Polyscias guilfoylei (W.Bull ex Cogn. & Marchal) Bailey
Geranium Aralia, Geranium aralia, Lace Aralia, coffeetree
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
Polyscias guilfoylei, the geranium aralia or wild coffee, is a species of evergreen shrub native to the paleotropics and neotropics. It is not closely related to the true coffee plants of the genus Coffea. It has erect branches and can grow to a height of up to 24 ft (7.3 m). The leaves are long and 1-pinnate with leaflets which are opposite. More on Wikipedia ›
The opening of Wikipedia, “Polyscias guilfoylei”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.
About the genus · Polyscias
Polyscias is a genus of flowering plants in the family Araliaceae with a natural distribution from tropical Africa through Southeast Asia and Australia to islands of the Pacific. As of February 2026, Plants of the World Online recognises 28 synonyms and about 180 species for the genus.
Text from Wikipedia, “Polyscias”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.
At a glance
Also known as Aralia guilfoylei W.Bull; Aralia laciniata (Rob.) Rafarin; Aralia maculata W.Bull; Aralia monstrosa B.S.Williams; Aralia monstrosa Truff. and 18 more.
Cultivation
Grouped as a tropical foliage plant by the genus Polyscias, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). The table supplies one figure for this group, a conventional minimum for the cold floor, and no prose.
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 (1752 mm of 2335 mm) falls in November to May, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 24.8 °C against a yearly mean of 23.7 °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 2335 mm a year, wettest March at 338 mm, driest September at 91 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
2335 mm a year at the habitat, 1752 mm of it November to May. Wettest month March at 338 mm, driest September at 91 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1794 mm to 4704 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: 22 to 42 mol/m²/day.
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
Open sky over the habitat: 22 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 20, 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 19.6 °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 19.6 °C, the absolute minimum 17.3 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 26.9 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 20.9 °C in August (across the envelope cells 19.1 °C to 23.8 °C), warmest day 27.4 °C in February (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 19.6 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER); the archetype table's minimum for a tropical foliage plant, 12 °C, is lower and does not raise it.
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, and the archetype table's group minimum where that is higher. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.
Relative humidity at the habitat: 62 to 68% 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 | 27 / 26–28 | 27 / 26–28 | 27 / 26–28 | 26 / 25–28 | 25 / 24–27 | 24 / 23–26 | 23 / 22–26 | 23 / 22–26 | 24 / 22–26 | 25 / 23–27 | 26 / 24–27 | 27 / 25–28 |
| Night °C | 24 / 22–26 | 25 / 23–26 | 24 / 22–26 | 24 / 22–26 | 23 / 21–25 | 22 / 20–25 | 21 / 19–24 | 21 / 19–24 | 21 / 20–24 | 22 / 20–24 | 23 / 21–25 | 24 / 22–26 |
| Rain mm | 264 / 197–423 | 302 / 234–426 | 338 / 248–431 | 271 / 195–450 | 205 / 143–433 | 151 / 124–411 | 112 / 84–394 | 108 / 81–374 | 91 / 75–338 | 121 / 92–326 | 174 / 96–354 | 198 / 151–371 |
| DLI | 41 / 36–42 | 37 / 34–39 | 34 / 32–37 | 30 / 28–32 | 25 / 23–28 | 22 / 20–25 | 23 / 20–26 | 28 / 24–30 | 34 / 30–35 | 39 / 36–40 | 41 / 37–42 | 42 / 38–43 |
| RH % | 67 / 64–74 | 67 / 64–74 | 68 / 64–75 | 68 / 63–74 | 66 / 61–72 | 65 / 61–72 | 62 / 59–70 | 62 / 59–70 | 63 / 60–70 | 65 / 61–70 | 66 / 62–72 | 67 / 62–72 |
Each figure is the median across the 8 grid cells holding the 8 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 2152:6967 (-17.625, 168.375). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 17.3 °C, 1st-percentile night 19.6 °C, 99th-percentile day 26.9 °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 8 distinct grid cells holding the 8 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2152:6967 (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_168.125, lapse-corrected +389 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 398 m (cell mean).
Natural habitat
Photographs
Photographs: no rights reserved · CC0; (c) Tara Severns, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); Damien Wallace, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIF; Yves Baque, CC BY-SA, via GBIF; Tara Severns, CC BY, iNaturalist 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 Polyscias guilfoylei, 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.
Fagraea berteroana Cape jitta
Cordyline fruticosa Broad-leaved Palm Lily
Acalypha wilkesiana Jacob's coat
Alpinia purpurata Red Ginger
Casuarina equisetifolia Asutralian Pine
Polyscias scutellaria Shield AraliaOther Polyscias 3 in the reference
Polyscias balfouriana Balfour Aralia
Polyscias fruticosa Ming Aralia
Polyscias scutellaria Shield Aralia 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 answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skippedinat.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 63 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.





