Pterolobium stellatum(Forssk.) Brenan

WFO wfo-0000170624 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 6 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 6 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.

Pterolobium stellatum, photographed by Tony Rebelo
fig. a Tony Rebelo, CC BY-SA 4.0 / 2021-06-11 / obs. 140726056
Pterolobium stellatum, photographed by Antoinette Eyssell Knox
fig. b Antoinette Eyssell Knox, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 23818419
Pterolobium stellatum, photographed by M Kriek
fig. c M Kriek, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 141010720
Pterolobium stellatum, photographed by i_c_riddell
fig. d i_c_riddell, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 130958856
Pterolobium stellatum, photographed by i_c_riddell
fig. e i_c_riddell, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 48346107
Pterolobium stellatum, photographed by Tony Rebelo
fig. f Tony Rebelo, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 140726025
Pterolobium stellatum, photographed by Antoinette Eyssell Knox
fig. g Antoinette Eyssell Knox, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 23818429
Pterolobium stellatum, photographed by Manuel R Popp
fig. h Manuel R Popp, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 170424450

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 Pterolobium stellatum is native: DR Congo, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Northern Provinces, Rwanda, Somalia, Sudan-South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Yemen DR CongoEritreaEthiopiaKenyaMalawiMozambiqueNorthern ProvincesRwandaSomaliaSudan-South SudanTanzaniaUgandaZambiaZimbabweYemen
Native distribution of Pterolobium stellatum, 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
DR Congo ZAI AFRICA
Eritrea ERI
Ethiopia ETH
Kenya KEN
Malawi MLW
Mozambique MOZ
Northern Provinces TVL
Rwanda RWA
Somalia SOM
Sudan-South Sudan SUD
Tanzania TAN
Uganda UGA
Zambia ZAM
Zimbabwe ZIM
Yemen YEM ASIA-TEMPERATE

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 73 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 4.9 °C 6.9 °C 12.4 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 25.2 °C 27.3 °C 29.5 °C
Annual rainfall 486 mm 729 mm 1,393 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 6 mm 15 mm 143 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 73 research-grade observations of Pterolobium stellatum 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 14 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.

  • Acacia stellata (Forssk.) Willd.
  • Caesalpinia ligulata B.Heyne ex DC.
  • Cantuffa exosa J.F.Gmel.
  • Cantuffa stellata (Forssk.) Chiov.
  • Fillaea brucei Fresen.
  • Mimosa kantuffa Poir.
  • Mimosa stellata Forssk.
  • Pterolobium abyssinicum A.Rich.
  • Pterolobium brucei Benth. & Hook.f.
  • Pterolobium exosum (J.F.Gmel.) Baker f.
  • Pterolobium kantuffa Wight & Arn. ex Steud.
  • Pterolobium lacerans R.Br.
  • Quartinia abyssinica A.Rich.
  • Reichardia decapetala Wight ex Steud.

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. 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.