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Cissus alata; photograph (c) Francisco Farriols Sarabia, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Francisco Farriols Sarabia, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2019-05-27

Cissus alata Jacq.

Venezuela treebine; Grape-ivy; Venezuela treebind

Vitaceae · Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast +17

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Cissus alata, photograph (c) Francisco Farriols Sarabia, some rights reserved (CC BY)Cissus alata, photograph (c) Francisco Farriols Sarabia, some rights reserved (CC BY)Cissus alata, photograph (c) Francisco Farriols Sarabia, some rights reserved (CC BY)Cissus alata, photograph (c) Francisco Farriols Sarabia, some rights reserved (CC BY)Cissus alata, photograph (c) Eric Knight, some rights reserved (CC BY)Cissus alata, photograph (c) Eric Knight, some rights reserved (CC BY) 14 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
11.6°C
Record low 0.9 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
30°C
Apr and May at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,420mm
10 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
28–41DLI
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 June 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

Cissus alata, called grape ivy, grape leaf ivy, oak leaf ivy, or Venezuela treebine, is a species of flowering plant in the family Vitaceae native to the tropical Americas. Under its synonym Cissus rhombifolia, it has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit. The species name 'alata' means winged.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Cissus alata", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Cissus

Cissus is a genus of 350 species of lianas in the grape family (Vitaceae). Species are native to the tropical and subtropical Americas, sub-Saharan Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, tropical Asia, Papuasia, and Australia.

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

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,130 mm of 1,412 mm) falls in June to October, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 24.8 °C against a yearly mean of 23.7 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December to April.

Rain

1,412 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,130 mm of it June to October. Wettest month September at 266 mm, driest month March at 20 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 870 mm to 2,835 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,420 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,412 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: 28 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 22, 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 11.6 °C, the absolute minimum 0.9 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 39.3 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 16.0 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 11.1 °C to 22.7 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 30.3 °C in April and May (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 11.6 °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: 58 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 -506 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 Cissus alata through the yearWarmest months April and May, mean daily high 30 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 16.0 °C; 1,412 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°50°frost39.3° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER0.9° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 28–41RH 58–67%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 293 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 °C26 / 21–3127 / 22–3229 / 24–3330 / 26–3430 / 26–3429 / 24–3328 / 24–3229 / 24–3228 / 23–3128 / 23–3027 / 22–3026 / 21–30
Night °C16 / 11–2317 / 12–2318 / 13–2320 / 14–2321 / 15–2522 / 16–2521 / 15–2521 / 15–2521 / 15–2420 / 15–2418 / 13–2317 / 12–22
Rain mm29 / 7–8822 / 7–8120 / 4–8737 / 2–19594 / 17–312228 / 136–405249 / 152–411232 / 153–398266 / 170–434155 / 67–33650 / 14–21330 / 5–120
DLI30 / 23–3534 / 27–3938 / 33–4441 / 33–4840 / 30–4737 / 30–4037 / 31–4036 / 32–4032 / 29–3631 / 28–3429 / 24–3428 / 22–33
RH %59 / 51–6859 / 49–6658 / 48–6559 / 46–6661 / 50–6966 / 59–7066 / 60–7066 / 60–7067 / 62–7165 / 60–7063 / 55–6961 / 53–68
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 293 grid cells holding the 342 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 1398:1658 (20.075, -97.075). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 0.9 °C, 1st-percentile night 11.6 °C, 99th-percentile day 39.3 °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 293 distinct grid cells holding 342 of the 342 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1398:1658 (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 20.00_-96.875, lapse-corrected -506 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 92 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, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Trinidad-Tobago, Guyana, Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru · 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 marker19.328, -96.764 · in the densest population, 279 records (43% of those in range)
Kew's description“liana” · “wet tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 654 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 342 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 592 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 6 km away. 27 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 312 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 654 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Cissus alata, photograph 1did not loadCissus alata, photograph 2did not loadCissus alata, photograph 3did not loadCissus alata, photograph 4did not loadCissus alata, photograph 5did not loadCissus alata, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Francisco Farriols Sarabia, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4); (c) Eric Knight, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2).

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

Bourreria huanita Bourreria huanita Ehretiaceae Photo: CC BY, Alexis López HernándezArgemone mexicana Argemone mexicana Mexican prickly poppy Photo: CC0, author not statedSerjania mexicana Serjania mexicana Sapindaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedJacquemontia sphaerostigma Jacquemontia sphaerostigma Convolvulaceae Photo: CC BY, Arturo Benavides MendozaAmphilophium crucigerum Amphilophium crucigerum Monkey's-comb Photo: CC BY, avocatBrassavola appendiculata Brassavola appendiculata Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY, Alexis López Hernández

Other Cissus 17 in the reference

Cissus cactiformis Cissus cactiformis Cactus Grape Photo: CC0, author not statedCissus discolor Cissus discolor Rex-begonia-vine Photo: CC BY, Eugene PopovCissus erosa Cissus erosa Caro de tres hojas Photo: CC BY, Enrique Salazar Cissus gongylodes Vitaceae Cissus hastata Cissus hastata White-stemmed Button Vine Photo: CC BY, Steven Bodzin Cissus kerrii Vitaceae Cissus nodosa Cissus nodosa Javanese treebine Photo: CC BY, Kevin FaccendaCissus palmata Cissus palmata Grape Photo: CC BY, Felipe HortonCissus pteroclada Cissus pteroclada Vitaceae Photo: CC BY, 呂一起(Lyu yi-chi)Cissus quadrangularis Cissus quadrangularis Veldt-grape Photo: CC BY, Elliot GreinerCissus repens Cissus repens Cissus Photo: CC0, author not statedCissus rotundifolia Cissus rotundifolia Arabian wax cissus Photo: CC0, author not stated all 18 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Cissus pubescens; Cissus rhombifolia; Cissus sulcicaulis var. alata; Gonoloma alata; Vitis alata and 4 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Vitaceae
Described by
Jacq.
Native to
Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf +16
Wild records
654 in range · 592 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; 9 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (4 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 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 20.00_-96.875, lapse-corrected -506 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-21found by its label; its IPNI identifier 311226-2 is Kew's for Cissus alata Jacq.
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 106 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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