Species
+

Syzygium australe (J.C.Wendl. ex Link) B.Hyland

Australian brush-cherry, Australian water-pear, Brush Cherry, brush-cherry

Climate known 91 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

Syzygium australe, with many common names that include brush cherry, scrub cherry, creek lilly-pilly, creek satinash, and watergum, is a rainforest tree native to eastern Australia. It can attain a height of up to 35 m with a trunk diameter of 60 cm. In cultivation, this species is usually a small to medium-sized tree with a maximum height of only 18m.

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

About the genus · Syzygium

Syzygium is a genus of flowering plants that belongs to the myrtle family, Myrtaceae. The genus comprises about 1200 species, and has a native range that extends from Africa and Madagascar through southern Asia east through the Pacific. Its highest levels of diversity occur from Malaysia to northeastern Australia, where many species are very poorly known and many more have not been described taxonomically. More on Wikipedia ›

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

Family
Myrtaceae
Described by
(J.C.Wendl. ex Link) B.Hyland
Native to
New South Wales, Queensland
Wild records
1125 in range· 1013 open

At a glance

Warmest month
27°C
Jan, mean day; nights 19 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1194mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Feb 169 mm (CHELSA)
Light
19–41DLI
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 November in the northern hemisphere (November to May at the habitat, southern). Habitat rain 1194 mm a year, wettest February at 169 mm, driest August at 51 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 19 to 41 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 5.5 °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 Eugenia australis J.C.Wendl.; Eugenia australis J.C.Wendl. ex Link; Eugenia simmondsiae F.M.Bailey; Jambosa australis (J.C.Wendl. ex Link) DC.; Jambosa myrtifolia Heynh. and 2 more.

Cultivation

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 (882 mm of 1194 mm) falls in November to May, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 20.4 °C against a yearly mean of 18.1 °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 1194 mm a year, wettest February at 169 mm, driest August at 51 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1194 mm a year at the habitat, 882 mm of it November to May. Wettest month February at 169 mm, driest August at 51 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 901 mm to 1657 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: 19 to 41 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 19 to 41 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 16, 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 5.5 °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 5.5 °C, the absolute minimum 2.4 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 36.5 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 8.9 °C in July (across the envelope cells 4.4 °C to 12.7 °C), warmest day 26.9 °C in January (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 5.5 °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: 56 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 17 °C in Jul to 27 °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. 1194 mm of rain a year, most in Feb. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 743 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 2.4 °C and the 99th-percentile day 36.5 °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°36.5° 99th-percentile day (undated)2.4° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 19–41RH 56–63 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 743 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 °C27 / 25–2926 / 24–2925 / 22–2822 / 20–2619 / 17–2317 / 14–2117 / 14–2118 / 16–2221 / 18–2523 / 20–2725 / 22–2826 / 24–29
Night °C19 / 16–2219 / 16–2218 / 14–2116 / 11–1913 / 8–1610 / 6–149 / 4–1310 / 5–1312 / 8–1514 / 11–1816 / 13–2018 / 15–21
Rain mm136 / 90–252169 / 123–314128 / 87–211112 / 64–16895 / 59–13575 / 44–11654 / 35–8151 / 33–7151 / 32–6881 / 53–102110 / 86–141132 / 87–180
DLI40 / 39–4236 / 34–3732 / 30–3526 / 24–3021 / 18–2519 / 16–2421 / 18–2527 / 24–3034 / 31–3838 / 37–4240 / 39–4241 / 40–43
RH %62 / 59–6663 / 61–6763 / 60–6662 / 59–6561 / 59–6459 / 57–6258 / 56–6156 / 54–5956 / 54–6058 / 56–6160 / 57–6261 / 58–64

Each figure is the median across the 743 grid cells holding the 1080 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 2376:6666 (-28.825, 153.325). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 2.4 °C, 1st-percentile night 5.5 °C, 99th-percentile day 36.5 °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 743 distinct grid cells holding the 1080 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2376:6666 (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 -29.00_153.125, lapse-corrected +14 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 105 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.
NativeNew South Wales, Queensland· introduced: New Zealand North, California, Guatemala
Kew's description“shrub or tree” · “subtropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-28.646, 153.317 · in the densest population, 676 records (60% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1125 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 1013 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 20 km away. 200 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 45 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 1125 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Syzygium australeSyzygium australeSyzygium australeSyzygium australeSyzygium australeSyzygium australeSyzygium australeSyzygium australe

Photographs: (c) Dave Richardson, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4); (c) Tony Rebelo, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA); (c) Greg Tasney, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (3).

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

Antimicrobial Activity of Aloe barbadensis Miller Leaf Gel Components
(2008) · The Internet Journal of Microbiology
The potential of selected Australian medicinal plants with anti-Proteus activity for the treatment and prevention of rheumatoid arthritis
Ian Edwin Cock, Veronica Winnett, Joseph Sirdaarta, Ben Matthews (2015) · Pharmacognosy Magazine
Antimicrobial activity and toxicity of Syzygium australe and Syzygium leuhmannii fruit extracts
Cyril Sautron, Ian Edwin Cock (2014) · Pharmacognosy Communications
Antibacterial Activity of Selected Australian Native Plant Extracts
I. E. Cocka B (2008) · The Internet Journal of Microbiology
Inhibition of Shewanella spp. growth by Syzygium australe and Syzygium luehmannii extracts: natural methods for the prevention of fish spoilage
Shweta Murhekar, Mitchell Henry Wright, Anthony Carlson Greene, J. Brownlie (2017) · Journal of Food Science and Technology
Growth Inhibitory Activity of Selected High Antioxidant Australian Syzygium Species Against the Food Poisoning and Tissue Necrotic Pathogen Clostridium Perfringens
Mitchell Henry Wright, Cameron Jay Lee, Charmaine Estelle Pollock, Anthony Carlson Greene (2016) · Pharmacognosy Communications
Various Phytochemical Constituents and Their Potential Pharmacological Activities of Plants of the Genus Syzygium
V. Jhansi Lakshmi, Katuri Manasa (2021) · American Journal of PharmTech Research
Development of the hypanthium and androecium in Acmena smithii and Syzygium australe ( Acmena alliance, Myrtaceae)
Stephen R. Belsham, David A. Orlovich (2003) · Australian Systematic Botany

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 Syzygium 11 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 49 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.