Species
+

Lagunaria patersonia (Andrews) G.Don

Cow Itch Tree, Norfolk Island hibiscus, Norfolk Island hibiscus, Norfolk Island-hibiscus

Climate known 71 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

Lagunaria patersonia is a species of tree in the family Malvaceae. It is commonly known as the pyramid tree, Norfolk Island hibiscus, Queensland white oak, sally wood, or simply as white oak on Norfolk Island. Its seed capsules are filled with irritating hairs giving rise to common names, itchy bomb tree, and cow itch tree.

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

About the genus · Lagunaria

Lagunaria is a genus in the family Malvaceae. It is an Australian plant which is native to Lord Howe Island, Norfolk Island and parts of coastal Queensland. It has been introduced to many parts of the world. More on Wikipedia ›

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

Family
Malvaceae
Described by
(Andrews) G.Don
Native to
Norfolk Is., New South Wales, Queensland
Wild records
561 in range· 366 open

At a glance

Warmest month
25°C
Jan, mean day; nights 20 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1108mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Feb 132 mm (CHELSA)
Light
16–42DLI
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: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (May to December in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 1108 mm a year, wettest February at 132 mm, driest September at 61 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 16 to 42 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 4.6 °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 Hibiscus patersonii R.Br.; Hibiscus patersonius Andrews; Laguna patersonia (Andrews) Sims; Laguna squamea Vent.; Lagunaea patersonia (Andrews) Sims, 1804 and 3 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (May to December 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 (830 mm of 1108 mm) takes 8 months, November to June. Mean temperature moves 9.5 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: May to December.

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 1108 mm a year, wettest February at 132 mm, driest September at 61 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1108 mm a year at the habitat, 830 mm of it November to June. Wettest month February at 132 mm, driest September at 61 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 808 mm to 1318 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: 16 to 42 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 16 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 15, 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 4.6 °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 4.6 °C, the absolute minimum 1.2 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 38.1 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 9.8 °C in July (across the envelope cells 5.7 °C to 12.4 °C), warmest day 24.7 °C in January (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 4.6 °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: 55 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 16 °C in Jul to 25 °C in Jan; mean night from 10 °C in Jul to 20 °C in Feb. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest night. 1108 mm of rain a year, most in Feb. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 199 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 1.2 °C and the 99th-percentile day 38.1 °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°38.1° 99th-percentile day (undated)1.2° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200mm rainDLI 16–42RH 55–62 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 199 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 °C25 / 23–2924 / 23–2823 / 22–2621 / 20–2319 / 18–2016 / 15–1916 / 15–1817 / 16–1819 / 18–2121 / 19–2422 / 20–2524 / 22–27
Night °C20 / 18–2220 / 18–2218 / 16–2116 / 13–1913 / 10–1611 / 7–1410 / 6–1210 / 7–1312 / 9–1514 / 12–1716 / 14–1918 / 16–20
Rain mm91 / 72–120132 / 99–16598 / 66–124113 / 75–145106 / 62–132104 / 56–12371 / 47–9165 / 39–8261 / 44–7581 / 61–9498 / 76–11888 / 74–110
DLI41 / 40–4336 / 35–3831 / 30–3324 / 23–2718 / 17–2116 / 15–1918 / 17–2024 / 23–2631 / 30–3437 / 36–3940 / 39–4242 / 41–44
RH %61 / 57–6362 / 59–6361 / 58–6260 / 58–6159 / 58–6158 / 57–6057 / 56–5955 / 54–5756 / 54–5858 / 55–5960 / 57–6161 / 57–62

Each figure is the median across the 199 grid cells holding the 551 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 2489:6616 (-34.475, 150.825). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 1.2 °C, 1st-percentile night 4.6 °C, 99th-percentile day 38.1 °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 199 distinct grid cells holding the 551 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2489:6616 (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 -34.50_150.625, lapse-corrected -341 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 27 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.
NativeNorfolk Is., New South Wales, Queensland· introduced: Tunisia, Ethiopia, South Australia, Victoria, New Zealand North, California
Kew's description“tree” · “wet tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-33.804, 151.241 · in the densest population, 346 records (62% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 561 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 366 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 2 km away. 609 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 10 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 561 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Lagunaria patersoniaLagunaria patersoniaLagunaria patersoniaLagunaria patersoniaLagunaria patersoniaLagunaria patersoniaLagunaria patersoniaLagunaria patersonia

Photographs: no rights reserved · CC0; (c) Rosalie Lawrence, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) zebedeugalinha, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Svend Hansen, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4).

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

Phytoremediating the air down under: Evaluating airborne particulate matter accumulation by 12 plant species in Australia
Anamika Roy, Mamun Mandal, Arkadiusz Przybysz, Alison Haynes (2024) · Ecological Research
Nuevas alóctonas en Malvaceae para la flora africana del norte, con notas nomenclaturales
Ridha El Mokni, Duilio Iamonico (2020) · Collectanea Botanica
New aliens in Malvaceae for the North African flora, with nomenclatural note
Ridha El Mokni, Duilio Iamonico (2020) · Collectanea Botanica
(024) Proposal to add a voted Example to Article 60.8
Paul van Rijckevorsel (2020) · Taxon
Un nuovo caso di spontaneizzazione incipiente: Lagunaria patersonia (Andrews) G. Don (Malvaceae) in Sicilia
Tommaso La Mantia, Emilio Badalamenti, S. Pasta (2015) · Nova Science Publishers (Nova Science Publishers, Inc.)
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
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 2026-09-19 (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 74 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.