Pisonia grandisR.Br.

grand devil's-claws

WFO wfo-0001237904 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Pisonia grandis, photographed by Thomas Mesaglio
fig. a Thomas Mesaglio, CC BY 4.0 / 2020-01-26 / obs. 60273489
Pisonia grandis, photographed by Ong Jyh Seng
fig. b Ong Jyh Seng, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 55754362
Pisonia grandis, photographed by Ong Jyh Seng
fig. c Ong Jyh Seng, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 34433167
Pisonia grandis, photographed by Ong Jyh Seng
fig. d Ong Jyh Seng, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 23671701
Pisonia grandis, photographed by Richard Fuller
fig. e Richard Fuller, CC0 1.0 / obs. 107304955
Pisonia grandis, photographed by Jess Miller-Camp
fig. f Jess Miller-Camp, CC0 1.0 / obs. 54912317
Pisonia grandis, photographed by S.MORE
fig. g S.MORE, CC0 1.0 / obs. 59438929
Pisonia grandis, photographed by Dominik Maximilián Ramík
fig. h Dominik Maximilián Ramík, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 197186035

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 54 botanical countries

Regions where Pisonia grandis is native: Aldabra, Chagos Archipelago, Comoros, Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique Channel Is., Rodrigues, Seychelles, Tanzania, Taiwan, Andaman Is., Borneo, Christmas I., Cocos (Keeling) Is., India, Jawa, Laccadive Is., Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Maldives, Maluku, New Guinea, Philippines, Solomon Is., South China Sea, Sulawesi, New South Wales, Queensland, Caroline Is., Cook Is., Fiji, Gilbert Is., Hawaii, Line Is., Marcus I., Marianas, Marquesas, Marshall Is., Nauru, New Caledonia, Niue, Phoenix Is., Pitcairn Is., Samoa, Santa Cruz Is., Society Is., Tokelau-Manihiki, Tonga, Tuamotu, Tubuai Is., Tuvalu, Vanuatu, Wake I., Wallis-Futuna Is. KenyaMadagascarTanzaniaTaiwanBorneoIndiaJawaLesser Sunda Is.MalayaMalukuNew GuineaPhilippinesSolomon Is.SulawesiNew South WalesQueenslandFijiHawaiiNew Caledonia AldabraChagos ArchipelagoComorosMozambique Channel Is.RodriguesSeychellesAndaman Is.Christmas I.Laccadive Is.MaldivesSouth China SeaCaroline Is.Cook Is.Line Is.MarianasMarquesasMarshall Is.NauruNiuePitcairn Is.SamoaSociety Is.Tokelau-ManihikiTongaTuamotuTubuai Is.TuvaluVanuatuWake I.Wallis-Futuna Is.
Native distribution of Pisonia grandis, 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. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Caroline Is. CRL PACIFIC
Cook Is. COO
Fiji FIJ
Gilbert Is. GIL
Hawaii HAW
Line Is. LIN
Marcus I. MCS
Marianas MRN
Marquesas MRQ
Marshall Is. MRS
Nauru NRU
New Caledonia NWC
Niue NUE
Phoenix Is. PHX
Pitcairn Is. PIT
Samoa SAM
Santa Cruz Is. SCZ
Society Is. SCI
Tokelau-Manihiki TOK
Tonga TON
Tuamotu TUA
Tubuai Is. TUB
Tuvalu TUV
Vanuatu VAN
Wake I. WAK
Wallis-Futuna Is. WAL
Andaman Is. AND ASIA-TROPICAL
Borneo BOR
Christmas I. XMS
Cocos (Keeling) Is. CKI
India IND
Jawa JAW
Laccadive Is. LDV
Lesser Sunda Is. LSI
Malaya MLY
Maldives MDV
Maluku MOL
New Guinea NWG
Philippines PHI
Solomon Is. SOL
South China Sea SCS
Sulawesi SUL
Aldabra ALD AFRICA
Chagos Archipelago CGS
Comoros COM
Kenya KEN
Madagascar MDG
Mozambique Channel Is. MCI
Rodrigues ROD
Seychelles SEY
Tanzania TAN
New South Wales NSW AUSTRALASIA
Queensland QLD
Taiwan TAI ASIA-TEMPERATE

Not drawn on the map: Cocos (Keeling) Is., Gilbert Is., Marcus I., Phoenix Is., Santa Cruz Is.. We hold no public-domain boundary for these regions, so they are listed rather than guessed at.

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 206 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 17.9 °C 22.4 °C 25.5 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 26.4 °C 27.8 °C 31.8 °C
Annual rainfall 919 mm 2,050 mm 3,056 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 61 mm 210 mm 555 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 206 research-grade observations of Pisonia grandis 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.

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.