial screening, synergy studies and phenolic content of seven South African medicinal plants against drug-sensitive and -resistant microbial strains
McMaster Vambe, Adeyemi O. Aremu, J.C. Chukwujekwu, J.F. Finnie (2017) · South African Journal of Botany
Chimpanzee seed dispersal quantity in a tropical montane forest of Rwanda
Nicole Gross‐Camp, Michel Masozera, Beth A. Kaplin (2009) · American Journal of Primatology
Floristic composition, structure and regeneration status of woody plant species in Northwest Ethiopia
Getahun Yemata, Genetu Haregewoien (2022) · Trees Forests and People
Chemical composition and in sacco ruminal degradation of tropical trees rich in condensed tannins
Z. Belachew, K. Yisehak, Tilahun Taye, Geert Janssens (2013) · Czech Journal of Animal Science
Limonoids from Ekebergia capensis
Dulcie A. Mulholland, Serge E. Iourine (1998) · Phytochemistry

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 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (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 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; 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.