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Brunfelsia americana; photograph (c) Don Loarie, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Don Loarie, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-03-18

Brunfelsia americana L.

Lady of the night; American brunfelsia; Franciscan raintree

Solanaceae · Cuba, Dominican Republic +6

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Brunfelsia americana, photograph (c) Guillaume Delaitre, some rights reserved (CC BY)Brunfelsia americana, photograph (c) Don Loarie, some rights reserved (CC BY)Brunfelsia americana, photograph (c) Kurt Miller, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Brunfelsia americana, photograph (c) Francis Pérez, some rights reserved (CC BY)Brunfelsia americana, photograph (c) Francis Pérez, some rights reserved (CC BY)Brunfelsia americana, photograph (c) Sabarni Sarker, some rights reserved (CC BY) 21 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Coldest month, mean nightly low
23.6°C
Feb at the habitat, not a floor; extremes not used (sea cell) CHELSA
Warmest month, mean daily high
28°C
Jul, Aug, Sep and Oct at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,621mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
29–43DLI
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.

About the genus · Brunfelsia

Brunfelsia is a genus of flowering plants belonging to subfamily Petunioideae of the nightshade family Solanaceae. The 50 or so species have been grouped into the three sections: Brunfelsia, Franciscea and Guianenses, which differ significantly in both distribution and characteristics, although molecular data have revealed that only two sections are natural (monophyletic), namely the Caribbean section Brunfelsia and a common section for all South American species. Linnaeus named the genus for the early German herbalist Otto Brunfels (1488–1534).

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

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a sharp season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,146 mm of 1,557 mm) falls in May to November. The temperature curve is flat, 2.7 °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

1,557 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,146 mm of it May to November. Wettest month September at 199 mm, driest month February at 58 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,256 mm to 2,160 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,621 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,557 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 43 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 28, the highest 90th-percentile month 43).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 23.6 °C in February (across the grid cells of the range 20.1 °C to 23.9 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 27.9 °C in August and September (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: none read. The nearest figure is 23.6 °C, the coldest month's mean nightly low, February, in the median year (CHELSA); a month's mean of its nightly lows is warmer than the nights a floor is read from. The daily extremes were read at a weather cell that is mostly sea and are not used.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 61 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. CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. No cold floor is read without a daily extremes series; the coldest month's mean nightly low named in its sentence is not one. 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 Brunfelsia americana through the yearWarmest months July, August, September and October, mean daily high 28 °C; coldest month February, mean nightly low 23.6 °C; 1,557 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.15°20°25°30°35°°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250300mm rainDLI 29–43RH 61–65%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 19 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C25 / 24–2625 / 24–2625 / 24–2626 / 25–2727 / 26–2827 / 27–2928 / 27–2928 / 27–2928 / 27–2928 / 26–2827 / 25–2726 / 24–27
Night °C24 / 20–2424 / 20–2424 / 20–2424 / 21–2525 / 22–2526 / 23–2626 / 23–2626 / 23–2626 / 23–2626 / 23–2625 / 22–2525 / 21–25
Rain mm81 / 68–13158 / 51–9262 / 46–10696 / 79–165137 / 110–237125 / 78–179142 / 96–184167 / 111–212199 / 148–241194 / 162–253182 / 153–224114 / 94–178
DLI31 / 30–3235 / 34–3640 / 39–4143 / 42–4341 / 40–4342 / 41–4342 / 41–4241 / 40–4138 / 37–3934 / 33–3530 / 30–3229 / 28–31
RH %61 / 61–6761 / 60–6661 / 60–6562 / 61–6764 / 62–6964 / 62–6964 / 63–6864 / 63–6965 / 63–7065 / 63–7063 / 62–7062 / 61–68

The daily extremes were read at a NASA POWER cell that is 28% land: neither it nor the next candidates whose coldest month's mean nightly low is within 2 °C of the median across cells sit in a POWER cell that is mostly land, and the rule reads a cold floor only from a cell that is mostly land, so none is read for this species. Nor is the coldest month's mean nightly low taken as one: it is a mean of a month's lows, not its coldest night. What that cell gave over 44 years: absolute minimum 22.4 °C, 1st-percentile night 23.5 °C, 99th-percentile day 29.8 °C.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 19 grid cells holding the 24 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 1480:2365 (15.975, -61.725). 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 19 distinct grid cells holding 24 of the 24 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1480:2365 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells, though its NASA POWER cell is only 28% land and none of the 11 next candidates within 2 °C of the median was mostly land); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 16.00_-61.875, lapse-corrected +61 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 87 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.
NativeCuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Puerto Rico, Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuelan Antilles, Venezuela · introduced: Zaïre, Tanzania, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Assam, Vanuatu, Windward Is. · 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 marker18.311, -65.793 · in the densest population, 37 records (54% 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 68 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 24 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 45 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 129 km away. 53 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 44 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 of the 68 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Brunfelsia americana, photograph 1did not loadBrunfelsia americana, photograph 2did not loadBrunfelsia americana, photograph 3did not loadBrunfelsia americana, photograph 4did not loadBrunfelsia americana, photograph 5did not loadBrunfelsia americana, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Guillaume Delaitre, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Don Loarie, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Kurt Miller, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA); (c) Francis Pérez, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Sabarni Sarker, some rights reserved (CC BY).

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

Hymenocallis caribaea Hymenocallis caribaea Caribbean spider-lily Photo: CC BY, fmunozZanthoxylum punctatum Zanthoxylum punctatum Dotted pricklyash Photo: CC BY, Don LoarieRauvolfia viridis Rauvolfia viridis Antigua Balsam Photo: CC BY, Alex DoyleBrassavola cucullata Brassavola cucullata Daddy longlegs orchid Photo: CC0, author not stated Maytenus laevigata Celastraceae Plumeria alba Plumeria alba Wild frangipani Photo: CC BY, Matteo Bellucci

Other Brunfelsia 11 in the reference

Brunfelsia australis Brunfelsia australis Paraguay jasmine Photo: CC BY, David F. BelmonteBrunfelsia brasiliensis Brunfelsia brasiliensis Solanaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, *Spatz* at de.wikipediaBrunfelsia densifolia Brunfelsia densifolia Serpentine Hill raintree Photo: CC BY, Giovanny VargasBrunfelsia grandiflora Brunfelsia grandiflora Largeflower brunfelsia Photo: CC BY, Eduardo Chacón MadrigalBrunfelsia lactea Brunfelsia lactea Vega blanca Photo: CC0, author not statedBrunfelsia latifolia Brunfelsia latifolia Solanaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, IxitixelBrunfelsia nitida Brunfelsia nitida Cuban raintree Photo: CC BY, Scott Zona from Miami, Florida, USABrunfelsia pauciflora Brunfelsia pauciflora Brazil raintree Photo: CC BY, Ben CostamagnaBrunfelsia portoricensis Brunfelsia portoricensis Puerto Rico raintree Photo: CC BY, Cricket RaspetBrunfelsia undulata Brunfelsia undulata Jamaican raintree Photo: CC BY-SA, Bernard LoisonBrunfelsia uniflora Brunfelsia uniflora Manaca Photo: CC BY, Diogo Luiz

Names & registers

Also known as Brunfelsia abbottii; Brunfelsia americana var. pubescens; Brunfelsia fallax; Brunfelsia inodora; Brunfelsia terminalis and 3 more. (GBIF Backbone)

Under another author Brunfelsia latifolia Steud. is an older name of this species, not Brunfelsia latifolia, a species of the reference. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataiNaturalist

The record

Family
Solanaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti +5
Wild records
68 in range · 45 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; 27 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (25 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 1 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 16.00_-61.875, lapse-corrected +61 m at 6.5 °C/km; read, and set aside: NASA POWER's cell is mostly sea (28% land), so no cold floor is shown
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-21
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
Wikimedia Commons commons 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 39 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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