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Chiococca alba; photograph (c) Matteo Bellucci, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Matteo Bellucci, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-09-15

Chiococca alba (L.) Hitchc.

West Indian milkberry; Snowberry; Amadesiac; Buck Root

Rubiaceae · Texas, Florida +45

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Sow seed
Chiococca alba, photograph (c) Matteo Bellucci, some rights reserved (CC BY)Chiococca alba, photograph (c) Matteo Bellucci, some rights reserved (CC BY)Chiococca alba, photograph (c) Luis Ángel Niño Barreat, some rights reserved (CC BY)Chiococca alba, photograph (c) Luis Ángel Niño Barreat, some rights reserved (CC BY)Chiococca alba, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedChiococca alba, photograph author not stated, no rights reserved 89 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
16.7°C
Record low 13.0 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
29°C
May, Jun, Jul, Aug and Sep at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,340mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
25–41DLI
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 May to October, 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

Chiococca alba is a species of flowering plant in the coffee family (Rubiaceae) native to Florida and the extreme southern tip of Texas in the United States, Bermuda, Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, the Galápagos, and tropical South America. Common names include David's milkberry, West Indian milkberry, cahinca and West Indian snowberry. The specific epithet, alba, means "white" in Latin and refers to the color of its fruits.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Chiococca alba", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (949 mm of 1,243 mm) falls in May to October, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 26.3 °C against a yearly mean of 24.4 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to April.

Rain

1,243 mm in the median year at the habitat, 949 mm of it May to October. Wettest month September at 206 mm, driest month March at 42 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 804 mm to 2,215 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,340 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,243 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: 25 to 41 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 20, the highest 90th-percentile month 46).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 16.7 °C, the absolute minimum 13.0 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 38.2 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 18.4 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 10.9 °C to 23.0 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 29.4 °C in August (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 16.7 °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: 59 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. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected -585 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 Chiococca alba through the yearWarmest months May, June, July, August and September, mean daily high 29 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 18.4 °C; 1,243 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.5°10°15°20°25°30°35°40°38.2° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER13.0° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 25–41RH 59–65%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 458 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 °C25 / 20–2926 / 21–3027 / 23–3228 / 24–3329 / 25–3429 / 24–3329 / 24–3329 / 25–3329 / 24–3228 / 24–3026 / 23–2925 / 21–29
Night °C18 / 11–2319 / 12–2320 / 13–2421 / 15–2423 / 16–2524 / 17–2624 / 16–2624 / 16–2624 / 17–2622 / 16–2520 / 14–2419 / 12–23
Rain mm45 / 18–13543 / 10–12542 / 9–12952 / 15–16597 / 39–202172 / 74–277162 / 71–285179 / 86–274206 / 121–320133 / 63–24163 / 22–20149 / 16–156
DLI26 / 22–3531 / 27–3836 / 33–4340 / 36–4641 / 33–4538 / 31–4239 / 32–4337 / 32–4133 / 30–3830 / 28–3527 / 23–3325 / 20–32
RH %60 / 56–6760 / 55–6659 / 54–6559 / 54–6661 / 55–6764 / 60–6964 / 60–6964 / 60–6965 / 62–7163 / 60–7061 / 58–6861 / 57–68
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 458 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (590 records in those cells; 24 more cells hold records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cells are 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 1383:1495 (20.825, -105.225). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 13.0 °C, 1st-percentile night 16.7 °C, 99th-percentile day 38.2 °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 458 distinct grid cells holding 590 of the 631 in-range records (24 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1383:1495 (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 21.00_-105.000, lapse-corrected -585 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 72 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.
NativeTexas, Florida, Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexican Pacific Is., Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Bahamas, Bermuda, Cayman Is., Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Netherlands Antilles, Puerto Rico, Southwest Caribbean, Turks-Caicos Is., Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuelan Antilles, Windward Is., French Guiana, Guyana, Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Galápagos, Peru, Brazil West-Central, Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast, Brazil North, Brazil South, Argentina Northeast, Argentina Northwest, Paraguay · 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 marker25.518, -80.441 · in the densest population, 189 records (12% of those in range)
Kew's description“scrambling shrub or tree” · “wet tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 1641 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 590 of them in the land cells it reads, of 631 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 1306 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 1224 km away. 6 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 1010 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 1641 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Chiococca alba, photograph 1did not loadChiococca alba, photograph 2did not loadChiococca alba, photograph 3did not loadChiococca alba, photograph 4did not loadChiococca alba, photograph 5did not loadChiococca alba, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Matteo Bellucci, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Luis Ángel Niño Barreat, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); 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.

Savia sessiliflora Savia sessiliflora Amansa guapo Photo: CC BY-SA, Kurt MillerSideroxylon salicifolium Sideroxylon salicifolium White bully Photo: CC0, author not statedAnemia adiantifolia Anemia adiantifolia Pine fern Photo: CC BY, Tom FieldIndigofera suffruticosa Indigofera suffruticosa Wild indigo Photo: CC BY, Rocío Esmeralda PoseDamburneya coriacea Damburneya coriacea Florida Nectandra Photo: CC0, Tyler RadtkeLasiacis divaricata Lasiacis divaricata Smallcane Photo: CC BY, Alan Rockefeller

Names & registers

Also known as Chiococca alba f. pilosa; Chiococca alba subsp. alba; Chiococca alba subsp. parvifolia; Chiococca alba var. micrantha; Chiococca alba var. parvifolia and 47 more. (GBIF Backbone)

Kew accepts as species of their own Chiococca capitata; Chiococca pinetorum: older names in GBIF's record of this species that Kew's World Checklist accepts as other species. (WCVP, RBG Kew, file of 2026-06-04)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Rubiaceae
Described by
(L.) Hitchc.
Native to
Texas, Florida, Mexico Central +44
Wild records
1641 in range · 1306 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; 21 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (14 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 2 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 21.00_-105.000, lapse-corrected -585 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-21
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 226 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…