Example ⟳ +
An example collection, so you can see what this page does. Nothing added here is kept: leaving deletes it.
Bourreria succulenta; photograph (c) Josiah Londerée, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Josiah Londerée, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-03-12

Bourreria succulenta Jacq.

Pigeon berry; Bodywood; Chink; Currant-tree

Ehretiaceae · Florida, Mexico Southwest +16

Add one to my plants
Sow seed
Bourreria succulenta, photograph (c) Guillaume Delaitre, some rights reserved (CC BY)Bourreria succulenta, photograph (c) Guillaume Delaitre, some rights reserved (CC BY)Bourreria succulenta, photograph (c) Guillaume Delaitre, some rights reserved (CC BY)Bourreria succulenta, photograph (c) Tom Field, some rights reserved (CC BY)Bourreria succulenta, photograph (c) Tom Field, some rights reserved (CC BY)Bourreria succulenta, photograph (c) Tom Field, some rights reserved (CC BY) 57 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
18.7°C
Record low 15.0 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
29°C
Aug at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,255mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
29–42DLI
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
A sharp rainy season, May to November (the habitat's months, not shifted), in a year of even temperature. rain rule, CHELSA
Not shifted: the shift rule does not apply to this habitat. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Bourreria succulenta is a species of flowering plant in the family Ehretiaceae. It is a tree native to Caribbean islands including Cuba, Hispaniola, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, and the Lesser Antilles, and to Florida, southern Mexico, and northern Venezuela. It is known by several synonyms, including Bourreria baccata and B. velutina. Common names include cherry, currant tree, poisonberry, chink, and bodywood.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Bourreria succulenta", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a sharp season: 70% of the median year's rain (970 mm of 1,279 mm) falls in May to November. The temperature curve is flat, 3.0 °C between the warmest and coldest month, so the growing-season rule does not infer a growing season from it. Months are the habitat's, northern 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

1,279 mm in the median year at the habitat, 970 mm of it May to November. Wettest month September at 176 mm, driest month February at 50 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 686 mm to 2,047 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,255 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,279 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: 29 to 42 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 22, the highest 90th-percentile month 44).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 18.7 °C, the absolute minimum 15.0 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 32.5 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 22.9 °C in January and February (across the grid cells of the range 18.8 °C to 24.9 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 28.5 °C in August (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 18.7 °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: 60 to 64% 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 -2 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 Bourreria succulenta through the yearWarmest month August, mean daily high 29 °C; coldest months January and February, mean nightly low 22.9 °C; 1,279 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.10°15°20°25°30°35°32.5° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER15.0° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250mm rainDLI 29–42RH 60–64%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 310 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 °C26 / 23–2725 / 23–2826 / 24–2826 / 25–2927 / 26–3028 / 27–3028 / 27–3129 / 28–3128 / 28–3028 / 27–2927 / 25–2826 / 24–28
Night °C23 / 19–2523 / 19–2523 / 20–2524 / 21–2625 / 23–2626 / 24–2626 / 24–2726 / 25–2726 / 24–2725 / 23–2625 / 22–2624 / 20–25
Rain mm56 / 37–12050 / 31–8254 / 15–8970 / 30–135122 / 25–202129 / 30–213108 / 43–196143 / 49–223176 / 58–245162 / 102–243130 / 65–22479 / 41–163
DLI30 / 24–3435 / 29–3739 / 35–4142 / 41–4342 / 40–4342 / 39–4342 / 40–4441 / 39–4238 / 34–3934 / 30–3530 / 25–3229 / 22–32
RH %61 / 58–6460 / 59–6460 / 59–6461 / 59–6663 / 61–6664 / 62–6663 / 62–6663 / 62–6664 / 63–6664 / 61–6763 / 59–6661 / 59–65
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 310 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (650 records in those cells; 30 more cells hold records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cells are left out), 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 1377:1863 (21.125, -86.825). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 15.0 °C, 1st-percentile night 18.7 °C, 99th-percentile day 32.5 °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 310 distinct grid cells holding 650 of the 699 in-range records (30 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1377:1863 (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 21.00_-86.875, lapse-corrected -2 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 4 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.
NativeFlorida, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Aruba, Bahamas, Cayman Is., Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Netherlands Antilles, Puerto Rico, Southwest Caribbean, Turks-Caicos Is., Trinidad-Tobago, Windward Is., Venezuela · introduced: Myanmar · 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 marker12.233, -69.027 · in the densest population, 695 records (59% of those in range)
Kew's description“tree” · “seasonally dry tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 1188 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 650 of them in the land cells it reads, of 699 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 663 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 1110 km away. 34 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 489 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 1188 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Bourreria succulenta, photograph 1did not loadBourreria succulenta, photograph 2did not loadBourreria succulenta, photograph 3did not loadBourreria succulenta, photograph 4did not loadBourreria succulenta, photograph 5did not loadBourreria succulenta, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Guillaume Delaitre, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Tom Field, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3).

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

Erithalis fruticosa Erithalis fruticosa Blacktorch Photo: CC BY, Abby HydeLantana involucrata Lantana involucrata Buttonsage Photo: CC BY, harriiZanthoxylum flavum Zanthoxylum flavum West Indian satinwood Photo: CC BY, Mario GuzmánSolanum bahamense Solanum bahamense Canker-berry Photo: CC BY, Matteo BellucciCanella winterana Canella winterana Wild cinnamon Photo: CC0, author not statedCrossopetalum rhacoma Crossopetalum rhacoma Maidenberry Photo: CC BY, Tom Field

Other Bourreria 5 in the reference

Bourreria havanensis Bourreria havanensis Ehretiaceae Photo: CC BY, Jay HornBourreria huanita Bourreria huanita Ehretiaceae Photo: CC BY, Alexis López HernándezBourreria mollis Bourreria mollis Ehretiaceae Photo: CC BY, Alexis López HernándezBourreria tomentosa Bourreria tomentosa Ehretiaceae Photo: CC BY, Dayron BretoBourreria virgata Bourreria virgata Roble de guayo Photo: CC BY-SA, Dairon Cuevas Riveras

Names & registers

Also known as Bourreria baccata; Bourreria beureria; Bourreria clariuscula; Bourreria grandiflora; Bourreria ovata and 31 more. (GBIF Backbone)

Kew accepts as species of their own Cordia collococca: older names in GBIF's record of this species that Kew's World Checklist accepts as other species. (WCVP, RBG Kew, file of 2026-06-04)

Under another author Bourreria tomentosa Gürke is an older name of this species, not Bourreria tomentosa, a species of the reference. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Ehretiaceae
Described by
Jacq.
Native to
Florida, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast +15
Wild records
1188 in range · 663 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; 28 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (23 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 5 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 21.00_-86.875, lapse-corrected -2 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 62 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…