Species
+

Schotia brachypetala Sond.

African Greenheart, African walnut, African-Walnut, Boer Bean

Climate known 77 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

Schotia brachypetala, the weeping boer-bean, is a leguminous flowering tree in the family Fabaceae and the subfamily Detarioideae. The woodland tree is native to Africa south of the Zambezi River, where it occurs at middle altitudes. It is well-suited as shade or ornamental tree in warmer regions, and is consequently widely cultivated in gardens and parks. It is named for the copious nectar that drips from its flowers, which attracts various species of birds and insects. More on Wikipedia ›

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

About the genus · Schotia

Schotia is a genus of flowering plants in the legume family, Fabaceae. It belongs to the subfamily Detarioideae. It occurs in southern Africa. More on Wikipedia ›

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

Family
Fabaceae
Described by
Sond.
Native to
Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana +4
Wild records
792 in range· 361 open

At a glance

Warmest month
28°C
Jan, mean day; nights 19 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
681mm/yr
7 wet months · peak Jan 116 mm (CHELSA)
Light
23–39DLI
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, May to September in the northern hemisphere (November to March at the habitat, southern). Habitat rain 681 mm a year, wettest January at 116 mm, driest July at 9 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 23 to 39 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 6.0 °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 Guillandinodes brachypetalum (Sond.) Kuntze; Schotia brachypetala var. pubescens Burtt Davy; Schotia latifolia Dale; Schotia latifolia Henkel; Schotia rogersii Burtt Davy and 1 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, May to September in the northern hemisphere (November 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 (510 mm of 681 mm) falls in November to March, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 23.2 °C against a yearly mean of 20.2 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: May 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 681 mm a year, wettest January at 116 mm, driest July at 9 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

681 mm a year at the habitat, 510 mm of it November to March. Wettest month January at 116 mm, driest July at 9 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 490 mm to 1005 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: 23 to 39 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 23 to 39 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 44).

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 6.0 °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 6.0 °C, the absolute minimum 1.7 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 38.3 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 9.2 °C in July (across the envelope cells 4.8 °C to 13.3 °C), warmest day 28.4 °C in January (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 6.0 °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.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 53 to 60% 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 21 °C in Jul to 28 °C in Jan; mean night from 9 °C in Jul to 19 °C in Jan. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest night. 681 mm of rain a year, most in Jan. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 574 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 1.7 °C and the 99th-percentile day 38.3 °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°38.3° 99th-percentile day (undated)1.7° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200mm rainDLI 23–39RH 53–60 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 574 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 / 25–3128 / 25–3127 / 24–3025 / 22–2823 / 20–2621 / 18–2421 / 18–2423 / 20–2626 / 22–2826 / 22–2927 / 23–3028 / 24–30
Night °C19 / 16–2219 / 16–2218 / 15–2115 / 12–1912 / 9–1610 / 5–149 / 5–1311 / 7–1413 / 10–1615 / 12–1817 / 13–1918 / 15–21
Rain mm116 / 77–152104 / 62–14784 / 52–11442 / 27–6516 / 9–4411 / 5–379 / 3–3612 / 4–4622 / 9–6959 / 33–10599 / 70–127107 / 73–142
DLI39 / 36–4337 / 35–4134 / 31–3729 / 27–3226 / 22–2923 / 20–2624 / 21–2728 / 25–3233 / 30–3934 / 31–4237 / 34–4339 / 36–44
RH %59 / 55–6560 / 55–6560 / 55–6558 / 54–6356 / 51–6054 / 50–5753 / 49–5753 / 48–5954 / 47–6157 / 50–6358 / 53–6459 / 54–65

Each figure is the median across the 574 grid cells holding the 781 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 2257:4202 (-22.875, 30.125). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 1.7 °C, 1st-percentile night 6.0 °C, 99th-percentile day 38.3 °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 574 distinct grid cells holding the 781 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2257:4202 (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 -23.00_30.000, lapse-corrected -127 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 839 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.
NativeMozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Cape Provinces, KwaZulu-Natal, Swaziland, Northern Provinces· introduced: Kenya, Uganda, Pakistan, Queensland
Kew's description“tree” · “seasonally dry tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-25.092, 31.542 · in the densest population, 507 records (64% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 792 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 361 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 34 km away. 192 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 11 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 792 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Schotia brachypetalaSchotia brachypetalaSchotia brachypetalaSchotia brachypetalaSchotia brachypetalaSchotia brachypetalaSchotia brachypetalaSchotia brachypetala

Photographs: (c) Tony Rebelo, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (3); (c) Jo Roberts, 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 Schotia brachypetala, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Isolation of antibacterial fatty acids from Schotia brachypetala
Lyndy J. McGaw, Anna K. Jäger, J van Staden (2002) · Fitoterapia
In vitro determination of the anti-aging potential of four southern African medicinal plants
Gugulethu Ndlovu, Gerda Fouché, Malefa Tselanyane, Werner Cordier (2013) · BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine
Antioxidant and acetylcholinesterase inhibitory activity of selected southern African medicinal plants
Emmanuel Adekanmi Adewusi, Nivan Moodley, Vanessa Steenkamp (2011) · South African Journal of Botany
Monoamine oxidase inhibition by southern African traditional medicinal plants
G.I. Stafford, Per D. Pedersen, Anna K. Jäger, J. Van Staden (2007) · South African Journal of Botany
Evaluation of Plant Phenolic Metabolites as a Source of Alzheimer's Drug Leads
Yara Hassaan, Heba Handoussa, Ahmed H. El‐Khatib, Michael Linscheid (2014) · BioMed Research International
TREATMENT OF DIARRHOEA USING TRADITIONAL MEDICINES: CONTEMPORARY RESEARCH IN SOUTH AFRICA AND ZIMBABWE
Alfred Maroyi (2016) · African Journal of Traditional Complementary and Alternative Medicines
Antityrosinase and anti-acne potential of plants traditionally used in the Jongilanga community in Mpumalanga
Namrita Lall, Analike Blom van Staden, Sunelle Rademan, Isa Anina Lambrechts (2019) · South African Journal of Botany
Larvicidal, antipyretic and antiplasmodial activity of some Zulu medicinal plants
Mulalo Flexy Nethengwe (2012) · Journal of Medicinal Plants Research
Polyhydroxystilbenes from the heartwood of Schotia brachypetala
Siegfried E. Drewes, Ian P. Fletcher (1974) · Journal of the Chemical Society Perkin Transactions 1

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