Magnolia champaca(L.) Baill. ex Pierre

Champakmichelia

WFO wfo-0000233054 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Magnolia champaca, photographed by Sabarni Sarker
fig. a Sabarni Sarker, CC BY 4.0 / 2021-10-14 / obs. 163475929
Magnolia champaca, photographed by Ong Jyh Seng
fig. b Ong Jyh Seng, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 48653337
Magnolia champaca, photographed by Ong Jyh Seng
fig. c Ong Jyh Seng, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 48653297
Magnolia champaca, photographed by Ong Jyh Seng
fig. d Ong Jyh Seng, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 25568920
Magnolia champaca, photographed by Ong Jyh Seng
fig. e Ong Jyh Seng, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 24299945
Magnolia champaca, photographed by Ong Jyh Seng
fig. f Ong Jyh Seng, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 23524795
Magnolia champaca, photographed by Prashanth N S
fig. g Prashanth N S, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 50607733
Magnolia champaca, photographed by Cheongweei Gan
fig. h Cheongweei Gan, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 158091629

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 15 botanical countries

Regions where Magnolia champaca is native: China South-Central, Tibet, Assam, Bangladesh, Borneo, Cambodia, India, Jawa, Laos, Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Myanmar, Sumatera, Thailand, Vietnam China South-CentralTibetAssamBangladeshBorneoCambodiaIndiaJawaLaosLesser Sunda Is.MalayaMyanmarSumateraThailandVietnam
Native distribution of Magnolia champaca, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Assam ASS ASIA-TROPICAL
Bangladesh BAN
Borneo BOR
Cambodia CBD
India IND
Jawa JAW
Laos LAO
Lesser Sunda Is. LSI
Malaya MLY
Myanmar MYA
Sumatera SUM
Thailand THA
Vietnam VIE
China South-Central CHC ASIA-TEMPERATE
Tibet CHT

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Where it actually grows measured, from 219 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 7.5 °C 13.3 °C 23.1 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 25.4 °C 29.1 °C 36.3 °C
Annual rainfall 877 mm 1,620 mm 3,363 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 5 mm 123 mm 517 mm

It is barely found anywhere that freezes. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 219 research-grade observations of Magnolia champaca that carry a coordinate, and this is the range those places actually span. The 5th and 95th percentiles are used rather than the minimum and maximum, because a single cultivated specimen in a heated conservatory should not widen a tropical plant's range to the Arctic.

This is not a hardiness zone. A USDA zone is the average annual extreme minimum temperature. The figure above is the mean daily minimum of the coldest month, which is a different quantity and is typically far warmer. Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one.

Also published as 21 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Champaca michelia Noronha
  • Magnolia membranacea P.Parm.
  • Michelia aurantiaca Wall.
  • Michelia blumei Steud.
  • Michelia champaca L.
  • Michelia champaca var. blumei Moritzi
  • Michelia champaca var. pubinervia (Blume) Miq.
  • Michelia euonymoides Burm.f.
  • Michelia evonymoides Burm.f.
  • Michelia pilifera Bakh.f.
  • Michelia pubinervia Blume
  • Michelia rheedei Wight
  • Michelia rufinervis DC.
  • Michelia sericea Pers.
  • Michelia suaveolens Pers.
  • Michelia tsiampacca var. champaca (L.) P.Parm.
  • Michelia velutina Blume
  • Sampacca evonymoides (Burm.f.) Kuntze
  • Sampacca suaveolens (Pers.) Kuntze
  • Sampacca velutina Kuntze
  • Talauma villosa f. celebica Miq.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.