Species
+

Syzygium samarangense (Blume) Merr. & L.M.Perry

Java Apple (EN), Java-Apfel (DE), Java-apple, Java-apple

Climate known 64 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 samarangense is a species of flowering plant in the family Myrtaceae, native to an area that includes the Greater Sunda Islands, Malay Peninsula, and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, but introduced in prehistoric times to a wider area and now widely cultivated in the tropics. Common names in English include wax apple, Java apple, Semarang rose-apple, and wax jambu.

Text from Wikipedia, “Syzygium samarangense”, 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
(Blume) Merr. & L.M.Perry
Native to
Bangladesh, India, Andaman Is. +13
Wild records
225 in range· 142 open

At a glance

Warmest month
30°C
Apr, mean day; nights 25 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
2279mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Sep 238 mm (CHELSA)
Light
29–37DLI
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 (May to December at the habitat (not shifted)). Habitat rain 2279 mm a year, wettest September at 238 mm, driest February at 118 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 29 to 37 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 23.2 °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 javanica Lam.; Eugenia javanica subsp. parviflora Craib; Eugenia javanica subsp. roxburghiana Duthie; Eugenia javanica var. parviflora Craib; Eugenia javanica var. roxburghiana Duthie and 14 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (May to 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 (1658 mm of 2279 mm) takes 8 months, May to December. Mean temperature moves 1.5 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere, within 10° of the equator; with no thermal season there 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 2279 mm a year, wettest September at 238 mm, driest February at 118 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

2279 mm a year at the habitat, 1658 mm of it May to December. Wettest month September at 238 mm, driest February at 118 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1487 mm to 3693 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: 29 to 37 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 29 to 37 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 24, 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 23.2 °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 23.2 °C, the absolute minimum 22.1 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 31.4 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 22.9 °C in January (across the envelope cells 14.5 °C to 25.6 °C), warmest day 29.7 °C in April (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 23.2 °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: 64 to 66% 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 28 °C in Jan to 30 °C in Apr; mean night from 23 °C in Jan to 25 °C in May. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 2279 mm of rain a year, most in Sep. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 204 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 22.1 °C and the 99th-percentile day 31.4 °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°40°31.4° 99th-percentile day (undated)22.1° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0200400600800mm rainDLI 29–37RH 64–66 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 204 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 / 25–3028 / 27–3229 / 27–3430 / 27–3529 / 27–3429 / 26–3228 / 25–3128 / 25–3128 / 26–3129 / 26–3128 / 26–3028 / 25–30
Night °C23 / 15–2623 / 16–2624 / 19–2625 / 21–2625 / 21–2725 / 20–2724 / 20–2624 / 19–2624 / 20–2624 / 19–2623 / 18–2623 / 15–26
Rain mm151 / 3–397118 / 4–380175 / 15–350177 / 47–309204 / 109–314220 / 108–595221 / 94–688206 / 75–546238 / 90–370203 / 104–334184 / 33–319182 / 7–355
DLI33 / 28–3735 / 29–4037 / 31–4337 / 30–4333 / 28–4130 / 25–3429 / 24–3431 / 26–3733 / 27–3833 / 29–3931 / 28–3931 / 27–35
RH %64 / 53–7264 / 52–7265 / 50–7165 / 55–7166 / 60–7166 / 63–7166 / 62–7166 / 62–7166 / 62–7165 / 61–7066 / 55–7065 / 53–71

Each figure is the median across the 204 grid cells holding the 221 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 1668:6106 (6.575, 125.325). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 22.1 °C, 1st-percentile night 23.2 °C, 99th-percentile day 31.4 °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 204 distinct grid cells holding the 221 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1668:6106 (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 6.50_125.625, lapse-corrected +68 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 182 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.
NativeBangladesh, India, Andaman Is., Myanmar, Nicobar Is., Thailand, Borneo, Jawa, Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Maluku, Philippines, Sulawesi, New Guinea, Solomon Is., Vanuatu· introduced: Chagos Archipelago, Mauritius, Réunion, Seychelles, China South-Central, China Southeast, Taiwan, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Sumatera, Fiji, Niue, Samoa, Wallis-Futuna Is., Caroline Is., Marianas, Guatemala, Panama, Dominican Republic, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Trinidad-Tobago, Windward Is., Colombia
Kew's description“tree” · “wet tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker1.31, 103.816 · in the densest population, 45 records (20% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 225 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 142 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 5459 km away. 563 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 4 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 4° block of the 225 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Syzygium samarangenseSyzygium samarangenseSyzygium samarangenseSyzygium samarangenseSyzygium samarangenseSyzygium samarangenseSyzygium samarangenseSyzygium samarangense

Photographs: (c) 潘立傑 LICHIEH_PAN, some rights reserved (CC BY) (5); (c) Ong Jyh Seng, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA); (c) 五色鳥, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Malaika Mathew Chawla, some rights reserved (CC BY).

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

What are the common anthracnose pathogens of tropical fruits?
Dhanushka Udayanga, Dimuthu S. Manamgoda, Xingzhong Liu, Ekachai Chukeatirote (2013) · Fungal Diversity
Cytotoxic chalcones and antioxidants from the fruits of Syzygium samarangense (Wax Jambu)
Mario J. Simirgiotis, Seiji Adachi, Satoshi To, Hui Yang (2007) · Food Chemistry
SEASONAL ABUNDANCE AND HOST USE PATTERNS OF SEVEN BACTROCERA MACQUART SPECIES (DIPTERA: TEPHRITIDAE) IN THAILAND AND PENINSULAR MALAYSIA
Anthony R. Clarke, A. J. Allwood, A. Chinajariyawong, R. A. I. Drew (2001) · QUT ePrints (Queensland University of Technology)
Isolation and Immunomodulatory Effect of Flavonoids from Syzygium samarangense
Yuh‐Chi Kuo, Liming Yang, Lie‐Chwen Lin (2004) · Planta Medica
A destructive new disease of Syzygium samarangense in Thailand caused by the new species Pestalotiopsis samarangensis
Sajeewa S. N. Maharachchikumbura, Liang‐Dong Guo, Ekachai Chukeatirote, Eric H. C. McKenzie (2013) · Tropical Plant Pathology
Triterpenoids and chalcone from Syzygium samarangense
Rachana Srivastava, Arun K. Shaw, D.K. Kulshreshtha (1995) · Phytochemistry
The influence of hydrogen peroxide on the growth, development and quality of wax apple (Syzygium samarangense, [Blume] Merrill & L.M. Perry var. jambu madu) fruits
Mohammad Moneruzzaman Khandaker, Amru Nasrulhaq Boyce, Normaniza Osman (2012) · Plant Physiology and Biochemistry
Induction of autophagy by dimethyl cardamonin is associated with proliferative arrest in human colorectal carcinoma HCT116 and LOVO cells
Hyeonseok Ko, Young‐Joo Kim, Evangeline C. Amor, Jong Wha Lee (2011) · Journal of Cellular Biochemistry
The Effects of Syzygium samarangense, Passiflora edulis and Solanum muricatum on Alcohol-Induced Liver Injury
Yujie Zhang, Tong Zhou, Fang Wang, Yue Zhou (2016) · International Journal of Molecular Sciences

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