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Boehmeria caudata; photograph (c) Patrícia Mees, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Patrícia Mees, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2024-09-21

Boehmeria caudata Sw.

Urticaceae · Mexico Central, Mexico Gulf +22

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Boehmeria caudata, photograph (c) Daniel Duarte, some rights reserved (CC BY)Boehmeria caudata, photograph (c) Daniel Duarte, some rights reserved (CC BY)Boehmeria caudata, photograph (c) Daniel Duarte, some rights reserved (CC BY)Boehmeria caudata, photograph (c) agujaceratops, some rights reserved (CC BY)Boehmeria caudata, photograph (c) agujaceratops, some rights reserved (CC BY)Boehmeria caudata, photograph (c) William G. Borges, some rights reserved (CC BY) 66 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
11.9°C
Record low 10.4 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
24°C
Jan, Feb, Mar and Dec at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
2,162mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
24–33DLI
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.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads no short rainy season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,599 mm of 2,208 mm) takes 8 months, September to January and March to May. Mean temperature moves 3.8 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere. The temperature curve moves under 4 °C between the warmest and coldest month, where the shift rule does not apply, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

Rain

2,208 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,599 mm of it September to January and March to May. Wettest month October at 232 mm, driest month August at 124 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,421 mm to 4,527 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 2,162 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 2,208 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: 24 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 17, the highest 90th-percentile month 40).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 11.9 °C, the absolute minimum 10.4 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 25.5 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 12.2 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range 7.5 °C to 17.7 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 24.3 °C in February (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 11.9 °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: 64 to 69% 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 +28 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 Boehmeria caudata through the yearWarmest months January, February, March and December, mean daily high 24 °C; coldest month July, mean nightly low 12.2 °C; 2,208 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.5°10°15°20°25°30°25.5° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER10.4° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500600mm rainDLI 24–33RH 64–69%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 180 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 °C24 / 19–2824 / 19–2824 / 20–2823 / 19–2622 / 18–2521 / 17–2521 / 17–2522 / 18–2622 / 19–2522 / 19–2623 / 19–2724 / 19–27
Night °C16 / 11–2117 / 12–2116 / 11–2116 / 11–2014 / 10–1913 / 8–1812 / 8–1813 / 8–1814 / 9–1815 / 11–1816 / 11–2016 / 12–20
Rain mm190 / 79–358182 / 100–306188 / 130–306202 / 94–417190 / 56–542161 / 29–424142 / 23–407124 / 27–411187 / 57–435232 / 114–447221 / 140–442189 / 126–348
DLI33 / 28–3733 / 29–3631 / 27–3527 / 22–3324 / 19–3324 / 17–3626 / 18–3829 / 22–4031 / 23–3831 / 25–3530 / 23–3831 / 26–39
RH %67 / 63–7267 / 63–7268 / 64–7368 / 64–7468 / 63–7366 / 61–7264 / 60–7264 / 58–7066 / 59–7268 / 62–7469 / 63–7568 / 63–73

Records on both sides of the equator: the 74 cells at least 10° north of it have seasons six months apart and are left out, not combined into a year no place has. These figures are across the 180 cells that remain: the 77 at least 10° south and the 103 within 10° of the equator, which stay in either way.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 180 grid cells holding the 313 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 1681:2089 (5.925, -75.525). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 10.4 °C, 1st-percentile night 11.9 °C, 99th-percentile day 25.5 °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 180 distinct grid cells holding 313 of the 416 in-range records on the southern side of the equator (74 cells poleward of 10° north, 77 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 1681:2089 (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 6.00_-75.625, lapse-corrected +28 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1876 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.
NativeMexico Central, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil West-Central, Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast, Brazil North, Brazil South, Argentina Northeast, Argentina Northwest, Paraguay · introduced: Jamaica · 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-26.818, -49.128 · in the densest population, 390 records (33% of those in range)
Kew's description“shrub or tree” · “wet tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 1165 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 313 of them in the land cells it reads, of 416 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 1018 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 16 km away. 12 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 749 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 1165 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Boehmeria caudata, photograph 1did not loadBoehmeria caudata, photograph 2did not loadBoehmeria caudata, photograph 3did not loadBoehmeria caudata, photograph 4did not loadBoehmeria caudata, photograph 5did not loadBoehmeria caudata, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Daniel Duarte, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) agujaceratops, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) William G. Borges, some rights reserved (CC BY).

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

Begonia fischeri Begonia fischeri Begoniaceae Photo: CC BY, Yuri SofronovRubus urticifolius Rubus urticifolius Ecuadorian mountain berry Photo: CC BY, Alexis López HernándezGuzmania conifera Guzmania conifera Bromeliaceae Photo: CC BY, Jonathan Ramos-ArtunduagaCuphea racemosa Cuphea racemosa Lythraceae Photo: CC BY, Donald DavesneRacinaea spiculosa Racinaea spiculosa Bromeliaceae Photo: CC BY, Fabrício Mil Homens Riella Calochlaena villosa Dicksoniaceae

Other Boehmeria 12 in the reference

Boehmeria celtidifolia Urticaceae Boehmeria cylindrica Boehmeria cylindrica Small-spike false nettle Photo: CC0, author not statedBoehmeria densiflora Boehmeria densiflora Dense-flowered False Nettle Photo: CC0, author not statedBoehmeria excelsa Boehmeria excelsa Urticaceae Photo: CC BY, Flavien SaboureauBoehmeria holosericea Boehmeria holosericea Seashore falsenettle Photo: CC BY, pavlaki1968Boehmeria japonica Boehmeria japonica Large-leaf falsenettle Photo: CC BY, 曾昱承 Yu-Cheng ZengBoehmeria nivea Boehmeria nivea China-grass Photo: CC BY, ITÔ, HirokiBoehmeria pilosiuscula Boehmeria pilosiuscula Urticaceae Photo: CC BY, Yu-Huang WangBoehmeria sieboldiana Boehmeria sieboldiana Siebold’s falsenettle Photo: CC BY, 黃美滿Boehmeria splitgerbera Boehmeria splitgerbera Urticaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedBoehmeria virgata Boehmeria virgata Native ramie Photo: CC BY, Bryce Watts-ParkerBoehmeria zollingeriana Boehmeria zollingeriana Zollinger's False Nettle Photo: CC BY, 謝麗霦

Names & registers

Also known as Boehmeria ampullacea; Boehmeria arborescens; Boehmeria arguta; Boehmeria caudata var. arborescens; Boehmeria caudata var. arguta and 16 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataiNaturalist

The record

Family
Urticaceae
Described by
Sw.
Native to
Mexico Central, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Southwest +21
Wild records
1165 in range · 1018 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; 23 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (12 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 2 at a herbarium, 9 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 6.00_-75.625, lapse-corrected +28 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-21found by its label; its IPNI identifier 850541-1 is Kew's for Boehmeria caudata Sw.
Wikipedia wikipedia nothing to reportasked 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 148 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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