Species
+

Sophora tomentosa L.

Bead tree, Strena di Kantu di Laman, Yellow Necklacepod, Yellow Sophora

Climate known 55 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

Sophora tomentosa, commonly known as necklacepod, yellow necklacepod, and occasionally referred to as silver bush, is a pantropical shrub or small tree in the Fabaceae family. It typically grows 4 to 10 feet tall and is often found in coastal conditions and near wetlands. The name Necklacepod is derived from the characteristic string of seed pods that develop after its yellow flowers germinate into seeds.

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

About the genus · Sophora

Sophora is a genus of about 45 species of small trees and shrubs in the pea family Fabaceae. The species have a pantropical distribution. The generic name is derived from sophera, an Arabic name for a pea-flowered tree.

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

Family
Fabaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Ghana, Guinea, Ivory Coast +82
Wild records
1485 in range· 789 open

At a glance

Warmest month
27°C
Aug, mean day; nights 24 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1341mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Sep 144 mm (CHELSA)
Light
32–35DLI
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: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (March, May to October and December at the habitat (not shifted)). Habitat rain 1341 mm a year, wettest September at 144 mm, driest February at 88 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 32 to 35 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 15.6 °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 Sophora fometosa L.; Sophora tomentosa var. occidentalis (L.) Brummitt; Sophora tometosa L.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (March, May to October and December at the habitat (not shifted)).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (960 mm of 1341 mm) takes 8 months, March, May to October and December. Mean temperature moves 2.3 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; with a flat temperature curve there is no season to reverse, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

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 1341 mm a year, wettest September at 144 mm, driest February at 88 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1341 mm a year at the habitat, 960 mm of it March, May to October and December. Wettest month September at 144 mm, driest February at 88 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 957 mm to 2393 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: 32 to 35 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 32 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 19, 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 15.6 °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 15.6 °C, the absolute minimum 10.9 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 30.4 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 22.0 °C in November (across the envelope cells 18.1 °C to 25.2 °C), warmest day 27.4 °C in August (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 15.6 °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, without lapse correction; 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: 61 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

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 26 °C in Nov to 27 °C in Aug; mean night from 22 °C in Nov to 24 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Oct to Dec, is the three months around the coldest night. 1341 mm of rain a year, most in Sep. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 858 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 10.9 °C and the 99th-percentile day 30.4 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°15°20°25°30°35°30.4° 99th-percentile day (undated)10.9° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 32–35RH 61–63 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 858 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 °C26 / 20–2926 / 21–2926 / 22–2926 / 24–2927 / 22–3027 / 21–3027 / 20–3127 / 20–3127 / 22–3027 / 23–2926 / 23–2826 / 21–28
Night °C23 / 14–2623 / 15–2623 / 17–2622 / 19–2523 / 18–2624 / 16–2624 / 15–2724 / 15–2724 / 17–2623 / 18–2622 / 18–2522 / 15–25
Rain mm99 / 38–32588 / 36–321113 / 42–28698 / 48–236117 / 58–226133 / 50–239121 / 41–226110 / 35–242144 / 31–247112 / 44–19996 / 46–197110 / 40–226
DLI33 / 22–4234 / 26–4035 / 31–3835 / 27–4234 / 21–4332 / 19–4233 / 21–4335 / 26–4134 / 29–3932 / 27–4332 / 22–4432 / 20–43
RH %62 / 58–6763 / 58–6762 / 58–6762 / 58–6663 / 59–6663 / 59–6763 / 58–6763 / 58–6763 / 59–6662 / 60–6661 / 59–6662 / 58–66

Each figure is the median across the 858 grid cells holding the 1422 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 1308:6094 (24.575, 124.725). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 10.9 °C, 1st-percentile night 15.6 °C, 99th-percentile day 30.4 °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 858 distinct grid cells holding the 1422 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1308:6094 (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_125.000, no lapse correction (no cell elevation on file).

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.
NativeGhana, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo, Central African Republic, Gulf of Guinea Is., Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, Aldabra, Comoros, Madagascar, Seychelles, Hainan, China Southeast, Nansei-shoto, Ogasawara-shoto, Taiwan, Bangladesh, India, Laccadive Is., Maldives, Sri Lanka, Andaman Is., Cambodia, Myanmar, Nicobar Is., South China Sea, Thailand, Vietnam, Jawa, Bismarck Archipelago, New Guinea, New South Wales, Northern Territory, Queensland, Fiji, Gilbert Is., New Caledonia, Samoa, Tonga, Vanuatu, Wallis-Futuna Is., Cook Is., Marquesas, Society Is., Tubuai Is., Caroline Is., Marianas, Marshall Is., Texas, Florida, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southeast, Belize, Costa Rica, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Aruba, Bahamas, Bermuda, Cayman Is., Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Netherlands Antilles, Puerto Rico, Turks-Caicos Is., Trinidad-Tobago, Windward Is., Venezuela, Colombia, Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast, Brazil North, Brazil South· introduced: Mauritius, Rodrigues, Japan, Pakistan, Line Is., Hawaii
Kew's description“shrub or tree” · “seasonally dry tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker26.311, -80.161 · in the densest population, 364 records (25% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1485 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 789 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 14805 km away. 76 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 63 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 1485 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Sophora tomentosaSophora tomentosaSophora tomentosaSophora tomentosaSophora tomentosaSophora tomentosaSophora tomentosaSophora tomentosa

Photographs: (c) Moogoo Lee, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Douglas Goldman, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (7).

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 Sophora tomentosa, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Studies on the constituents of Sophora species. XIII. Constituents of the aerial parts of Sophora tomentosa L.
MANKI KOMATSU, Ichirô Yokoe, Yoshiaki Shirataki (1978) · Chemical and Pharmaceutical Bulletin
Dispersal ecology of the maritime plants in the Ryukyu Islands, Japan
Hiroki Nakanishi (1988) · Ecological Research
Effects of simulated deposition of acid mist and iron ore particulate matter on photosynthesis and the generation of oxidative stress in Schinus terebinthifolius Radii and Sophora tomentosa L.
Kacilda Naomi Kuki, Marco Antônio Oliva, Eduardo Gusmão Pereira, Alan Carlos Costa (2008) · The Science of The Total Environment
Chemical studies on Sophora tomentosa: the isolation of a new class of isoflavonoid.
Takeshi Kinoshita, Koji Ichinose, Chiho Takahashi, Feng-Chi Ho (1990) · Chemical and Pharmaceutical Bulletin
Neuroprotective effects of Sophora secundiflora, Sophora tomentosa leaves and formononetin on scopolamine-induced dementia
Shaza H. Aly, Ahmed M. Elissawy, Ahmed M. Fayez, Omayma A. Eldahshan (2020) · Natural Product Research
In vitro biological activity of prenylflavanones.
Yoshiaki Shirataki, Noboru Motohashi, Shigemasa Tani, H Sakagami (2001) · PubMed
Studies on the constituents of Sophora species. XII. Constituents of the aerial parts of Sophora tomentosa L. 1.
曼耆 小松, 一朗 横江, 義明 白瀧 (1978) · Chemical and Pharmaceutical Bulletin
Inhibition of adenosine 3',5'-cyclic monophosphate phosphodiesterase by flavonoids. III.
Tamotsu NIKAIDO, Taichi OHMOTO, Takeshi Kinoshita, Ushio Sankawa (1989) · Chemical and Pharmaceutical Bulletin
(−)-Epilamprolobine and its N-oxide, lupin alkaloids from Sophora tomentosa
Isamu Murakoshi, Eiji Kidoguchi, Minako Nakamura, Joju Haginiwa (1981) · Phytochemistry

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 Sophora 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 149 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.