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Cnidoscolus urens; photograph (c) Marcello Mastroianni Albuquerque Araújo, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Marcello Mastroianni Albuquerque Araújo, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-08-16

Cnidoscolus urens (L.) Janti

Bull-nettle; Devil-nettle; Spurge-nettle; White-nettle

Euphorbiaceae · Mexico Central, Mexico Gulf +28

Cited as Kew's World Checklist cites it, Cnidoscolus urens (L.) Janti: GBIF's backbone key for this page carries the name with another author, (L.) Arthur.

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Cnidoscolus urens, photograph (c) Marcello Mastroianni Albuquerque Araújo, some rights reserved (CC BY)Cnidoscolus urens, photograph (c) Marcello Mastroianni Albuquerque Araújo, some rights reserved (CC BY)Cnidoscolus urens, photograph (c) Marcello Mastroianni Albuquerque Araújo, some rights reserved (CC BY)Cnidoscolus urens, photograph (c) Marcello Mastroianni Albuquerque Araújo, some rights reserved (CC BY)Cnidoscolus urens, photograph (c) Marcello Mastroianni Albuquerque Araújo, some rights reserved (CC BY)Cnidoscolus urens, photograph (c) zebedeugalinha, some rights reserved (CC BY) 86 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
18.8°C
Record low 15.8 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
29°C
every month at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,281mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
32–37DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in the habitat's months, not shifted
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
A sharp rainy season, April to October (the habitat's months, not shifted), in a year of even temperature. rain rule, CHELSA
Not shifted: the shift rule does not apply to this habitat. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Cnidoscolus urens is a perennial, tropical American stinging herb of the family Euphorbiaceae, and is one of some 100 species belonging to the genus Cnidoscolus (from Gk. knidē "nettle", skōlos "thorn", and Latin urens "burning"). The plant is locally known as bull nettle, spurge nettle, pringamosa, bringamosa and mala mujer ("evil woman").

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Cnidoscolus urens", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Cnidoscolus

Cnidoscolus is a genus of plants in the family Euphorbiaceae that was erected in 1827. The group is widespread across much of North and South America, including the West Indies.

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

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a sharp season: 70% of the median year's rain (950 mm of 1,251 mm) falls in April to October. The temperature curve is flat, 1.0 °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

1,251 mm in the median year at the habitat, 950 mm of it April to October. Wettest month June at 166 mm, driest month February at 39 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 696 mm to 2,237 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,281 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,251 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: 32 to 37 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 25, the highest 90th-percentile month 44).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 18.8 °C, the absolute minimum 15.8 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 36.3 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 22.4 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 17.4 °C to 24.9 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 29.2 °C in March and April (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 18.8 °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: 62 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 -850 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 Cnidoscolus urens through the yearWarmest months every month, mean daily high 29 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 22.4 °C; 1,251 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°15°20°25°30°35°40°36.3° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER15.8° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250300mm rainDLI 32–37RH 62–65%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 346 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 °C29 / 24–3229 / 25–3329 / 26–3329 / 26–3329 / 26–3229 / 25–3229 / 25–3229 / 25–3329 / 26–3229 / 26–3129 / 26–3129 / 25–32
Night °C22 / 17–2523 / 18–2523 / 18–2523 / 19–2524 / 19–2523 / 18–2623 / 18–2623 / 18–2623 / 18–2523 / 19–2523 / 19–2523 / 18–25
Rain mm50 / 7–14339 / 7–16261 / 8–225102 / 19–271132 / 31–295166 / 30–280141 / 33–252137 / 15–249151 / 12–297121 / 13–29197 / 12–22054 / 11–167
DLI34 / 27–4036 / 30–4037 / 33–4334 / 31–4432 / 28–4233 / 25–4034 / 26–4136 / 29–4135 / 30–4134 / 29–4232 / 27–4232 / 26–40
RH %62 / 54–6662 / 53–6662 / 55–6664 / 57–6765 / 58–6965 / 57–6964 / 55–6864 / 53–6864 / 54–7064 / 56–7063 / 57–6963 / 56–67
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 346 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (708 records in those cells; 4 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 1741:2095 (2.925, -75.225). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 15.8 °C, 1st-percentile night 18.8 °C, 99th-percentile day 36.3 °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 346 distinct grid cells holding 708 of the 713 in-range records (4 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1741:2095 (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 3.00_-75.000, lapse-corrected -850 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 553 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 Gulf, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Aruba, Cuba, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Netherlands Antilles, Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuelan Antilles, Windward Is., French Guiana, Guyana, Surinam, Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast, Brazil South, Argentina Northeast, Argentina Northwest, Paraguay · introduced: Marianas · 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 marker6.881, -75.833 · in the densest population, 448 records (30% of those in range)
Kew's description“shrub” · “wet tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 1470 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 708 of them in the land cells it reads, of 713 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 1200 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 4567 km away. 15 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 757 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 1470 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Cnidoscolus urens, photograph 1did not loadCnidoscolus urens, photograph 2did not loadCnidoscolus urens, photograph 3did not loadCnidoscolus urens, photograph 4did not loadCnidoscolus urens, photograph 5did not loadCnidoscolus urens, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Marcello Mastroianni Albuquerque Araújo, some rights reserved (CC BY) (5); (c) zebedeugalinha, some rights reserved (CC BY).

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

Croton hirtus Croton hirtus Hairy Croton Photo: CC BY, Gustavo Heleno Ferreira Morisonia frondosa Capparaceae Ceiba pentandra Ceiba pentandra Silk cotton tree Photo: CC BY, Malaika Mathew Chawla Morisonia hastata Capparaceae Talinum fruticosum Talinum fruticosum Verdolaga-francesa Photo: CC BY, Kevin FaccendaCrescentia cujete Crescentia cujete Calabash tree Photo: CC BY, Tereso Hernández Morales

Other Cnidoscolus 10 in the reference

Cnidoscolus aconitifolius Cnidoscolus aconitifolius Treadsoftly Photo: CC BY, Daniel Pineda VeraCnidoscolus angustidens Cnidoscolus angustidens Mala mujer Photo: CC BY, Kyle ElshoffCnidoscolus elasticus Cnidoscolus elasticus Chilte Photo: CC BY, Francisco Farriols SarabiaCnidoscolus maculatus Cnidoscolus maculatus Spotted Bullnettle Photo: CC BY, Sula VanderplankCnidoscolus megacanthus Cnidoscolus megacanthus Euphorbiaceae Photo: CC BY, Carlos Domínguez-RodríguezCnidoscolus multilobus Cnidoscolus multilobus Euphorbiaceae Photo: CC BY, Alexis López HernándezCnidoscolus quercifolius Cnidoscolus quercifolius Euphorbiaceae Photo: CC BY, stephenCnidoscolus souzae Cnidoscolus souzae Euphorbiaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Diana FuentesCnidoscolus stimulosus Cnidoscolus stimulosus Bull-nettle Photo: CC0, author not statedCnidoscolus texanus Cnidoscolus texanus Texas bull-nettle Photo: CC BY, matutinaltina

Names & registers

Also known as Bivonea urens; Cnidoscolus adenophilus; Cnidoscolus herbaceus; Cnidoscolus marcgravii; Cnidoscolus mexicanus and 22 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Euphorbiaceae
Described by
(L.) Janti
Native to
Mexico Central, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Southwest +27
Wild records
1470 in range · 1200 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 2026-10-21GBIF's key 3073653 is Cnidoscolus urens (L.) Arthur; the page links Kew's Cnidoscolus urens (L.) Janti, and the name is cited as Kew cites it
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; 5 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (2 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 3 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 3.00_-75.000, lapse-corrected -850 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 173 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…