Species
+

Koelreuteria elegans (Seem.) A.C.Sm.

Chinese flame tree, Taiwanese Rain Tree, flamegold, flamegold rain tree

Climate known 48 photographs
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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

Koelreuteria elegans, more commonly known as flamegold rain tree, is a deciduous tree 15–17 metres tall. There are currently two subspecies under this taxa, i.e., K. elegans ssp. elegans, which is endemic to Fiji, and K. elegans ssp. formosana, which is endemic to Taiwan. The subspecies formosana, commonly known as Taiwanese golden rain tree, is widely grown throughout the tropics and sub-tropical parts of the world as a street tree.

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

About the genus · Koelreuteria

Koelreuteria, also known as chinese lantern tree, is a genus of three species of flowering plants in the family Sapindaceae, native to southern and eastern Asia, as well as the island of Fiji. Many fossil species are also known, suggesting that this genus had a wider range in the past.

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

Family
Sapindaceae
Described by
(Seem.) A.C.Sm.
Native to
Taiwan, Fiji
Wild records
1006 in range· 158 open

At a glance

Warmest month
30°C
Jul, mean day; nights 25 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
2442mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Aug 395 mm (CHELSA)
Light
20–37DLI
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 summer growing season, May to September in the northern hemisphere (May to September at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 2442 mm a year, wettest August at 395 mm, driest December at 47 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 20 to 37 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 11.0 °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.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, May to September in the northern hemisphere (May to September at the habitat, northern).

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 (1787 mm of 2442 mm) falls in May to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 26.9 °C against a yearly mean of 22.7 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to March.

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 2442 mm a year, wettest August at 395 mm, driest December at 47 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

2442 mm a year at the habitat, 1787 mm of it May to September. Wettest month August at 395 mm, driest December at 47 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1821 mm to 3793 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: 20 to 37 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 20 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 14, the highest 90th-percentile month 39).

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 11.0 °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 11.0 °C, the absolute minimum 4.7 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 37.3 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 12.9 °C in January (across the envelope cells 9.8 °C to 15.5 °C), warmest day 29.8 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 11.0 °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 66% 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 19 °C in Jan to 30 °C in Jul; mean night from 13 °C in Jan to 25 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 2442 mm of rain a year, most in Aug. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 343 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 4.7 °C and the 99th-percentile day 37.3 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°20°30°40°37.3° 99th-percentile day (undated)4.7° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0200400600800mm rainDLI 20–37RH 63–66 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 343 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 °C19 / 17–2120 / 17–2222 / 20–2425 / 22–2727 / 25–2929 / 26–3030 / 27–3129 / 26–3028 / 26–2926 / 23–2823 / 21–2620 / 18–22
Night °C13 / 10–1614 / 11–1616 / 13–1819 / 16–2122 / 19–2424 / 20–2525 / 21–2624 / 20–2623 / 20–2521 / 18–2318 / 15–2015 / 11–17
Rain mm50 / 24–165110 / 41–231128 / 52–217163 / 88–228282 / 198–386376 / 299–537360 / 234–596395 / 276–660374 / 193–531107 / 33–39850 / 22–25947 / 23–176
DLI21 / 14–2523 / 17–2829 / 23–3332 / 28–3633 / 30–3633 / 32–3537 / 35–3933 / 31–3530 / 29–3228 / 23–3023 / 18–2620 / 14–24
RH %64 / 61–6965 / 62–7065 / 62–7065 / 63–6965 / 63–6965 / 63–6965 / 64–6866 / 65–6966 / 64–7064 / 62–7064 / 61–6963 / 60–69

Each figure is the median across the 343 grid cells holding the 1000 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 1328:6006 (23.575, 120.325). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 4.7 °C, 1st-percentile night 11.0 °C, 99th-percentile day 37.3 °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 343 distinct grid cells holding the 1000 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1328:6006 (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 23.50_120.625, lapse-corrected -677 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 10 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.
NativeTaiwan, Fiji· introduced: California, Texas, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi
Kew's description“tree” · “seasonally dry tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker23.936, 120.701 · in the densest population, 854 records (85% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1006 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 158 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 24 km away. 595 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 6 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 of the 1006 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Koelreuteria elegansKoelreuteria elegansKoelreuteria elegansKoelreuteria elegansKoelreuteria elegansKoelreuteria elegansKoelreuteria elegansKoelreuteria elegans

Photographs: (c) Gary Rogers, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Greg Tasney, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (4); (c) 胡正恆(Jackson Hu), 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 Koelreuteria elegans, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Nectary structure and ultrastructure in two floral morphs of Koelreuteria elegans subsp. formosana (Sapindaceae)
Adan Alberto Avalos, Elsa C. Lattar, Beatriz G. Galati, María Silvia Ferrucci (2016) · Flora
Reproductive biology of duodichogamous Koelreuteria elegans (Sapindaceae): the rare case of a female–male–female flowering sequence
Adan Alberto Avalos, Elsa C. Lattar, María Silvia Ferrucci, Juan Pablo Torretta (2019) · Australian Journal of Botany
Unveiling the functional components and anti-Alzheimer's activity of Koelreuteria elegans (Seem.) A.C. Sm. using UHPLC-MS/MS and molecular networking
Mohamed Demerdash, Reem T. Attia, Moshera M. El‐Sherei, W.M. Wan Abd Aziz (2024) · Materials Advances
Plantlet Regeneration through Indirect Organogenesis of Flame Gold Tree (Koelreuteria elegans Laxm.)
Rameshwar Groach, Muzafar Hussain Dar, Kartar Chand Badgal, Priyanka Pal (2014) · Journal of ornamental and horticultural plants
PHYTOCHEMICAL AND BIOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION OF KOELREUTERIA ELEGANS (SEEM.) LEAVES
Dina El Naggar (2022) · ˜Al-œAzhar Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences/Al-Azhar Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences
Anticancer activity of isolated compounds from twigs of Koelreuteria elegans cultivated in Egypt
Fatma Abo-Elghiet, Magda T. Ibrahim, Amany A. Sleem (2021) · Azhar International Journal of Pharmaceutical and Medical Sciences/Azhar International Journal of Pharmaceutical and Medical Sciences

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 Koelreuteria 2 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 42 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.