Example ⟳ +
An example collection, so you can see what this page does. Nothing added here is kept: leaving deletes it.
Arbutus xalapensis; photograph (c) Neptalí Ramírez Marcial, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Neptalí Ramírez Marcial, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-08-24

Arbutus xalapensis Kunth

Texas madrone

Ericaceae · New Mexico, Texas +10

Add one to my plants
Sow seed
Arbutus xalapensis, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedArbutus xalapensis, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedArbutus xalapensis, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedArbutus xalapensis, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedArbutus xalapensis, photograph (c) Rachel, some rights reserved (CC BY)Arbutus xalapensis, photograph (c) Rachel, some rights reserved (CC BY) 85 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
-5.4°C
Record low -16.6 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
25°C
May at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
943mm
7 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
28–45DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Wet summers: the rain comes June to September, read as a summer growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Arbutus xalapensis, commonly known as the Texas madrone, Amazaquitl, or Texas madroño, is a species of flowering plant in the heather family. It is native to Central America, the southwestern United States (western Texas and New Mexico), and throughout Mexico. It is found in canyons and mountains, on rocky plains, and in oak woodlands, at altitudes of up to 3,000 m (9,800 ft) in the south of the range, but lower, down to 600 m (2,000 ft) in the north of the range.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Arbutus xalapensis", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Arbutus

Arbutus is a genus of 12 accepted species of flowering plants in the family Ericaceae, native to temperate regions of the Mediterranean, western Europe, the Canary Islands and North America, and commonly called madrones, madronas, or strawberry trees. The name Arbutus was taken by taxonomists from Latin, where it referred to the species now designated Arbutus unedo.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Arbutus", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (678 mm of 947 mm) falls in June to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 17.4 °C against a yearly mean of 15.1 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December to March.

Rain

947 mm in the median year at the habitat, 678 mm of it June to September. Wettest month July at 196 mm, driest month March at 15 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 520 mm to 1,677 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 943 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 947 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 28 to 45 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 18, the highest 90th-percentile month 50).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is -5.4 °C, the absolute minimum -16.6 °C, 1,197 frost nights in 44 years, 27.2 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 38.9 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 5.2 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 0.2 °C to 8.9 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 24.6 °C in May (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -5.4 °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: 49 to 65% 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, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Arbutus xalapensis through the yearWarmest month May, mean daily high 25 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 5.2 °C; 947 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, northern hemisphere.-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°frost38.9° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-16.6° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 28–45RH 49–65%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 690 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 °C17 / 13–2219 / 15–2322 / 17–2624 / 20–2825 / 20–2923 / 19–3122 / 18–3222 / 18–3321 / 17–3020 / 17–2619 / 16–2317 / 14–22
Night °C5 / 0–96 / 1–107 / 3–1110 / 5–1411 / 7–1813 / 9–2112 / 8–2212 / 9–2212 / 8–2010 / 6–168 / 3–126 / 1–10
Rain mm24 / 11–5417 / 11–5115 / 6–6529 / 6–6565 / 18–123146 / 65–293196 / 73–325180 / 60–305156 / 78–31581 / 40–15622 / 12–7316 / 7–56
DLI30 / 20–3436 / 25–3942 / 31–4545 / 37–4844 / 38–5039 / 33–4837 / 33–4337 / 33–4133 / 29–3732 / 27–3531 / 21–3428 / 18–32
RH %53 / 48–6051 / 46–5849 / 43–5850 / 41–5854 / 43–6262 / 49–6764 / 56–6964 / 56–6965 / 57–7061 / 52–6757 / 48–6354 / 48–61
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 690 grid cells holding the 1163 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 1203:1608 (29.825, -99.575). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -16.6 °C, 1st-percentile night -5.4 °C, 99th-percentile day 38.9 °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 690 distinct grid cells holding 1163 of the 1163 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1203:1608 (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 30.00_-99.375, lapse-corrected +58 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 641 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.
NativeNew Mexico, Texas, Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua · 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 marker19.305, -98.706 · in the densest population, 933 records (57% of those in range)
Kew's description“shrub or tree” · “subtropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 1636 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 1163 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 828 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 38 km away. 4 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 473 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 1636 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Arbutus xalapensis, photograph 1did not loadArbutus xalapensis, photograph 2did not loadArbutus xalapensis, photograph 3did not loadArbutus xalapensis, photograph 4did not loadArbutus xalapensis, photograph 5did not loadArbutus xalapensis, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0 (4); (c) Rachel, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2).

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

Stachys agraria Stachys agraria Shade betony Photo: CC BY-SA, Claudia RamírezPinus greggii Pinus greggii Gregg’s pine Photo: CC BY, Brandon CorderCastilleja tenuiflora Castilleja tenuiflora Santa Catalina Indian paintbrush Photo: CC BY, Brynn FrickeCeanothus caeruleus Ceanothus caeruleus Rhamnaceae Photo: CC BY, Neptalí Ramírez MarcialGarrya laurifolia Garrya laurifolia Cuachichic Photo: CC BY, Neptalí Ramírez MarcialGovenia liliacea Govenia liliacea Gowen's Lily-like Orchid Photo: CC BY, Neptalí Ramírez Marcial

Other Arbutus 7 in the reference

Arbutus andrachne Arbutus andrachne Greek strawberry tree Photo: CC0, author not statedArbutus × andrachnoides Arbutus × andrachnoides Hybrid strawberry-tree Photo: CC0, author not statedArbutus arizonica Arbutus arizonica Arizona madrone Photo: CC BY, Wendy McCradyArbutus canariensis Arbutus canariensis Canary Islands Strawberry tree Photo: CC BY, Elizabete MarchanteArbutus menziesii Arbutus menziesii Pacific madrone Photo: CC BY, Skyler KArbutus tessellata Arbutus tessellata Ericaceae Photo: CC BY, Carlos MartínezArbutus unedo Arbutus unedo Strawberry tree Photo: CC BY, B. Phalan

Names & registers

Also known as Arbutus densiflora; Arbutus densiflora var. petiolaris; Arbutus donnell-smithii; Arbutus floribunda; Arbutus glandulosa and 14 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Ericaceae
Described by
Kunth
Native to
New Mexico, Texas, Mexico Central +9
Wild records
1636 in range · 828 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; 18 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (14 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 3 at a herbarium, 1 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 30.00_-99.375, 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 96 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…