Xylocarpus moluccensis(Lam.) M.Roem.

Cedar mangrove

WFO wfo-0000428174 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY / CC BY-SA

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.

Xylocarpus moluccensis, photographed by coenobita
fig. a coenobita, CC BY 4.0 / 2014-09-14 / obs. 25462817
Xylocarpus moluccensis, photographed by Gerard Chartier
fig. b Gerard Chartier, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 72573844
Xylocarpus moluccensis, photographed by Gerard Chartier
fig. c Gerard Chartier, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 72573851
Xylocarpus moluccensis, photographed by Steve Fitzgerald
fig. d Steve Fitzgerald, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 176515667
Xylocarpus moluccensis, photographed by Steve Fitzgerald
fig. e Steve Fitzgerald, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 176515689
Xylocarpus moluccensis, photographed by Gerard Chartier
fig. f Gerard Chartier, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 72573846
Xylocarpus moluccensis, photographed by Steve Fitzgerald
fig. g Steve Fitzgerald, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 176515708
Xylocarpus moluccensis, photographed by Steve Fitzgerald
fig. h Steve Fitzgerald, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 176515723

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 35 botanical countries

Regions where Xylocarpus moluccensis is native: Aldabra, Comoros, Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique, Seychelles, Somalia, Tanzania, Andaman Is., Bangladesh, Bismarck Archipelago, Borneo, Cambodia, India, Jawa, Laos, Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Maluku, Myanmar, New Guinea, Nicobar Is., Philippines, Solomon Is., Sulawesi, Sumatera, Thailand, Vietnam, Queensland, Caroline Is., Fiji, Marianas, Samoa, Tonga, Vanuatu KenyaMadagascarMozambiqueSomaliaTanzaniaBangladeshBismarck ArchipelagoBorneoCambodiaIndiaJawaLaosLesser Sunda Is.MalayaMalukuMyanmarNew GuineaPhilippinesSolomon Is.SulawesiSumateraThailandVietnamQueenslandFiji AldabraComorosSeychellesAndaman Is.Nicobar Is.Caroline Is.MarianasSamoaTongaVanuatu
Native distribution of Xylocarpus moluccensis, 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
Andaman Is. AND ASIA-TROPICAL
Bangladesh BAN
Bismarck Archipelago BIS
Borneo BOR
Cambodia CBD
India IND
Jawa JAW
Laos LAO
Lesser Sunda Is. LSI
Malaya MLY
Maluku MOL
Myanmar MYA
New Guinea NWG
Nicobar Is. NCB
Philippines PHI
Solomon Is. SOL
Sulawesi SUL
Sumatera SUM
Thailand THA
Vietnam VIE
Aldabra ALD AFRICA
Comoros COM
Kenya KEN
Madagascar MDG
Mozambique MOZ
Seychelles SEY
Somalia SOM
Tanzania TAN
Caroline Is. CRL PACIFIC
Fiji FIJ
Marianas MRN
Samoa SAM
Tonga TON
Vanuatu VAN
Queensland QLD AUSTRALASIA

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 117 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 15.0 °C 19.1 °C 24.5 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 28.1 °C 29.2 °C 33.5 °C
Annual rainfall 1,087 mm 1,960 mm 3,549 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 9 mm 106 mm 499 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 117 research-grade observations of Xylocarpus moluccensis 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 12 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.

  • Carapa borneensis Becc.
  • Carapa indica A.Juss.
  • Carapa mekongensis Pellegr.
  • Carapa moluccensis Lam.
  • Carapa moluccensis var. gangetica Prain
  • Granatum moluccense (Lam.) Kuntze
  • Guarea oblongifolia Griff.
  • Monosoma littorata Griff.
  • Xylocarpus australasicus Ridl.
  • Xylocarpus gangeticus (Prain) C.E.Parkinson
  • Xylocarpus mekongensis Pierre
  • Xylocarpus parvifolius Ridl.

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.