Species
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Byrsonima crassifolia (L.) Kunth

Arbol de la gallina, Cajuil cimarron Madroño Maricao, Gallina, Golden Spoon

Climate known 58 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Byrsonima crassifolia is a species of flowering plant in the family Malpighiaceae, native to tropical America. Common names used in English include nance, maricao cimun, craboo, and golden spoon. In Jamaica it is called hogberry.

Text from Wikipedia, “Byrsonima crassifolia”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Byrsonima

Byrsonima is one of about 75 genera in the Malpighiaceae, a family of flowering plants in the order Malpighiales. In particular in American English, they are known as locustberries. Another widely seen common name is serrets or serrettes.

Text from Wikipedia, “Byrsonima”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Malpighiaceae
Described by
(L.) Kunth
Native to
Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf +32
Wild records
1637 in range· 1218 open

At a glance

Warmest month
30°C
Apr, mean day; nights 22 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1618mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jun 229 mm (CHELSA)
Light
30–38DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: a sharp rainy season, May to October at the habitat (not shifted); the temperature curve is flat (2.2 °C of range), so no growing season is inferred. Habitat rain 1618 mm a year, wettest June at 229 mm, driest February at 54 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 30 to 38 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 16.3 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Brysonima coriacea (Sw.) DC.; Byrsonima cinerea (Poir.) DC.; Byrsonima coriacea (Sw.) DC.; Byrsonima coriacea f. typica Nied.; Byrsonima coriacea var. swartziana Nied. and 45 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a sharp rainy season, May to October at the habitat (not shifted); the temperature curve is flat (2.2 °C of range), so no growing season is inferred.

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a sharp season: 70% of the year's rain (1174 mm of 1618 mm) falls in May to October. The temperature curve is flat, 2.2 °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; with a flat temperature curve there is no season to reverse, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: 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 gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 1618 mm a year, wettest June at 229 mm, driest February at 54 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1618 mm a year at the habitat, 1174 mm of it May to October. Wettest month June at 229 mm, driest February at 54 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1096 mm to 3053 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 30 to 38 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 30 to 38 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 24, the highest 90th-percentile month 45).

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.

Warmth and air Cold floor 16.3 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 16.3 °C, the absolute minimum 10.0 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 40.9 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 19.7 °C in January (across the envelope cells 13.7 °C to 23.7 °C), warmest day 29.5 °C in April (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 16.3 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 61 to 66% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 28 °C in Dec to 30 °C in Apr; mean night from 20 °C in Jan to 22 °C in May. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1618 mm of rain a year, most in Jun. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 1335 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 10.0 °C and the 99th-percentile day 40.9 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°20°30°40°50°40.9° 99th-percentile day (undated)10.0° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 30–38RH 61–66 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 1335 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C28 / 24–3128 / 25–3229 / 26–3330 / 27–3329 / 26–3429 / 25–3228 / 25–3229 / 25–3229 / 25–3229 / 24–3228 / 24–3128 / 24–30
Night °C20 / 14–2420 / 14–2421 / 15–2422 / 16–2422 / 17–2522 / 16–2522 / 16–2522 / 16–2522 / 17–2522 / 17–2421 / 15–2420 / 14–24
Rain mm57 / 10–28954 / 9–24854 / 7–28377 / 17–319138 / 28–386229 / 15–412208 / 9–409214 / 16–397225 / 42–422160 / 65–367122 / 23–26680 / 10–276
DLI31 / 25–3634 / 29–3936 / 31–4338 / 29–4534 / 26–4332 / 25–3934 / 27–4035 / 29–3934 / 29–4032 / 28–3931 / 25–3730 / 24–35
RH %63 / 54–6862 / 54–6861 / 54–6761 / 54–6963 / 55–7066 / 54–7166 / 52–7165 / 50–7166 / 54–7165 / 57–7164 / 59–7064 / 57–69

Each figure is the median across the 1335 grid cells holding the 1614 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 2076:2635 (-13.825, -48.225). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 10.0 °C, 1st-percentile night 16.3 °C, 99th-percentile day 40.9 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 1335 distinct grid cells holding the 1614 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2076:2635 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -14.00_-48.125, lapse-corrected -166 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 448 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 every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeMexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Netherlands Antilles, Puerto Rico, Southwest Caribbean, Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuelan Antilles, Windward Is., French Guiana, Guyana, Surinam, Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Peru, Brazil West-Central, Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast, Brazil North, Brazil South, Paraguay
Kew's description“shrub or tree” · “seasonally dry tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker16.834, -93.203 · in the densest population, 543 records (33% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1637 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 1218 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 6 km away. 5 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 23 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 1637 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Byrsonima crassifoliaByrsonima crassifoliaByrsonima crassifoliaByrsonima crassifoliaByrsonima crassifoliaByrsonima crassifoliaByrsonima crassifoliaByrsonima crassifolia

Photographs: no rights reserved · CC0 (4); (c) Paul Prior, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Profa. VERÓNICA LOMBARDO, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Carlos Domínguez-Rodríguez, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Martin Alfredo Murillo, some rights reserved (CC BY).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Byrsonima crassifolia, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Phenolic Constituents and Antioxidant Capacity of Four Underutilized Fruits from the Amazon Region
André Gordon, Elvira Jungfer, Bruno Alexandre da Silva, José Guilherme S. Maia (2011) · Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
ADAPTIVE STRATEGIES OF WOODY SPECIES IN NEOTROPICAL SAVANNAS
Guillermo Sarmiento, Guillermo Goldstein, Frederick C. Meinzer (1985) · Biological reviews/Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society
Floral symmetry genes and the origin and maintenance of zygomorphy in a plant-pollinator mutualism
Wenheng Zhang, Elena M. Kramer, Charles C. Davis (2010) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Ethnopharmacology of the Popoluca, Mexico: an evaluation
Marco Leonti, Heike Vibrans, Otto Sticher, Michael Heinrich (2001) · Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmacology
Extension of the postharvest quality of bell pepper by applying nanostructured coatings of chitosan with Byrsonima crassifolia extract (L.) Kunth
Adrián González-Saucedo, Laura Leticia Barrera‐Necha, Rosa Isela Ventura‐Aguilar, Zormy Nacary Correa‐Pacheco (2018) · Postharvest Biology and Technology
An in vitro digestion method adapted for carotenoids and carotenoid esters: moving forward towards standardization
Daniele Bobrowski Rodrigues, Lilian Regina Barros Mariutti, Adriana Zerlotti Mercadante (2016) · Food & Function
The savannization of moist forests in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia
Jaime Cavelier, T. Mitchell Aide, Carolina Ferreira Santos, Ana Maria Eusse (1998) · Journal of Biogeography
The coastal restinga vegetation of Pará, Brazilian Amazon: a synthesis
Rachel Macedo da Silva, Ulf Mehlig, João Ubiratan Moreira dos Santos, Moirah Paula Machado de Menezes (2010) · Revista Brasileira de Botânica
Antimicrobial activity of Byrsonima crassifolia (L.) H.B.K.
Mariano Martínez‐Vázquez, Alma Rosa González‐Esquinca, L Cazares Luna, Montserrat Gutiérrez (1999) · Journal of Ethnopharmacology
Headspace gas chromatography–mass spectrometry of volatile compounds in murici (Byrsonima crassifolia L. Rich)
Gisele L. Alves, Maria Regina Bueno Franco (2003) · Journal of Chromatography A

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 238 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.