Species
+

Garcinia mangostana L.

Gamboge, Manggih, Mangostane, Mangostanier

Climate known 53 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

Mangosteen, also called mangostan or purple mangosteen, is a tropical evergreen tree with edible fruit native to the Malay Peninsula and Borneo. It has been cultivated extensively in tropical Asia since ancient times. It is grown mainly in Southeast Asia, southwest India and other tropical areas such as Colombia, Puerto Rico and Florida, where the tree has been introduced. The tree grows from 6 to 25 m tall.

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

About the genus · Garcinia

Garcinia is a genus of flowering plants in the family Clusiaceae native to the Sundaland bioregion of Asia, America, Australia, tropical and southern Africa, and Polynesia. The number of species is disputed; Plants of the World Online (POWO) recognise up to 400. Commonly, the plants in this genus are called saptrees, mangosteens, or garcinias, and is one of several plants known as by the name "monkey fruit". More on Wikipedia ›

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

Family
Clusiaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Borneo, Malaya
Wild records
125 in range· 91 open

At a glance

Warmest month
30°C
May, mean day; nights 23 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
2783mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Dec 312 mm (CHELSA)
Light
28–36DLI
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 (September to January and March to May at the habitat (not shifted)). Habitat rain 2783 mm a year, wettest December at 312 mm, driest June at 179 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 28 to 36 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 21.4 °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 Mangostana garcinia Gaertn.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (September to January and March 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 (2030 mm of 2783 mm) takes 8 months, September to January and March to May. Mean temperature moves 1.5 °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 2783 mm a year, wettest December at 312 mm, driest June at 179 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

2783 mm a year at the habitat, 2030 mm of it September to January and March to May. Wettest month December at 312 mm, driest June at 179 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 2234 mm to 3631 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: 28 to 36 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 28 to 36 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 24, the highest 90th-percentile month 38).

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 21.4 °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 21.4 °C, the absolute minimum 18.5 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 33.4 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 22.1 °C in January (across the envelope cells 20.5 °C to 24.1 °C), warmest day 30.2 °C in May (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 21.4 °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: 66 to 69% 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 29 °C in Dec to 30 °C in May; mean night from 22 °C in Jan to 23 °C in May. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 2783 mm of rain a year, most in Dec. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 92 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 18.5 °C and the 99th-percentile day 33.4 °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°33.4° 99th-percentile day (undated)18.5° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0200400600800mm rainDLI 28–36RH 66–69 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 92 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 °C29 / 27–3029 / 27–3130 / 28–3130 / 29–3130 / 29–3130 / 29–3130 / 28–3130 / 28–3130 / 28–3130 / 28–3129 / 27–3029 / 27–29
Night °C22 / 21–2422 / 21–2423 / 21–2523 / 22–2523 / 22–2623 / 22–2623 / 21–2523 / 21–2523 / 21–2523 / 21–2523 / 21–2522 / 21–24
Rain mm235 / 133–425186 / 102–318207 / 159–308216 / 130–333221 / 170–290179 / 137–249194 / 154–252194 / 156–261240 / 177–310291 / 199–359308 / 226–501312 / 201–604
DLI30 / 27–3435 / 30–3836 / 33–3836 / 32–3834 / 30–3633 / 31–3533 / 31–3534 / 33–3735 / 33–3733 / 29–3430 / 27–3128 / 24–30
RH %68 / 64–7267 / 63–7167 / 64–7067 / 65–7168 / 65–7067 / 64–7066 / 64–6966 / 63–6967 / 64–7068 / 65–7169 / 66–7369 / 66–73

Each figure is the median across the 92 grid cells holding the 118 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 1689:5961 (5.525, 118.075). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 18.5 °C, 1st-percentile night 21.4 °C, 99th-percentile day 33.4 °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 92 distinct grid cells holding the 118 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1689:5961 (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 5.50_118.125, lapse-corrected +14 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 43 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.
NativeBorneo, Malaya· introduced: China South-Central, Hainan, China Southeast, Assam, Bangladesh, India, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam, Lesser Sunda Is., Maluku, Philippines, Sumatera, Solomon Is., Queensland, Trinidad-Tobago
Kew's description“tree” · “wet tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker1.375, 103.796 · in the densest population, 65 records (52% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 125 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 91 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 12 km away. 224 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 2° block of the 125 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Garcinia mangostanaGarcinia mangostanaGarcinia mangostanaGarcinia mangostanaGarcinia mangostanaGarcinia mangostanaGarcinia mangostanaGarcinia mangostana

Photographs: (c) Eduardo Chacón Madrigal, some rights reserved (CC BY) (5); (c) Skjold Søndergaard, 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 Garcinia mangostana, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Biosynthesis of silver nanoparticles using mangosteen leaf extract and evaluation of their antimicrobial activities
Ravichandran Veerasamy, Tiah Zi Xin, Subashini Gunasagaran, Terence Foo Wei Xiang (2010) · Journal of Saudi Chemical Society
Medicinal properties of mangosteen (Garcinia mangostana)
José Pedraza‐Chaverrí, Noemí Cárdenas‐Rodríguez, Marisol Orozco‐Ibarra, Jazmin M. Pérez‐Rojas (2008) · Food and Chemical Toxicology
Antioxidant Xanthones from the Pericarp of Garcinia mangostana (Mangosteen)
Hyun‐Ah Jung, Bao‐Ning Su, William J. Keller, Rajendra G. Mehta (2006) · Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
Anti-inflammatory activity of mangostins from Garcinia mangostana
Lih-Geeng Chen, Lingling Yang, Ching‐Chiung Wang (2007) · Food and Chemical Toxicology
Garcinia mangostana L.: a phytochemical and pharmacological review
Dmitriy Obolskiy, Ivo Pischel, Nisarat Siriwatanametanon, Michael Heinrich (2009) · Phytotherapy Research
Antiproliferation, antioxidation and induction of apoptosis by Garcinia mangostana (mangosteen) on SKBR3 human breast cancer cell line
Primchanien Moongkarndi, Nuttavut Kosem, Sineenart Kaslungka, Omboon Luanratana (2003) · Journal of Ethnopharmacology
Anti-Cancer Effects of Xanthones from Pericarps of Mangosteen
Yukihiro Akao, Yoshihito Nakagawa, Yoshinori Nozawa (2008) · International Journal of Molecular Sciences
Antimycobacterial Activity of Prenylated Xanthones from the Fruits of Garcinia mangostana
Sunit Suksamrarn, Narisara Suwannapoch, Wong Phakhodee, Janthana Thanuhiranlert (2003) · Chemical and Pharmaceutical Bulletin
Medicinal properties of mangosteen (Garcinia mangostana L.): A comprehensive update
Berenice Ovalle‐Magallanes, Dianelena Eugenio-Pérez, José Pedraza‐Chaverrí (2017) · Food and Chemical Toxicology
Cytotoxic Prenylated Xanthones from the Young Fruit of Garcinia mangostana
Sunit Suksamrarn, Orapin Komutiban, Piniti Ratananukul, Nitirat Chimnoi (2006) · Chemical and Pharmaceutical Bulletin

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 Garcinia 1 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (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 60 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.