Species
+

Rhaphiolepis indica (L.) Lindl.

Hong Kong Hawthorn, India-hawthorn, Indian Hawthorn, Indian-hawthorn

Climate known 69 photographs
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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

Rhaphiolepis indica, the Indian hawthorn, India hawthorn or Hong Kong hawthorn is an evergreen shrub in the family Rosaceae.

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

About the genus · Rhaphiolepis

Rhaphiolepis is a genus of about fifteen species of evergreen shrubs and small trees in the family Rosaceae, native to warm temperate and subtropical East Asia and Southeast Asia, from southern Japan, southern Korea and southern China, south to Thailand and Vietnam. In searching literature it is well to remember that the name commonly is misspelt "Raphiolepsis". The genus is closely related to Eriobotrya (loquats), so closely in fact, that members of the two genera have hybridised with each other; for example × Rhaphiobotrya, the "Coppertone loquat", is a hybrid of Eriobotrya deflexa X Rhaphiolepis indica. More on Wikipedia ›

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

Family
Rosaceae
Described by
(L.) Lindl.
Native to
China South-Central, Hainan, China Southeast +9
Wild records
833 in range· 276 open

At a glance

Warmest month
30°C
Jul, mean day; nights 25 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1850mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jun 310 mm (CHELSA)
Light
18–35DLI
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, April to September in the northern hemisphere (April to September at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 1850 mm a year, wettest June at 310 mm, driest December at 41 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 18 to 35 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -0.3 °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 Crataegus chinensis (Blume) Steud.; Crataegus indica L.; Crataegus rubra Lour.; Crataegus sieboldii (Blume) Steud.; Crataegus sinensis Loisel. and 42 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, April to September in the northern hemisphere (April 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 (1409 mm of 1850 mm) falls in April to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 25.3 °C against a yearly mean of 20.1 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: October 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 1850 mm a year, wettest June at 310 mm, driest December at 41 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1850 mm a year at the habitat, 1409 mm of it April to September. Wettest month June at 310 mm, driest December at 41 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1408 mm to 2960 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: 18 to 35 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 18 to 35 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 14, the highest 90th-percentile month 38).

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 -0.3 °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 -0.3 °C, the absolute minimum -5.8 °C, about 4 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 35.5 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 6.7 °C in January (across the envelope cells 0.4 °C to 13.6 °C), warmest day 29.8 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -0.3 °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: 58 to 67% 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 14 °C in Jan to 30 °C in Jul; mean night from 7 °C in Jan to 25 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1850 mm of rain a year, most in Jun. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 468 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -5.8 °C and the 99th-percentile day 35.5 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-10°10°20°30°40°frost35.5° 99th-percentile day (undated)-5.8° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 18–35RH 58–67 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 468 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 °C14 / 8–1915 / 9–2018 / 12–2323 / 17–2626 / 21–2828 / 24–3030 / 26–3330 / 27–3228 / 25–3025 / 20–2820 / 15–2416 / 11–20
Night °C7 / 0–148 / 1–1511 / 5–1716 / 10–2120 / 15–2423 / 18–2625 / 21–2625 / 21–2622 / 19–2518 / 14–2313 / 8–198 / 3–15
Rain mm55 / 22–11681 / 42–156123 / 58–222178 / 103–270253 / 138–341310 / 177–485235 / 144–412230 / 138–422203 / 94–37780 / 47–21661 / 37–14441 / 24–109
DLI18 / 14–2219 / 16–2324 / 18–2929 / 23–3431 / 26–3530 / 28–3435 / 31–3833 / 30–3529 / 25–3225 / 20–3021 / 16–2519 / 15–22
RH %60 / 54–6463 / 55–6664 / 56–6865 / 59–6965 / 61–6967 / 63–7166 / 61–7066 / 61–7064 / 61–6760 / 58–6559 / 56–6358 / 54–62

Each figure is the median across the 468 grid cells holding the 723 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 1313:5932 (24.325, 116.625). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -5.8 °C, 1st-percentile night -0.3 °C, 99th-percentile day 35.5 °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 468 distinct grid cells holding the 723 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1313:5932 (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 24.50_116.875, lapse-corrected -133 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 362 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.
NativeChina South-Central, Hainan, China Southeast, Japan, Nansei-shoto, Ogasawara-shoto, Taiwan, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam, Jawa· introduced: New South Wales, Arkansas
Kew's description“shrub or tree” · “subtropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker22.386, 114.146 · in the densest population, 322 records (39% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 833 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 276 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 8 km away. 537 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 110 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 of the 833 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Rhaphiolepis indicaRhaphiolepis indicaRhaphiolepis indicaRhaphiolepis indicaRhaphiolepis indicaRhaphiolepis indicaRhaphiolepis indicaRhaphiolepis indica

Photographs: no rights reserved · CC0 (2); (c) portioid, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Lucas Christofides, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) eyrezer, 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 Rhaphiolepis indica, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Forest Structure, Composition, and Distribution on a Pacific Island, with Reference to Ecological Release and Speciation
Yoshikazu Shimizu, H. Tabata (1991) · ScholarSpace (University of Hawaii at Manoa)
Anti-inflammatory Biphenyls and Dibenzofurans from Rhaphiolepis indica
Chu‐Hung Lin, Hsun‐Shuo Chang, Chang‐Hui Liao, Tai-Hsin Ou (2010) · Journal of Natural Products
Mulches and Subirrigation Control Weeds in Container Production
Cheryl A. Wilen, Ursula K. Schuch, Clyde L. Elmore (1999) · Journal of Environmental Horticulture
Postestablishment Landscape Performance of Florida Native and Exotic Shrubs Under Irrigated and Nonirrigated Conditions
S.M. Scheiber, Edward F. Gilman, David R. Sandrock, Maria Paz (2008) · HortTechnology
Species Composition and Structure of the Lowland Subtropical Rainforest at Lanjenchi, Southern Taiwan
Wei‐Chun Chao, Kuo‐Jung Chao, Guo‐Zhang M. Song, Chang‐Fu Hsieh (2007) · DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals)
Removal Potential of Particulate Matter of 12 Woody Plant Species for Landscape Planting
Kei-Jung Kwon, Odsuren Urrintuya, Sang-Yong Kim, Jong‐Cheol Yang (2020) · Journal of people, plants, and environment
Triterpenoids from the Roots of Rhaphiolepis indica var. tashiroi and Their Anti-Inflammatory Activity
Chu‐Hung Lin, Hsun‐Shuo Chang, Hsiang‐Ruei Liao, Ih‐Sheng Chen (2013) · International Journal of Molecular Sciences
First report of leaf and twig blight of Indian hawthorn (Rhaphiolepis indica) caused by Neofusicoccum parvum in Italy
Giorgio Gusella, Dalia Aiello, G. Polizzi (2019) · Journal of Plant Pathology

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.

Other Rhaphiolepis 3 in the reference

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