Species
+

Aechmea gamosepala Wittm.

Bromeliaceae

Climate known 50 photographs Other epiphyte
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Aechmea gamosepala is a bromeliad endemic to southern Brazil. It is often cultivated as an ornamental plant. This plant is cited in Flora Brasiliensis by Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius

Text from Wikipedia, “Aechmea gamosepala”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Aechmea

Aechmea is a genus of flowering plants in the family Bromeliaceae. The name comes from the Greek aichme, meaning "spear". Suggested pronunciations include EEK-me-ə and eek-MEE-ə. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Aechmea”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Bromeliaceae
Described by
Wittm.
Native to
Brazil Southeast, Brazil South
Wild records
155 in range· 118 open

At a glance

Warmest month
27°C
Feb, mean day; nights 20 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
2066mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jan 287 mm (CHELSA)
Light
17–35DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a other epiphyte by the genus Aechmea, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a summer growing season, March to September in the northern hemisphere (September to March at the habitat, southern). Habitat rain 2066 mm a year, wettest January at 287 mm, driest August at 100 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 17 to 35 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 10 °C (archetype minimum for a other epiphyte, above the 4.3 °C habitat night).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Ortgiesia gamosepala (Wittm.) L.B.Sm. & W.J.Kress.

Cultivation

Grouped as a other epiphyte by the genus Aechmea, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). The table supplies one figure for this group, a conventional minimum for the cold floor, and no prose.

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, March to September in the northern hemisphere (September to March at the habitat, southern).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (1470 mm of 2066 mm) falls in September to March, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 21.0 °C against a yearly mean of 19.1 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: March to September.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 2066 mm a year, wettest January at 287 mm, driest August at 100 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

2066 mm a year at the habitat, 1470 mm of it September to March. Wettest month January at 287 mm, driest August at 100 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1692 mm to 2717 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 17 to 35 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 17 to 35 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 16, the highest 90th-percentile month 41).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor 10 °C (archetype minimum for a other epiphyte, above the 4.3 °C habitat night).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 4.3 °C, the absolute minimum -0.9 °C, 3 frost nights in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 33.3 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 10.6 °C in July (across the envelope cells 8.6 °C to 14.4 °C), warmest day 26.8 °C in February (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 10 °C. The habitat figure, the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER), is 4.3 °C; the archetype table's conventional minimum for a other epiphyte (grouped by the genus Aechmea, which is reliably one kind of plant) is 10 °C, which is higher, and the floor rule takes the higher.

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence, and the archetype table's group minimum where that is higher. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 65 to 68% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 19 °C in Jul to 27 °C in Feb; mean night from 11 °C in Jul to 20 °C in Feb. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest night. 2066 mm of rain a year, most in Jan. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 116 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -0.9 °C and the 99th-percentile day 33.3 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-10°10°20°30°40°frost33.3° 99th-percentile day (undated)-0.9° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 17–35RH 65–68 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 116 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C27 / 24–2827 / 24–2826 / 23–2724 / 21–2621 / 19–2320 / 17–2119 / 17–2120 / 18–2221 / 19–2223 / 21–2424 / 22–2626 / 23–27
Night °C20 / 17–2320 / 17–2319 / 16–2216 / 14–2013 / 11–1711 / 9–1511 / 9–1412 / 10–1513 / 11–1615 / 13–1817 / 14–2018 / 16–22
Rain mm287 / 205–373253 / 185–330207 / 142–267130 / 102–168128 / 118–160106 / 94–148132 / 113–175100 / 80–145167 / 142–225182 / 149–238172 / 138–224202 / 157–258
DLI34 / 31–3833 / 30–3629 / 27–3224 / 22–2519 / 18–2017 / 16–1818 / 17–1922 / 21–2423 / 21–2728 / 25–3333 / 30–3835 / 33–41
RH %68 / 65–7268 / 65–7267 / 65–7266 / 64–7065 / 63–6865 / 62–6765 / 62–6766 / 61–6766 / 64–7067 / 64–7266 / 64–7167 / 64–71

Each figure is the median across the 116 grid cells holding the 148 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 2343:2617 (-27.175, -49.125). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -0.9 °C, 1st-percentile night 4.3 °C, 99th-percentile day 33.3 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 116 distinct grid cells holding the 148 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2343:2617 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -27.00_-49.375, lapse-corrected -181 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 287 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeBrazil Southeast, Brazil South
Kew's description“epiphyte” · “seasonally dry tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-26.226, -48.924 · in the densest population, 106 records (68% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 155 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 118 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 5 km away. 150 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 7 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 155 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Aechmea gamosepalaAechmea gamosepalaAechmea gamosepalaAechmea gamosepalaAechmea gamosepalaAechmea gamosepalaAechmea gamosepalaAechmea gamosepala

Photographs: (c) Bea Leiderman, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Fabrício Mil Homens Riella, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Carlos Alberto Rodriguez, some rights reserved (CC BY); no rights reserved · CC0 (2); (c) Steven Whitebread, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2).

Photographs: iNaturalist and Wikimedia Commons did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Aechmea gamosepala, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

BROMELIACEAE DA MATA ATLÂNTICA BRASILEIRA: LISTA DE ESPÉCIES, DISTRIBUIÇÃO E CONSERVAÇÃO
Gustavo Martinelli, Cláudia Magalhães Vieira, Marcos González, Paula Leitman (2008) · Rodriguésia
DISENTANGLING THE EFFECTS OF KEY INNOVATIONS ON THE DIVERSIFICATION OF BROMELIOIDEAE (BROMELIACEAE)
Daniele Silvestro, Georg Zizka, Katharina Schulte (2013) · Evolution
Biologia reprodutiva de Canistrum aurantiacum E. Morren (Bromeliaceae) em remanescente da Floresta Atlântica, Nordeste do Brasil
José Alves de Siqueira Filho, Isabel Cristina Machado (2001) · Acta Botanica Brasilica
Flora vascular do Parque Estadual Carlos Botelho, São Paulo, Brasil
Renato A. Ferreira de Lima, Vinícius Antonio de Oliveira Dittrich, Vinícius Castro Souza, Alexandre Salino (2011) · Biota Neopropica/Biota Neotropica
Epífitas vasculares de uma área de ecótono entre as Florestas Ombrófilas Densa e Mista, no Parque Estadual do Marumbi, PR
Juliana Santos Bianchi, Cássio Michelon Bento, Rodrigo de Andrade Kersten (2012) · Estudos de Biologia
Characterization of ciliate diversity in bromeliad tank waters from the Brazilian Atlantic Forest
Taiz L. L. Simão, Adriana Giongo, K.A. Gano, Austin G. Davis‐Richardson (2017) · European Journal of Protistology
Early Diverging and Core Bromelioideae (Bromeliaceae) Reveal Contrasting Patterns of Genome Size Evolution and Polyploidy
Juraj Paule, Sascha Heller, Jefferson Rodrigues Maciel, Raquel Monteiro (2020) · Frontiers in Plant Science
New or restored genera of Bromeliaceae
W. John Kress, Lyman B. Smith (1989) · Phytologia
Ornamental and landscape potential of a bromeliad native to the Cerrado
Marcelo Ribeiro Zucchi, Mayara Wesley da Silva, Sérgio Tadeu Sibov, Larissa Leandro Pires (2019) · Ornamental Horticulture

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Aechmea 4 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 42 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.