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Cochlospermum vitifolium; photograph (c) Lon Brehmer, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Lon Brehmer, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-06-01

Cochlospermum vitifolium (Willd.) Spreng.

Silk cottontree; Buttercup Tree

Cochlospermaceae · Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast +21

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Cochlospermum vitifolium, photograph (c) Lon Brehmer, some rights reserved (CC BY)Cochlospermum vitifolium, photograph (c) Raúl A. Ruiz M., some rights reserved (CC BY)Cochlospermum vitifolium, photograph (c) Xavier Alejandro Caratachea Navarro, some rights reserved (CC BY)Cochlospermum vitifolium, photograph (c) Xavier Alejandro Caratachea Navarro, some rights reserved (CC BY)Cochlospermum vitifolium, photograph (c) Raúl A. Ruiz M., some rights reserved (CC BY)Cochlospermum vitifolium, photograph (c) Raúl A. Ruiz M., some rights reserved (CC BY) 78 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
16.6°C
Record low 13.3 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
31°C
Apr at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,569mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
29–38DLI
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, May 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

Cochlospermum vitifolium or rosa amarilla is a tree belonging to the family Bixaceae. It reaches up to 12 metres (40 ft) in height and its leaves are deciduous. Its flowers are showy, yellow, solitary, and large, up to 10 centimetres (4 in) across. They resemble roses but do not belong to the same family. More on Wikipedia ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Cochlospermum vitifolium", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a sharp season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,200 mm of 1,555 mm) falls in May to October. The temperature curve is flat, 2.6 °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

1,555 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,200 mm of it May to October. Wettest month September at 242 mm, driest month January at 27 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 873 mm to 2,886 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,569 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,555 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 38 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 48).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 16.6 °C, the absolute minimum 13.3 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 36.8 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 20.4 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 13.6 °C to 23.5 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 30.5 °C in April (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 16.6 °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: 59 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 -4 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 Cochlospermum vitifolium through the yearWarmest month April, mean daily high 31 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 20.4 °C; 1,555 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°36.8° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER13.3° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 29–38RH 59–67%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 254 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 °C28 / 25–3329 / 26–3330 / 27–3431 / 27–3430 / 27–3429 / 27–3329 / 27–3329 / 27–3329 / 27–3229 / 26–3128 / 26–3028 / 25–31
Night °C20 / 14–2421 / 15–2422 / 16–2423 / 18–2523 / 19–2523 / 19–2523 / 19–2523 / 19–2523 / 19–2522 / 19–2421 / 16–2421 / 14–24
Rain mm27 / 9–9529 / 8–11240 / 4–15180 / 3–285135 / 11–377193 / 38–391204 / 98–387223 / 131–373242 / 144–401203 / 67–369122 / 20–22157 / 12–121
DLI32 / 25–3635 / 30–3838 / 34–4338 / 31–4735 / 28–4835 / 26–4135 / 28–4134 / 30–4032 / 29–3831 / 28–3529 / 26–3330 / 24–34
RH %61 / 53–6660 / 52–6659 / 53–6661 / 52–6864 / 53–7065 / 59–7066 / 60–7066 / 61–7067 / 62–7166 / 61–7065 / 59–7062 / 56–68
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 254 grid cells holding the 705 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 1368:1836 (21.575, -88.175). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 13.3 °C, 1st-percentile night 16.6 °C, 99th-percentile day 36.8 °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 254 distinct grid cells holding 705 of the 705 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1368:1836 (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 21.50_-88.125, lapse-corrected -4 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 2 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, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Cuba, Guyana, Surinam, Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil Northeast, Brazil North · introduced: Society Is., Bahamas, Dominican Republic, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Puerto Rico, Trinidad-Tobago, Windward Is. · 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 marker6.838, -75.851 · in the densest population, 417 records (50% of those in range)
Kew's description“tree” · “seasonally dry tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 841 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 705 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 663 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker in the same place. 10 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 136 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 841 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Cochlospermum vitifolium, photograph 1did not loadCochlospermum vitifolium, photograph 2did not loadCochlospermum vitifolium, photograph 3did not loadCochlospermum vitifolium, photograph 4did not loadCochlospermum vitifolium, photograph 5did not loadCochlospermum vitifolium, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Lon Brehmer, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Raúl A. Ruiz M., some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Xavier Alejandro Caratachea Navarro, 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.

Trichilia hirta Trichilia hirta Broomstick Photo: CC BY, Alexis López HernándezCasearia corymbosa Casearia corymbosa Salicaceae Photo: CC BY, Alexis López HernándezPhilodendron jacquinii Philodendron jacquinii Araceae Photo: CC BY, keesgroenendijkCoutarea hexandra Coutarea hexandra Rubiaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, vitordematos12Tabebuia rosea Tabebuia rosea Pink poui Photo: CC BY, Eduardo Rueda ChiapasEvolvulus nummularius Evolvulus nummularius Dwarf Morning Glory Photo: CC BY, Xavier Alejandro Caratachea Navarro

Other Cochlospermum 7 in the reference

Cochlospermum gillivraei Cochlospermum gillivraei Cottontree Photo: CC BY, Luke LythgoeCochlospermum gonzalezii Cochlospermum gonzalezii Cochlospermaceae Photo: CC0, StickpenCochlospermum palmatifidum Cochlospermum palmatifidum Cochlospermaceae Photo: CC0, DanielCochlospermum regium Cochlospermum regium Cochlospermaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, bruno_san1409Cochlospermum religiosum Cochlospermum religiosum Silk-cotton tree Photo: CC BY, Ravuri Krishna ChaitanyaCochlospermum tetraporum Cochlospermum tetraporum Cochlospermaceae Photo: CC BY, aacocucciCochlospermum wrightii Cochlospermum wrightii Cochlospermaceae Photo: CC BY, Martín Márquez

Names & registers

Also known as Bombax hibiscifolium; Bombax vitifolium; Cochlospermum codinae; Cochlospermum hibiscoides; Cochlospermum hibiscoides var. dasycarpum and 13 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Cochlospermaceae
Described by
(Willd.) Spreng.
Native to
Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf +20
Wild records
841 in range · 663 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
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-21
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-21NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 21.50_-88.125, lapse-corrected -4 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 125 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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