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Apeiba membranacea; photograph (c) Lena Struwe, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) CC BY-SA(c) Lena Struwe, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) · observed growing wild · 2026-03-10

Apeiba membranacea Spruce ex Benth.

Monkey's comb

Malvaceae · Costa Rica, Honduras +9

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Apeiba membranacea, photograph (c) reagan peschke, some rights reserved (CC BY)Apeiba membranacea, photograph (c) Lena Struwe, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Apeiba membranacea, photograph (c) Lena Struwe, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Apeiba membranacea, photograph (c) Lena Struwe, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Apeiba membranacea, photograph (c) Lena Struwe, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Apeiba membranacea, photograph (c) Lena Struwe, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) 46 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
19.3°C
Record low 16.4 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
29°C
Feb and Mar at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
3,771mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
25–33DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in the habitat's months, not shifted
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Rain spread: 70% of the median year's rain takes 8 months, so no short rainy season. rain rule, CHELSA
Not shifted: the shift rule does not apply to this habitat. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Apeiba membranacea is a species of tree in the family Malvaceae. It is native to Central and South America.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Apeiba membranacea", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads no short rainy season: 70% of the median year's rain (2,905 mm of 3,796 mm) takes 8 months, April to November. Mean temperature moves 1.6 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere. The habitat lies within 10° of the equator, where the shift rule does not apply, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

Rain

3,796 mm in the median year at the habitat, 2,905 mm of it April to November. Wettest month May at 393 mm, driest month January at 191 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 2,716 mm to 5,810 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 3,771 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 3,796 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, southern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 25 to 33 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 21, the highest 90th-percentile month 39).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 19.3 °C, the absolute minimum 16.4 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 34.6 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 21.1 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range 17.9 °C to 23.5 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 28.6 °C in March (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 19.3 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 66 to 71% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: 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 moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

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

Light. 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.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected +58 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, southern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Apeiba membranacea through the yearWarmest months February and March, mean daily high 29 °C; coldest month July, mean nightly low 21.1 °C; 3,796 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, southern hemisphere.15°20°25°30°35°40°34.6° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER16.4° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0200400600800mm rainDLI 25–33RH 66–71%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 236 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C28 / 26–3029 / 26–3129 / 26–3028 / 26–3028 / 26–2927 / 25–2927 / 25–2928 / 26–3028 / 26–2928 / 26–2927 / 25–2927 / 25–29
Night °C22 / 18–2322 / 18–2422 / 19–2422 / 19–2422 / 19–2422 / 18–2421 / 18–2422 / 18–2422 / 18–2322 / 18–2322 / 19–2322 / 18–23
Rain mm191 / 51–403202 / 76–365260 / 104–412352 / 159–528393 / 306–608379 / 225–593357 / 190–585336 / 190–612344 / 214–571385 / 221–635359 / 195–614238 / 110–511
DLI32 / 24–3532 / 26–3633 / 27–3729 / 25–3727 / 23–3325 / 21–3626 / 21–3930 / 22–3932 / 23–3731 / 22–3429 / 21–3230 / 22–33
RH %67 / 59–7166 / 60–7167 / 62–7269 / 64–7370 / 65–7371 / 64–7470 / 60–7470 / 60–7470 / 63–7470 / 65–7571 / 66–7469 / 64–73

Records on both sides of the equator: the 11 cells at least 10° south of it have seasons six months apart and are left out, not combined into a year no place has. These figures are across the 236 cells that remain: the 27 at least 10° north and the 209 within 10° of the equator, which stay in either way.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 236 grid cells holding the 362 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 1753:2144 (2.325, -72.775). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 16.4 °C, 1st-percentile night 19.3 °C, 99th-percentile day 34.6 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 236 distinct grid cells holding 362 of the 373 in-range records on the northern side of the equator (27 cells poleward of 10° north, 11 poleward of 10° south: the two sides' seasons are not combined, and cells within 10° of the equator stay in); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1753:2144 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 2.50_-72.500, lapse-corrected +58 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 270 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 the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeCosta Rica, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Guyana, Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil North · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker-0.662, -76.667 · in the densest population, 449 records (49% of those in range)
Kew's description“tree” · “wet tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 922 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 362 of them in the land cells it reads, of 373 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 643 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 6 km away. 1 record outside the WCVP native range not used. 549 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 922 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Apeiba membranacea, photograph 1did not loadApeiba membranacea, photograph 2did not loadApeiba membranacea, photograph 3did not loadApeiba membranacea, photograph 4did not loadApeiba membranacea, photograph 5did not loadApeiba membranacea, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) reagan peschke, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Lena Struwe, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (5).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Brosimum utile Brosimum utile Cow Tree Photo: CC BY, Guillaume DelaitreCyclanthus bipartitus Cyclanthus bipartitus Split-leaf cyclanthus Photo: CC BY, keesgroenendijkAnthurium obtusum Anthurium obtusum Araceae Photo: CC BY-SA, YuSobralia macrophylla Sobralia macrophylla Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY, Emily Turteltaub NelsonPentagonia macrophylla Pentagonia macrophylla Rubiaceae Photo: CC BY, AitorDimerocostus strobilaceus Dimerocostus strobilaceus Costaceae Photo: CC BY, Harrison Cole

Other Apeiba 1 in the reference

Apeiba tibourbou Apeiba tibourbou Monkey's Comb Photo: CC0, author not stated

Names & registers

Also known as Apeiba aspera subsp. membranacea. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Malvaceae
Described by
Spruce ex Benth.
Native to
Costa Rica, Honduras, Nicaragua +8
Wild records
922 in range · 643 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-21
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-21
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-21
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-21names fetched 2026-10-21
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 3 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (3 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-21
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-21NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 2.50_-72.500, lapse-corrected +58 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-21
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-21
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-21
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 91 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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