Plate 1 figs. a–h · 3 observations
This species has been photographed under an open licence only 3 times, so some figures below are different views of the same plant, taken on the same day, rather than different individuals. They are usually different parts of it: the leaf, the flower, the bark.
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 2 botanical countries
| Region | TDWG code | Continent |
|---|---|---|
| Maluku | MOL | ASIA-TROPICAL |
| New Guinea | NWG |
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 61 observations
| Condition | 5th percentile | Median | 95th percentile |
|---|---|---|---|
| Coldest month, mean daily low | 20.2 °C | 23.1 °C | 25.0 °C |
| Warmest month, mean daily high | 26.9 °C | 29.4 °C | 31.7 °C |
| Annual rainfall | 1,920 mm | 3,005 mm | 5,880 mm |
| Rainfall in the driest quarter | 223 mm | 581 mm | 1,129 mm |
It is not found anywhere that gets close to freezing. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 61 research-grade observations of Metroxylon sagu 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 Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one.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 30 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.
- Metroxylon hermaphroditum Hassk.
- Metroxylon inerme Mart.
- Metroxylon laeve (Giseke) Mart.
- Metroxylon longispinum (Giseke) Mart.
- Metroxylon micracanthum Mart.
- Metroxylon oxybracteatum Warb. ex K.Schum. & Lauterb.
- Metroxylon rumphii (Willd.) Mart.
- Metroxylon sago K.D.Koenig
- Metroxylon sagu f. longispinum (Giseke) Rauwerd.
- Metroxylon sagu f. micracanthum (Mart.) Rauwerd.
- Metroxylon sagu f. tuberatum Rauwerd.
- Metroxylon squarrosum Becc.
- Metroxylon sylvestre (Giseke) Mart.
- Sagus americana Poir.
- Sagus genuina Giseke
- Sagus genuina unranked laevis Giseke
- Sagus genuina unranked longispina Giseke
- Sagus genuina unranked sylvestris Giseke
- Sagus inermis Roxb.
- Sagus koenigii Griff.
- Sagus laevis Giseke
- Sagus laevis Jack
- Sagus longispina Giseke
- Sagus longispina (Giseke) Blume
and 6 more.
Sourcesevery claim on this page
- World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
- iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
- Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
- 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.