Species
+

Mimusops elengi L.

Bakulam, Bulletwood, Chicle, Elengi (Cuba)

Climate known 79 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

Mimusops elengi is a medium-sized evergreen tree found in tropical forests in South Asia, Southeast Asia and northern Australia. English common names include Spanish cherry, medlar, and bullet wood. Its timber is valuable and its fruit is edible. As the trees give thick shade and flowers emit fragrance, it is a prized collection for gardens. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Mimusops elengi”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Mimusops

Mimusops is a genus of plants in the family Sapotaceae, described as a genus by Linnaeus in 1753.

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

Family
Sapotaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Assam, Bangladesh, East Himalaya +19
Wild records
432 in range· 363 open

At a glance

Warmest month
30°C
Apr, mean day; nights 24 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1259mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Feb 169 mm (CHELSA)
Light
28–38DLI
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 (December to June and September at the habitat (not shifted)). Habitat rain 1259 mm a year, wettest February at 169 mm, driest October at 65 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 28 to 38 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 19.7 °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 Diospyros longipes Hiern; Imbricaria perroudii Montrouz.; Kaukenia elengi (L.) Kuntze; Kaukenia javensis (Burck) Kuntze; Kaukenia timorensis (Burck) Kuntze and 12 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (December to June and September 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 (957 mm of 1259 mm) takes 8 months, December to June and September. Mean temperature moves 2.7 °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 1259 mm a year, wettest February at 169 mm, driest October at 65 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1259 mm a year at the habitat, 957 mm of it December to June and September. Wettest month February at 169 mm, driest October at 65 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 921 mm to 3150 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 38 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 28 to 38 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 46).

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 19.7 °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 19.7 °C, the absolute minimum 18.0 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 28.9 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 22.7 °C in July (across the envelope cells 17.9 °C to 25.9 °C), warmest day 30.3 °C in April (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 19.7 °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: 61 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 27 °C in Jul to 30 °C in Apr; mean night from 23 °C in Jul to 25 °C in May. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest night. 1259 mm of rain a year, most in Feb. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 352 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 18.0 °C and the 99th-percentile day 28.9 °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°28.9° 99th-percentile day (undated)18.0° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0200400600800mm rainDLI 28–38RH 61–63 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 352 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 / 27–3129 / 27–3230 / 27–3430 / 26–3630 / 25–3628 / 23–3327 / 22–3227 / 23–3228 / 24–3229 / 25–3229 / 26–3229 / 26–31
Night °C24 / 15–2624 / 16–2624 / 19–2624 / 21–2725 / 21–2723 / 19–2723 / 18–2623 / 18–2523 / 19–2523 / 20–2624 / 18–2723 / 15–27
Rain mm167 / 3–401169 / 4–388138 / 10–343101 / 18–22983 / 17–24881 / 6–62578 / 3–59880 / 2–42684 / 4–31465 / 16–30179 / 24–234134 / 6–268
DLI36 / 30–4137 / 33–4038 / 34–4337 / 31–4434 / 26–4430 / 24–3628 / 24–3431 / 25–3836 / 29–4338 / 30–4634 / 29–4534 / 27–43
RH %62 / 52–6663 / 51–6762 / 49–6662 / 52–6561 / 53–6761 / 53–7161 / 55–7162 / 56–7063 / 58–6962 / 57–6862 / 54–6662 / 52–66

Each figure is the median across the 352 grid cells holding the 420 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 2216:6943 (-20.825, 167.175). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 18.0 °C, 1st-percentile night 19.7 °C, 99th-percentile day 28.9 °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 352 distinct grid cells holding the 420 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2216:6943 (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 -21.00_166.875, lapse-corrected +27 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 32 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.
NativeAssam, Bangladesh, East Himalaya, India, Sri Lanka, Andaman Is., Myanmar, Thailand, Borneo, Jawa, Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Maluku, Philippines, Sulawesi, Sumatera, New Guinea, Northern Territory, Queensland, Western Australia, New Caledonia, Vanuatu· introduced: Mozambique, Réunion, Cambodia, Vietnam, Hawaii, Florida, Cuba, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Trinidad-Tobago, Windward Is.
Kew's description“tree” · “wet tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker9.285, 76.57 · in the densest population, 99 records (23% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 432 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 363 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker in the same place. 19 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 12 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 432 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Mimusops elengiMimusops elengiMimusops elengiMimusops elengiMimusops elengiMimusops elengiMimusops elengiMimusops elengi

Photographs: (c) Manoj Karingamadathil, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA); (c) Raja Sekhar Chimirala, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) elawrey, some rights reserved (CC BY) (5).

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

Cytotoxic activity of Thai medicinal plants against human cholangiocarcinoma, laryngeal and hepatocarcinoma cells in vitro
Wiratchanee Mahavorasirikul, Vithoon Viyanant, Wanna Chai่jaroenkul, Arunporn Itharat (2010) · BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine
In vitro free radical scavenging activity of methanol extract of the leaves of Mimusops elengi Linn.
M R Saha, SMR Hasan, Raushanara Akter, M. Moazzem Hossain (1970) · Bangladesh Journal of Veterinary Medicine
Antibacterial Activities of Some Medicinal Plants of the Western Region of India
Rathish Nair, Sumitra Chanda (2007) · DergiPark (Istanbul University)
Eco-friendly control of malaria and arbovirus vectors using the mosquitofish Gambusia affinis and ultra-low dosages of Mimusops elengi-synthesized silver nanoparticles: towards an integrative approach?
Jayapal Subramaniam, Kadarkarai Murugan, Chellasamy Panneerselvam, Kalimuthu Kovendan (2015) · Environmental Science and Pollution Research
Large Scale Screening of Ethnomedicinal Plants for Identification of Potential Antibacterial Compounds
Sujogya Kumar Panda, Yugal Kishore Mohanta, Laxmipriya Padhi, Young-Hwan Park (2016) · Molecules
Pengujian Aktivitas Antioksidan Menggunakan Metode DPPH pada Daun Tanjung (Mimusops elengi L)
Dewi Tristantini, Alifah Ismawati, Bhayangkara Tegar Pradana, Joseph Jonathan (2016)
Investigating the Antioxidant and Cytocompatibility of Mimusops elengi Linn Extract over Human Gingival Fibroblast Cells
Shaeesta Khaleelahmed Bhavikatti, Mohmed Isaqali Karobari, Siti Lailatul Akmar Zainuddin, Anand Marya (2021) · International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
Biogenic silver nanoparticles synthesized via Mimusops elengi fruit extract, a study on antibiofilm, antibacterial, and anticancer activities
Nesrin Korkmaz, Yusuf Ceylan, Attia Hamid, Ahmet Karadağ (2020) · Journal of Drug Delivery Science and Technology
Antimicrobial and antioxidant activities of Mimusops elengi seed extract mediated isotropic silver nanoparticles
Hoskote Anand Kiran Kumar, Badal Kumar Mandal, Kesarla Mohan Kumar, Sireesh Babu Maddinedi (2014) · Spectrochimica Acta Part A Molecular and Biomolecular Spectroscopy

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