Byrsonima spicata (Cav.) Rich. ex Kunth
Doncella; Locustberry; Murixi-bark-tree; Shoemaker's-bark
Cited as Kew's World Checklist cites it, Byrsonima spicata (Cav.) Rich. ex Kunth: GBIF's backbone key for this page carries the name with another author, (Cav.) DC.
29 photographs › At a glance
- Jan
- Feb
- Mar
- Apr, shaded
- May, shaded
- Jun, shaded
- Jul, shaded
- Aug, shaded
- Sep, shaded
- Oct, shaded
- Nov
- Dec
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.
Quoted from Wikipedia, "Byrsonima", CC BY-SA 4.0.
Cultivation
Seasons
The rain rule reads a sharp season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,972 mm of 2,636 mm) falls in April to October. The temperature curve is flat, 0.9 °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 habitat lies within 10° of the equator, where the shift rule does not apply, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.
Rain
2,636 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,972 mm of it April to October. Wettest month May at 337 mm, driest month January at 63 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,720 mm to 3,513 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 2,771 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 2,636 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: 30 to 35 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 24, the highest 90th-percentile month 42).
Warmth and air
Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 20.8 °C, the absolute minimum 17.7 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 37.8 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 22.2 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range 19.2 °C to 24.2 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 30.1 °C in February (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 20.8 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).
Relative humidity at the habitat: 63 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. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected -829 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
Mean daily high from 28 °C in Jun and Jul to 30 °C in Feb and Mar; mean nightly low from 22 °C in Jan, Jul, Aug and Dec to 23 °C in Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Sep, Oct and Nov. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low, around the first of the 4 months that tie for it. 2,636 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added), the wettest month May. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 241 habitat cells. Over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER) the absolute minimum was 17.7 °C and the 99th-percentile day 37.8 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.
Figures by month
| Figure | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day °C | 29 / 25–32 | 30 / 25–33 | 30 / 25–32 | 29 / 26–31 | 29 / 26–30 | 28 / 26–30 | 28 / 26–30 | 29 / 27–31 | 29 / 27–30 | 29 / 26–30 | 29 / 26–30 | 29 / 25–30 |
| Night °C | 22 / 19–24 | 23 / 19–24 | 23 / 19–24 | 23 / 19–24 | 23 / 20–24 | 23 / 20–24 | 22 / 19–24 | 22 / 20–25 | 23 / 20–25 | 23 / 20–25 | 23 / 19–24 | 22 / 19–24 |
| Rain mm | 63 / 24–158 | 95 / 48–168 | 149 / 67–236 | 289 / 118–390 | 337 / 182–481 | 263 / 133–443 | 251 / 126–433 | 271 / 129–386 | 276 / 142–390 | 285 / 167–410 | 234 / 126–325 | 123 / 57–220 |
| DLI | 32 / 29–36 | 34 / 32–36 | 35 / 33–40 | 32 / 28–42 | 30 / 25–41 | 30 / 24–42 | 33 / 26–42 | 34 / 30–41 | 35 / 31–39 | 32 / 29–36 | 30 / 27–33 | 30 / 28–34 |
| RH % | 64 / 54–68 | 63 / 54–67 | 64 / 58–68 | 67 / 62–71 | 68 / 64–71 | 68 / 63–72 | 67 / 61–71 | 67 / 62–71 | 67 / 63–71 | 68 / 63–72 | 68 / 64–72 | 66 / 61–70 |
Records on both sides of the equator: the 16 cells at least 10° south of it have seasons six months apart and are left out, not combined into a year no place has. These figures are across the 241 cells that remain: the 60 at least 10° north and the 181 within 10° of the equator, which stay in either way.
How this section is made
Natural habitat
How this section is made
Photographs
Photographs: author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0 (2); (c) Alfredo Gutierrez Dipaz, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4).
Related
Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.
Aspidosperma desmanthum Apocynaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, j c
Jacaranda caucana Bignoniaceae Photo: CC BY, Lucero Luna Montilla
Cordia panamensis Hairy lay-lay Photo: CC BY-SA, Lorraine Smith
Guarea guidonia American muskwood Photo: CC BY, Antonio Nonato
Xylopia aromatica Annonaceae Photo: CC BY, Thomaz Ricardo Favreto Sinani
Didymopanax morototoni Matchwood Photo: CC0, author not statedOther Byrsonima 4 in the reference
Byrsonima crassifolia Golden spoon Photo: CC BY, Carlos Domínguez-Rodríguez
Byrsonima lucida Clam cherry Photo: CC BY, Tom Field
Byrsonima roigii Malpighiaceae Photo: CC BY, Alexis López Hernández
Byrsonima sericea Malpighiaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Carlos Henrique Names & registers
Also known as Brysonima horneana; Byrsonima angustifolia; Byrsonima biacuminata; Byrsonima chrysophylla f. glandulifera; Byrsonima chrysophylla f. kunthiana and 16 more. (GBIF Backbone)
The record
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 answeredasked 2026-10-21GBIF's key 3191348 is Byrsonima spicata (Cav.) DC.; the page links Kew's Byrsonima spicata (Cav.) Rich. ex Kunth, and the name is cited as Kew cites itgbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-21gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-21names fetched 2026-10-21wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 12 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (12 at a botanic garden or arboretum; Wikidata's list)climate answeredasked 2026-10-21climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-21NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 6.00_-75.000, lapse-corrected -829 m at 6.5 °C/kmwikidata answeredasked 2026-10-21IPNI and POWO linked by Kew's number for Byrsonima spicata (Cav.) Rich. ex Kunth (the item's: IPNI 556191-1, POWO 556192-1)wikipedia nothing to reportasked 2026-10-21inat.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 2026-10-22inat.photos.cultivated not askedgbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-21openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshotEvery 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 153 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.