Example ⟳ +
An example collection, so you can see what this page does. Nothing added here is kept: leaving deletes it.
Calliandra houstoniana; photograph (c) Neptalí Ramírez Marcial, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Neptalí Ramírez Marcial, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-06-01

Calliandra houstoniana (Mill.) Standl.

Tree calliandra

Fabaceae · Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast +9

Add one to my plants
Sow seed
Calliandra houstoniana, photograph (c) Amy Goodman, some rights reserved (CC BY)Calliandra houstoniana, photograph (c) Jordi Martínez Martínez, some rights reserved (CC BY)Calliandra houstoniana, photograph (c) Jordi Martínez Martínez, some rights reserved (CC BY)Calliandra houstoniana, photograph (c) Jordi Martínez Martínez, some rights reserved (CC BY)Calliandra houstoniana, photograph (c) Carlos Domínguez-Rodríguez, some rights reserved (CC BY)Calliandra houstoniana, photograph (c) Amy Huie, some rights reserved (CC BY) 63 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
4.5°C
Record low -3.7 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
28°C
Apr and May at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,350mm
8 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
29–44DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Wet summers: the rain comes June to September, read as a summer growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Calliandra houstoniana is a species of flowering plants of the genus Calliandra in the family Fabaceae.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Calliandra houstoniana", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Calliandra

Calliandra is a genus of flowering plants in the pea family, Fabaceae, in the mimosoid clade of the subfamily Caesalpinioideae. It contains about 140 species that are native to tropical and subtropical regions of the Americas.

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

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (962 mm of 1,309 mm) falls in June to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 20.7 °C against a yearly mean of 19.6 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December to March.

Rain

1,309 mm in the median year at the habitat, 962 mm of it June to September. Wettest month September at 254 mm, driest month March at 14 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 750 mm to 2,424 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,350 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,309 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 44 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 23, the highest 90th-percentile month 48).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 4.5 °C, the absolute minimum -3.7 °C, 3 frost nights in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 34.5 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 11.0 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 5.2 °C to 18.8 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 27.8 °C in May (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 4.5 °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: 54 to 67% 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 +181 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 Calliandra houstoniana through the yearWarmest months April and May, mean daily high 28 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 11.0 °C; 1,309 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°0°10°20°30°40°frost34.5° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-3.7° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 29–44RH 54–67%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 677 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 °C23 / 18–2724 / 20–2926 / 22–3128 / 23–3328 / 23–3326 / 21–3125 / 20–3125 / 20–3124 / 20–3024 / 19–2923 / 19–2823 / 19–27
Night °C11 / 5–1912 / 6–1913 / 7–2114 / 9–2216 / 10–2417 / 11–2416 / 11–2416 / 11–2416 / 11–2315 / 9–2213 / 7–2112 / 6–20
Rain mm24 / 7–8816 / 9–7414 / 5–5731 / 5–7286 / 23–165228 / 136–355238 / 143–383242 / 137–379254 / 129–426128 / 55–27232 / 12–15616 / 6–113
DLI31 / 24–3437 / 29–3943 / 35–4544 / 39–4842 / 38–4737 / 33–4037 / 33–4036 / 32–3932 / 29–3531 / 28–3531 / 25–3429 / 23–33
RH %56 / 50–6755 / 48–6654 / 46–6355 / 45–6358 / 50–6565 / 59–6965 / 61–7066 / 61–7067 / 63–7165 / 59–7061 / 53–6858 / 51–68
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 677 grid cells holding the 890 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 1407:1661 (19.625, -96.925). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -3.7 °C, 1st-percentile night 4.5 °C, 99th-percentile day 34.5 °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 677 distinct grid cells holding 890 of the 890 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1407:1661 (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 19.50_-96.875, lapse-corrected +181 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1314 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 Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Belize, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua · introduced: Kenya, Zimbabwe · 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 marker18.992, -99.092 · in the densest population, 1060 records (71% of those in range)
Kew's description“shrub or tree” · “seasonally dry tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 1493 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 890 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 1198 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 44 km away. 128 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 603 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 1493 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Calliandra houstoniana, photograph 1did not loadCalliandra houstoniana, photograph 2did not loadCalliandra houstoniana, photograph 3did not loadCalliandra houstoniana, photograph 4did not loadCalliandra houstoniana, photograph 5did not loadCalliandra houstoniana, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Amy Goodman, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Jordi Martínez Martínez, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Carlos Domínguez-Rodríguez, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Amy Huie, some rights reserved (CC BY).

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

Canavalia villosa Canavalia villosa Fabaceae Photo: CC BY, Ricardo Betancourt SánchezClematis dioica Clematis dioica Cabellos de angel Photo: CC BY, Neptalí Ramírez MarcialEuphorbia pulcherrima Euphorbia pulcherrima Poinsettia Photo: CC0, author not statedQuercus peduncularis Quercus peduncularis Fagaceae Photo: CC BY, Juan Cruzado CortésTagetes erecta Tagetes erecta African marigold Photo: CC BY-SA, lisongPinus oocarpa Pinus oocarpa Oocarpa pine Photo: CC BY, Ricardo Betancourt Sánchez

Other Calliandra 19 in the reference

Calliandra angustifolia Calliandra angustifolia Fabaceae Photo: CC BY, Jared ShormaCalliandra californica Calliandra californica Baja fairy duster Photo: CC BY, Bill LevineCalliandra calothyrsus Calliandra calothyrsus Fabaceae Photo: CC BY, Forest & Kim StarrCalliandra dysantha Calliandra dysantha Fabaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Wallace Carneiro AlmeidaCalliandra eriophylla Calliandra eriophylla Fairy-duster Photo: CC BY, Paul Asman and Jill LenobleCalliandra haematocephala Calliandra haematocephala Stickpea Photo: CC0, author not statedCalliandra haematomma Calliandra haematomma Red powderpuff Photo: CC BY, Stuart CableCalliandra humilis Calliandra humilis Dwarf stickpea Photo: CC BY, Sam KieschnickCalliandra magdalenae Calliandra magdalenae Fabaceae Photo: CC BY, Alexis López Hernández Calliandra medellinensis Fabaceae Calliandra parvifolia Calliandra parvifolia Fabaceae Photo: CC BY, avocatCalliandra peninsularis Calliandra peninsularis Fabaceae Photo: CC0, author not stated all 20 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Acacia metrosiderifolia; Anneslia grandiflora; Anneslia houstoniana; Anneslia pueblana; Calliandra metrosideriflora and 2 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Fabaceae
Described by
(Mill.) Standl.
Native to
Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf +8
Wild records
1493 in range · 1198 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; 26 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (16 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 5 at a herbarium, 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 19.50_-96.875, lapse-corrected +181 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-21IPNI and POWO linked by Kew's number for Calliandra houstoniana (Mill.) Standl. (the item's: IPNI 1123772-2, POWO 42191-2)
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 125 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…