Species
+

Polyalthia longifolia (Sonn.) Thwaites

ashoka, asoka, cemetery-tree, mast-tree

Climate known 11 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

Monoon longifolium, the false ashoka, also commonly known by its synonym Polyalthia longifolia, is an Asian small tree species in the family Annonaceae. It is native to southern India and Sri Lanka, but has been widely introduced elsewhere in tropical Asia. This evergreen tree is known to grow over 20 m. in height and is commonly planted due to its effectiveness in alleviating noise pollution. It exhibits symmetrical pyramidal growth with willowy weeping pendulous branches and long narrow lanceolate leaves with undulate margins.

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

About the genus · Polyalthia

Polyalthia is a genus of flowering plants in the family Annonaceae. There are approximately 90 species distributed from Africa to Asia and the Pacific.

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

Family
Annonaceae
Described by
(Sonn.) Thwaites
Native to
India, Sri Lanka
Wild records
369 in range· 133 open

At a glance

Warmest month
35°C
Apr, mean day; nights 24 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1091mm/yr
7 wet months · peak Jul 274 mm (CHELSA)
Light
27–43DLI
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, June to September in the northern hemisphere (June to September at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 1091 mm a year, wettest July at 274 mm, driest January at 9 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 27 to 43 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 11.4 °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 Guatteria longifolia (Sonn.) Wall.; Monoon longifolium (Sonn.) B.Xue & R.M.K.Saunders; Polyalthia longifolia var. pendula Benthall; Unona altissima Russell; Unona altissima Russell ex Wall. and 3 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, June to September in the northern hemisphere (June 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 (837 mm of 1091 mm) falls in June to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 27.2 °C against a yearly mean of 26.1 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December 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 1091 mm a year, wettest July at 274 mm, driest January at 9 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1091 mm a year at the habitat, 837 mm of it June to September. Wettest month July at 274 mm, driest January at 9 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 747 mm to 2864 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: 27 to 43 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 27 to 43 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 23, the highest 90th-percentile month 47).

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 11.4 °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 11.4 °C, the absolute minimum 8.9 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 41.4 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 15.8 °C in December (across the envelope cells 9.2 °C to 22.9 °C), warmest day 35.2 °C in April (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 11.4 °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: 50 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 28 °C in Dec to 35 °C in Apr; mean night from 16 °C in Dec to 26 °C in May. The cold quarter, Nov to Jan, is the three months around the coldest night. 1091 mm of rain a year, most in Jul. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 217 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 8.9 °C and the 99th-percentile day 41.4 °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°50°41.4° 99th-percentile day (undated)8.9° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0200400600800mm rainDLI 27–43RH 50–66 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 217 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 °C28 / 20–3130 / 24–3333 / 29–3635 / 31–3835 / 30–4033 / 28–3829 / 27–3329 / 26–3229 / 27–3330 / 28–3229 / 26–3028 / 22–30
Night °C16 / 8–2318 / 10–2321 / 15–2524 / 20–2626 / 22–2825 / 22–2824 / 22–2724 / 21–2624 / 21–2522 / 19–2519 / 14–2416 / 9–23
Rain mm9 / 2–219 / 1–2917 / 2–5122 / 2–13254 / 13–248143 / 59–573274 / 90–800237 / 111–551183 / 115–333103 / 20–32529 / 7–20411 / 3–49
DLI33 / 26–3738 / 31–4042 / 39–4443 / 38–4642 / 33–4732 / 26–4127 / 24–3227 / 23–3331 / 28–3532 / 30–3430 / 27–3230 / 25–33
RH %55 / 50–6053 / 46–6050 / 42–6153 / 41–6356 / 43–6562 / 51–7066 / 59–7166 / 61–7165 / 59–6961 / 50–6856 / 49–6655 / 49–62

Each figure is the median across the 217 grid cells holding the 354 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 1447:5234 (17.625, 81.725). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 8.9 °C, 1st-percentile night 11.4 °C, 99th-percentile day 41.4 °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 217 distinct grid cells holding the 354 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1447:5234 (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 17.50_81.875, lapse-corrected +160 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 513 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.
NativeIndia, Sri Lanka· introduced: Cameroon, China South-Central, Hainan, Taiwan, Assam, Bangladesh, East Himalaya, Nepal, Andaman Is., Cambodia, Myanmar, Nicobar Is., Lesser Sunda Is., Solomon Is., Trinidad-Tobago
Kew's description“tree” · “wet tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker18.522, 73.838 · in the densest population, 270 records (73% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 369 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 133 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 150 km away. 148 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 15 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 4° block of the 369 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Polyalthia longifoliaPolyalthia longifoliaPolyalthia longifoliaPolyalthia longifoliaPolyalthia longifoliaPolyalthia longifoliaPolyalthia longifoliaPolyalthia longifolia

Photographs: Steven Bodzin, BY via GBIF · CC BY; Raja Sekhar Chimirala, BY via GBIF · CC BY (3); Anil Madhavapeddy, BY via GBIF · CC BY; Dr. Chinchu C., BY via GBIF · CC BY; Haneesh K M, CC0 via GBIF (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 Polyalthia longifolia, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Structural Properties and Antimicrobial Activities of Polyalthia longifolia Leaf Extract-Mediated CuO Nanoparticles
Pravinkumar Nagore, Suresh Ghotekar, K. G. Mane, A. J. Ghoti (2021) · BioNanoScience
Sustainable porous activated carbon from Polyalthia longifolia seeds as electrode material for supercapacitor application
Rajkumar Srinivasan, Elaiyappillai Elanthamilan, Hepsiba Paul Pandian, Vengudusamy Renganathan (2019) · Journal of Electroanalytical Chemistry
Antimicrobial activity of clerodane diterpenoids from Polyalthia longifolia seeds
M. Marthanda Murthy, M. Subramanyam, M. Hima Bindu, J. Annapurna (2005) · Fitoterapia
The chemistry, pharmacologic, and therapeutic applications of Polyalthia longifolia
Ashish Suthar, V. S. Chauhan, K Katkar (2010) · Pharmacognosy Reviews/Bioinformatics Trends/Pharmacognosy review
Phytochemical screening and in vivo antimalarial activity of extracts from three medicinal plants used in malaria treatment in Nigeria
Abimbola Esther Bankole, Adedotun Adeyinka Adekunle, Abimbola Sowemimo, C.E. Umebese (2015) · Parasitology Research
Cytotoxic Constituents of Polyalthia longifolia var. pendula
Chung‐Yi Chen, Fang‐Rong Chang, Yao-Ching Shih, Tian-Jye Hsieh (2000) · Journal of Natural Products
The Role of Landscape Composition and Configuration on Pteropus giganteus Roosting Ecology and Nipah Virus Spillover Risk in Bangladesh
Micah B. Hahn, Emily S. Gurley, Jonathan H. Epstein, Mohammad S. Islam (2013) · American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene

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 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence search API
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: not asked: 11 wild photographs already from the GBIF download
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; 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 4 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.