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Bursera silviae; photograph author not stated, no rights reserved CC0author not stated, no rights reserved · observed growing wild · 2025-07-14

Bursera silviae Rzed. & Calderón

Burseraceae · Mexico Southwest

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Bursera silviae, photograph (c) Carlos Domínguez-Rodríguez, some rights reserved (CC BY)Bursera silviae, photograph (c) Carlos Domínguez-Rodríguez, some rights reserved (CC BY)Bursera silviae, photograph (c) Carlos Domínguez-Rodríguez, some rights reserved (CC BY)Bursera silviae, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedBursera silviae, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedBursera silviae, photograph (c) Carlos Domínguez-Rodríguez, some rights reserved (CC BY) 103 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Coldest month, mean nightly low
22.4°C
Jan at the habitat, not a floor; extremes not used (the weather cell's ground is too far off) CHELSA
Warmest month, mean daily high
30°C
Mar, Apr and May at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,152mm
7 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
32–45DLI
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, June to September (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 · Bursera

Bursera is a genus with about 100 described species of flowering shrubs and trees varying in size up to 25 m (82 ft) high. It is the type genus for Burseraceae. The trees are native to the Americas, from the southern United States south through to northern Argentina, in tropical and warm temperate forest habitats. More on Wikipedia ›

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

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a sharp season: 70% of the median year's rain (883 mm of 1,157 mm) falls in June to September. The temperature curve is flat, 2.4 °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

1,157 mm in the median year at the habitat, 883 mm of it June to September. Wettest month September at 242 mm, driest month January at 5 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 939 mm to 1,318 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,152 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,157 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: 32 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 30, the highest 90th-percentile month 45).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 22.4 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 20.9 °C to 23.3 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 30.3 °C in April (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: none read. The nearest figure is 22.4 °C, the coldest month's mean nightly low, January, 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 whose ground is too far above or below the typical spot to correct for, and are not used.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 56 to 68% 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 Bursera silviae through the yearWarmest months March, April and May, mean daily high 30 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 22.4 °C; 1,157 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 32–45RH 56–68%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 °C29 / 28–2929 / 29–3030 / 29–3030 / 30–3130 / 30–3129 / 28–3029 / 29–3029 / 29–3028 / 28–2928 / 28–3029 / 28–3029 / 28–29
Night °C22 / 21–2323 / 21–2423 / 22–2424 / 23–2525 / 24–2625 / 24–2625 / 24–2625 / 24–2625 / 24–2524 / 23–2524 / 23–2523 / 22–24
Rain mm5 / 3–68 / 5–108 / 5–1115 / 8–2084 / 67–100233 / 216–258192 / 168–210216 / 197–244242 / 206–273117 / 72–13526 / 14–3011 / 6–13
DLI35 / 34–3538 / 38–3943 / 43–4345 / 45–4542 / 41–4235 / 34–3737 / 35–3936 / 34–3832 / 30–3533 / 32–3633 / 33–3532 / 32–33
RH %56 / 54–5957 / 55–5958 / 56–5960 / 58–6063 / 62–6467 / 66–6866 / 62–6667 / 63–6768 / 65–6964 / 61–6659 / 57–6357 / 55–61

The daily extremes were not used: the correction for elevation, -1053 m, is beyond the 1,000 m either way that a lapse rate is applied over, so the weather cell's ground is other terrain than the typical spot's. So no cold floor is read for this species, and the coldest month's mean nightly low is not taken as one. What that cell gave, so corrected, over 44 years: absolute minimum 11.9 °C, 1st-percentile night 17.0 °C.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 19 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (66 records in those cells; 1 more cell holds records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cell is 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 1484:1676 (15.775, -96.175). 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 66 of the 67 in-range records (1 further cell with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1484:1676 (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 16.00_-96.250, lapse-corrected -1053 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 97 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 Southwest · 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 marker15.761, -96.185 · in the densest population, 71 records (100% 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 71 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 66 of them in the land cells it reads, of 67 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 66 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker in the same place. 4 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 71 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Bursera silviae, photograph 1did not loadBursera silviae, photograph 2did not loadBursera silviae, photograph 3did not loadBursera silviae, photograph 4did not loadBursera silviae, photograph 5did not loadBursera silviae, photograph 6did not load

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

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

Agave littoralis Agave littoralis Asparagaceae Photo: CC BY, Carlos Domínguez-RodríguezStenocereus chacalapensis Stenocereus chacalapensis Cactaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedPassiflora viridiflora Passiflora viridiflora Passifloraceae Photo: CC BY, Carlos Domínguez-RodríguezDiospyros salicifolia Diospyros salicifolia Willow Leaf Persimmon Photo: CC BY, José Javier Barrios FloresIbervillea hypoleuca Ibervillea hypoleuca Cucurbitaceae Photo: CC BY, Carlos Domínguez-RodríguezBromelia palmeri Bromelia palmeri Bromeliaceae Photo: CC BY, Carlos Domínguez-Rodríguez

Other Bursera 26 in the reference

Bursera bipinnata Bursera bipinnata Burseraceae Photo: CC BY, José Javier Barrios FloresBursera copallifera Bursera copallifera Burseraceae Photo: CC BY, José Javier Barrios FloresBursera cuneata Bursera cuneata Burseraceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Oscar Alejandro Morales JuárezBursera epinnata Bursera epinnata Southern Elephant Tree Photo: CC BY, Abraham Sánchez RomeroBursera excelsa Bursera excelsa Burseraceae Photo: CC0, author not statedBursera exequielii Bursera exequielii Burseraceae Photo: CC BY, Abraham Sánchez RomeroBursera fagaroides Bursera fagaroides Elephant Tree Photo: CC BY, Abraham Sánchez RomeroBursera filicifolia Bursera filicifolia Burseraceae Photo: CC BY, MarvalPhotography19Bursera galeottiana Bursera galeottiana Burseraceae Photo: CC BY, Carlos Domínguez-RodríguezBursera glabrifolia Bursera glabrifolia Burseraceae Photo: CC BY, Carlos Domínguez-RodríguezBursera grandifolia Bursera grandifolia Burseraceae Photo: CC BY, Xavier Alejandro Caratachea NavarroBursera graveolens Bursera graveolens Incense tree Photo: CC BY, Naji Love all 27 ›

Names & registers

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataiNaturalist

The record

Family
Burseraceae
Described by
Rzed. & Calderón
Native to
Mexico Southwest
Wild records
71 in range · 66 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
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_-96.250, lapse-corrected -1053 m at 6.5 °C/km; read, and set aside: the correction for elevation, -1053 m, is beyond the 1,000 m either way that a lapse rate is applied over, so the weather cell's ground is other terrain than the typical spot's, 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
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 6 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

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