Species
+

Lophostemon confertus (R.Br.) Paul G.Wilson & J.T.Waterh.

Brisbane Box, Brisbane boxtree, Brisbane-box, Queensland-box

Climate known 101 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

Lophostemon confertus is an evergreen tree native to Australia, though it is cultivated in the United States and elsewhere. Common names include brush box, Queensland box, Brisbane box, pink box, box scrub, and vinegartree. Its natural range in Australia is northeast New South Wales and coastal Queensland but it is commonly used as a street tree in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and other cities in eastern Australia.

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

About the genus · Lophostemon

Lophostemon is a genus of 4 species of evergreen trees in the myrtle and clove family Myrtaceae. All four species are native to Australia, with one extending to New Guinea. The genus was first described in 1830 but not widely recognised until the 1980s. More on Wikipedia ›

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

Family
Myrtaceae
Described by
(R.Br.) Paul G.Wilson & J.T.Waterh.
Native to
New South Wales, Queensland
Wild records
1655 in range· 1442 open

At a glance

Warmest month
27°C
Jan, mean day; nights 20 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1262mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Feb 178 mm (CHELSA)
Light
19–41DLI
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 November in the northern hemisphere (November to May at the habitat, southern). Habitat rain 1262 mm a year, wettest February at 178 mm, driest September at 51 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 19 to 41 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 6.1 °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 Lophostemon arborescens Schott; Melaleuca conferta (R.Br.) Steud.; Tristania conferta Griff.; Tristania conferta R.Br.; Tristania conferta var. fibrosa F.M.Bailey and 6 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, May to November in the northern hemisphere (November to May 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 (935 mm of 1262 mm) falls in November to May, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 20.7 °C against a yearly mean of 18.3 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: May 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 1262 mm a year, wettest February at 178 mm, driest September at 51 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1262 mm a year at the habitat, 935 mm of it November to May. Wettest month February at 178 mm, driest September at 51 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 922 mm to 1646 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: 19 to 41 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 19 to 41 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 16, the highest 90th-percentile month 43).

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 6.1 °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 6.1 °C, the absolute minimum 3.0 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 37.1 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 9.0 °C in July (across the envelope cells 4.5 °C to 12.4 °C), warmest day 26.8 °C in January (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 6.1 °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 63% 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 17 °C in Jul to 27 °C in Jan; mean night from 9 °C in Jul to 20 °C in Jan. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest night. 1262 mm of rain a year, most in Feb. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 947 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 3.0 °C and the 99th-percentile day 37.1 °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°37.1° 99th-percentile day (undated)3.0° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250mm rainDLI 19–41RH 55–63 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 947 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 °C27 / 25–3026 / 24–2925 / 23–2722 / 20–2520 / 18–2317 / 15–2117 / 15–2019 / 16–2121 / 19–2423 / 21–2625 / 22–2826 / 24–29
Night °C20 / 17–2220 / 16–2218 / 15–2116 / 12–1913 / 9–1610 / 6–149 / 5–1210 / 5–1312 / 8–1515 / 11–1717 / 13–1919 / 15–21
Rain mm140 / 95–188178 / 129–235142 / 89–206120 / 67–173101 / 64–14982 / 48–12056 / 37–8153 / 35–6951 / 35–6685 / 65–104116 / 89–146138 / 96–180
DLI40 / 39–4236 / 34–3732 / 30–3426 / 24–2821 / 19–2319 / 16–2221 / 18–2327 / 24–2934 / 32–3638 / 37–3940 / 39–4241 / 40–43
RH %62 / 60–6563 / 61–6663 / 60–6662 / 59–6461 / 58–6359 / 57–6157 / 55–5955 / 54–5756 / 54–5858 / 56–6060 / 58–6261 / 59–63

Each figure is the median across the 947 grid cells holding the 1611 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 2383:6662 (-29.175, 153.125). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 3.0 °C, 1st-percentile night 6.1 °C, 99th-percentile day 37.1 °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 947 distinct grid cells holding the 1611 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2383:6662 (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 -29.00_153.125, lapse-corrected -74 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 17 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.
NativeNew South Wales, Queensland· introduced: Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, China South-Central, China Southeast, Taiwan, Hawaii
Kew's description“tree” · “subtropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-28.469, 153.382 · in the densest population, 1245 records (75% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1655 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 1442 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 58 km away. 56 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 44 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 1655 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Lophostemon confertusLophostemon confertusLophostemon confertusLophostemon confertusLophostemon confertusLophostemon confertusLophostemon confertusLophostemon confertus

Photographs: (c) Greg Tasney, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (6); (c) Scott W. Gavins, 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 Lophostemon confertus, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Temperature responses of mesophyll conductance differ greatly between species
Susanne von Caemmerer, John R. Evans (2014) · Plant Cell & Environment
High-quality algae attached to leaf litter boost invertebrate shredder growth
Fen Guo, Martin J. Kainz, Dominic Valdez, Fran Sheldon (2016) · Freshwater Science
An Analysis of the Street Tree Population of Greater Melbourne at the Beginning of the 21st Century
Stephen Frank, Glenn Waters, Russell Beer, P. May (2006) · Arboriculture & Urban Forestry
Koalas on North Stradbroke Island: diet, tree use and reconstructed landscapes
William Woodward, William Ellis, Frank Carrick, M. Tanizaki (2008) · Wildlife Research
The Potential Role of Urban Forests in Removing Nutrients from Stormwater
E. C. Denman, P. May, Gregory Moore (2015) · Journal of Environmental Quality
Arthropods on street trees: a food resource for wildlife
Simrath Bhullar, Jonathan Majer (2000) · Pacific Conservation Biology
Morphological and Molecular Evidence of Polyphyly in Rhodomyrtus (Myrtaceae: Myrteae)
Neil Snow, Jessie Mcfadden, Timothy M. Evans, Andrew M. Salywon (2011) · Systematic Botany

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 36 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.