Pachypodium lamerei Drake
Madagascar Palm, palmeira-de-Madagascar, paquipódio
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
Pachypodium lamerei is a species of flowering plant in the family Apocynaceae. It is a stem succulent, photosynthesizing mainly through its trunk, and comes from the island of Madagascar, off the east coast of Africa. It has large thorns and leaves mostly just at the top of the plant, and large, fragrant flowers. The species has become one of the best known pachypodiums in cultivation, being relatively easy to propagate and grow. More on Wikipedia ›
The opening of Wikipedia, “Pachypodium lamerei”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.
About the genus · Pachypodium
Pachypodium is a genus of succulent spine-bearing trees and shrubs, native to Madagascar and Africa. It belongs to the family Apocynaceae.
Text from Wikipedia, “Pachypodium”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.
At a glance
Also known as Pachypodium champenoisianum Boiteau; Pachypodium lamerei var. lamerei; Pachypodium rutenbergianum f. lamerei (Drake) Poiss.; Pachypodium rutenbergianum var. lamerei (Drake) Poiss.
Cultivation
Grouped as a cactus or succulent by the genus Pachypodium, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). The table holds no figure for this group, which spans too much for one minimum; the cold floor is the habitat's alone, and no prose comes from the table.
Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, June to September in the northern hemisphere (December to March 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 (671 mm of 923 mm) falls in December to March, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 26.1 °C against a yearly mean of 23.7 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: June to September.
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 923 mm a year, wettest January at 210 mm, driest June at 9 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
923 mm a year at the habitat, 671 mm of it December to March. Wettest month January at 210 mm, driest June at 9 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 572 mm to 1710 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: 26 to 44 mol/m²/day.
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
Open sky over the habitat: 26 to 44 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 22, the highest 90th-percentile month 48).
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.
Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 11.0 °C, the absolute minimum 6.2 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 39.8 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 14.6 °C in July (across the envelope cells 11.3 °C to 18.3 °C), warmest day 31.5 °C in November (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.
Relative humidity at the habitat: 56 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
Figures by month
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day °C | 30 / 28–33 | 30 / 28–32 | 31 / 27–32 | 29 / 26–31 | 28 / 24–30 | 26 / 23–28 | 25 / 22–28 | 27 / 24–30 | 29 / 25–32 | 31 / 27–33 | 32 / 28–33 | 31 / 28–33 |
| Night °C | 22 / 19–24 | 22 / 19–25 | 22 / 19–24 | 20 / 17–23 | 18 / 14–21 | 15 / 12–19 | 15 / 11–18 | 15 / 12–19 | 17 / 14–20 | 19 / 16–21 | 20 / 17–22 | 22 / 19–24 |
| Rain mm | 210 / 142–455 | 178 / 107–412 | 118 / 72–221 | 60 / 21–124 | 23 / 11–86 | 9 / 2–54 | 12 / 2–80 | 9 / 3–54 | 16 / 7–57 | 42 / 18–78 | 81 / 39–139 | 165 / 103–268 |
| DLI | 42 / 36–44 | 40 / 35–42 | 37 / 36–39 | 33 / 30–36 | 28 / 25–31 | 26 / 22–29 | 27 / 24–30 | 33 / 29–35 | 39 / 36–41 | 43 / 41–46 | 44 / 43–48 | 44 / 40–46 |
| RH % | 62 / 59–67 | 63 / 59–67 | 61 / 58–66 | 61 / 55–64 | 59 / 54–63 | 57 / 53–62 | 57 / 52–62 | 56 / 51–60 | 57 / 50–60 | 57 / 52–61 | 57 / 54–62 | 61 / 57–65 |
Each figure is the median across the 94 grid cells holding the 131 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 2238:4505 (-21.925, 45.275). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 6.2 °C, 1st-percentile night 11.0 °C, 99th-percentile day 39.8 °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 94 distinct grid cells holding the 131 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2238:4505 (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 -22.00_45.000, lapse-corrected -54 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 388 m (cell mean).
Natural habitat
Photographs
Photographs: n_armstrong, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIF; amantedarmanin, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF (2); Gary Yong Gee, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF (2); Borja Fierro, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF (2); Micha Baum, CC BY-SA, iNaturalist via GBIF.
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 Pachypodium lamerei, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.
Related
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.
Cyphostemma echinocarpum Vitaceae
Uncarina decaryi Pedaliaceae
Operculicarya decaryi Anacardiaceae
Commiphora pterocarpa Burseraceae
Commiphora humbertii BurseraceaeOther Pachypodium 21 in the reference
Pachypodium baronii Madagascar palm
Pachypodium bispinosum Apocynaceae
Pachypodium brevicaule Apocynaceae
Pachypodium decaryi Apocynaceae
Pachypodium densiflorum Apocynaceae Pachypodium eburneum Apocynaceae Pachypodium enigmaticum Apocynaceae
Pachypodium geayi Madagascar bottle tree
Pachypodium horombense Apocynaceae Pachypodium inopinatum Apocynaceae
Pachypodium lealii Apocynaceae all 22 ›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 answeredgbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zamclimate answeredwikidata 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: skippedinat.taxon not askedinat.photos.wild not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: not asked: 10 wild photographs already from the GBIF downloadinat.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 answeredopenalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skippedEvery upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 22 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.