Toona sinensis (A.Juss.) M.Roem.
Chinese Cedar, Chinese Mahogany, Chinesischer Surenbaum (DE), Red toon
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
Toona sinensis, commonly called Chinese mahogany, Chinese cedar, Chinese toon, beef and onion plant, or red toon is a species of Toona native to eastern and southeastern Asia, ranging from northern Korean peninsula through most of eastern, central, and southwestern China, in Nepal, northeastern India, Burma (Myanmar), Thailand, and even present in Malaysia and western Indonesia.
Text from Wikipedia, “Toona sinensis”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.
About the genus · Toona
Toona, commonly known as red cedar, toon or toona, tooni is a genus in the mahogany family, Meliaceae, native from Afghanistan south to India, and east to North Korea, Papua New Guinea and eastern Australia. In older texts, the genus was often incorporated within a wider circumscription of the related genus Cedrela, but that genus is now restricted to species from the Americas.
Text from Wikipedia, “Toona”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.
At a glance
Also known as Ailanthus flavescens Carrière; Ailanthus mairei Gagnep.; Cedrela chinensis Franch.; Cedrela glabra C.DC.; Cedrela longiflora var. kumaona C.DC. 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 (1295 mm of 1724 mm) falls in April to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 24.3 °C against a yearly mean of 19.3 °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 1724 mm a year, wettest June at 284 mm, driest December at 39 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
1724 mm a year at the habitat, 1295 mm of it April to September. Wettest month June at 284 mm, driest December at 39 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 723 mm to 3552 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: 17 to 34 mol/m²/day.
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
Open sky over the habitat: 17 to 34 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 39).
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 0.8 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 0.8 °C, the absolute minimum -4.0 °C, about 2 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 36.3 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 6.0 °C in January (across the envelope cells -6.8 °C to 13.9 °C), warmest day 29.5 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 0.8 °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.
Relative humidity at the habitat: 60 to 65% 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
Figures by month
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day °C | 14 / 3–21 | 15 / 6–22 | 18 / 11–24 | 23 / 17–27 | 26 / 21–28 | 28 / 24–30 | 30 / 25–32 | 29 / 24–32 | 27 / 22–29 | 23 / 17–28 | 20 / 11–25 | 16 / 5–22 |
| Night °C | 6 / -7–14 | 8 / -5–15 | 11 / 0–17 | 15 / 7–20 | 19 / 12–23 | 22 / 16–25 | 23 / 18–26 | 23 / 17–25 | 20 / 14–24 | 16 / 7–22 | 12 / 0–19 | 7 / -4–16 |
| Rain mm | 51 / 6–147 | 83 / 11–208 | 120 / 22–213 | 157 / 33–246 | 236 / 62–349 | 284 / 95–466 | 239 / 155–482 | 217 / 135–516 | 162 / 74–483 | 82 / 35–332 | 54 / 16–252 | 39 / 7–162 |
| DLI | 18 / 14–25 | 21 / 15–28 | 25 / 18–33 | 30 / 23–36 | 32 / 27–39 | 32 / 28–38 | 34 / 31–38 | 32 / 29–35 | 29 / 24–31 | 24 / 19–29 | 19 / 16–25 | 17 / 14–23 |
| RH % | 62 / 54–68 | 63 / 52–68 | 63 / 51–68 | 63 / 52–68 | 64 / 53–68 | 65 / 58–69 | 65 / 61–69 | 65 / 61–69 | 64 / 59–69 | 62 / 56–68 | 61 / 55–67 | 60 / 54–67 |
Each figure is the median across the 483 grid cells holding the 624 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 1262:5642 (26.875, 102.125). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -4.0 °C, 1st-percentile night 0.8 °C, 99th-percentile day 36.3 °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 483 distinct grid cells holding the 624 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1262:5642 (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 27.00_101.875, lapse-corrected -571 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1418 m (cell mean).
Natural habitat
Photographs
Photographs: Daniel Atha, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIF; Dustin Edmundson, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF (2); Tommy Forrest, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIF (4); 葉子, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIF.
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 Toona sinensis, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.
Related
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.
Camellia sinensis Japanese tea
Triadica sebifera Chinese tallow
Gardenia jasminoides Cape Jasmine
Hibiscus mutabilis Changeable Rose-mallow
Rhaphiolepis indica Hong Kong Hawthorn
Syzygium buxifolium boxleaf eugeniaHistory & 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 answeredgbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zamclimate answeredwikidata 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: skippedinat.taxon not askedinat.photos.wild nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)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 answeredopenalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skippedEvery upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 91 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.








