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Columnea magnifica; photograph (c) Trevor Van Loon, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Trevor Van Loon, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2022-01-13

Columnea magnifica Klotzsch ex Oerst.

Gesneriaceae · Costa Rica, Panama · listed by its genus as an epiphyte

Cited as Kew's World Checklist cites it, Columnea magnifica Klotzsch ex Oerst.: GBIF's backbone key for this page carries the name with another author, Klotzsch & Hanst. ex Oerst.

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Columnea magnifica, photograph (c) Zac Peterson, some rights reserved (CC BY)Columnea magnifica, photograph (c) Zac Peterson, some rights reserved (CC BY)Columnea magnifica, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedColumnea magnifica, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedColumnea magnifica, photograph (c) Lena Struwe, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Columnea magnifica, photograph (c) Lena Struwe, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) 9 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Coldest month, mean nightly low
10.3°C
Feb at the habitat, not a floor; extremes not used (the weather cell's ground is too far off) CHELSA
Warmest month, mean daily high
20°C
Apr at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
3,706mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
23–39DLI
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 November (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.

Cultivation

Grouped as an epiphyte, listed under the genus Columnea in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “epiphytic subshrub”.

Seasons

The rain rule reads a sharp season: 70% of the median year's rain (3,052 mm of 3,880 mm) falls in May to November. The temperature curve is flat, 2.0 °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 temperature curve moves under 4 °C between the warmest and coldest month, where the shift rule does not apply, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

Rain

3,880 mm in the median year at the habitat, 3,052 mm of it May to November. Wettest month October at 508 mm, driest month February at 109 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 3,267 mm to 4,785 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 3,706 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 3,880 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: 23 to 39 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 40).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 10.3 °C in February (across the grid cells of the range 3.7 °C to 15.3 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 20.1 °C in April (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: none read. The nearest figure is 10.3 °C, the coldest month's mean nightly low, February, in the median year (CHELSA); a month's mean of its nightly lows is warmer than the nights a floor is read from. The daily extremes were read at a weather cell whose ground is too far above or below the typical spot to correct for, and are not used.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 60 to 72% 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. CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. No cold floor is read without a daily extremes series; the coldest month's mean nightly low named in its sentence is not one. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Group. Listed under the genus Columnea in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “epiphytic subshrub”. A group is taken only where Kew's description of the species agrees with the table's listing. The table gives no figure and no prose; the cold floor is the habitat's alone.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Columnea magnifica through the yearWarmest month April, mean daily high 20 °C; coldest month February, mean nightly low 10.3 °C; 3,880 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.0°5°10°15°20°25°30°°C · day and nightcold quarter0200400600800mm rainDLI 23–39RH 60–72%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 11 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C17 / 12–2318 / 13–2419 / 14–2520 / 14–2619 / 13–2419 / 12–2418 / 12–2319 / 12–2319 / 12–2418 / 12–2317 / 11–2217 / 12–22
Night °C10 / 4–1510 / 4–1511 / 4–1611 / 5–1713 / 6–1813 / 6–1812 / 6–1812 / 6–1812 / 6–1812 / 6–1812 / 5–1711 / 4–16
Rain mm160 / 119–177109 / 75–135121 / 65–146221 / 86–258420 / 342–585424 / 398–522389 / 365–485438 / 404–599487 / 440–598508 / 459–686386 / 269–481217 / 191–275
DLI34 / 31–3537 / 35–3839 / 38–4036 / 35–3826 / 26–2824 / 23–2524 / 23–2525 / 24–2625 / 24–2623 / 23–2424 / 23–2530 / 27–30
RH %64 / 56–7262 / 55–6960 / 55–6662 / 58–6668 / 63–7270 / 64–7569 / 64–7569 / 64–7470 / 64–7372 / 66–7471 / 66–7567 / 60–73

The daily extremes were not used: the correction for elevation, +1273 m, is beyond the 1,000 m either way that a lapse rate is applied over, so the weather cell's ground is other terrain than the typical spot's. So no cold floor is read for this species, and the coldest month's mean nightly low is not taken as one. What that cell gave, so corrected, over 44 years: absolute minimum 7.3 °C, 1st-percentile night 8.9 °C.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 11 grid cells holding the 15 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 1596:1914 (10.175, -84.275). 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 11 distinct grid cells holding 15 of the 15 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1596:1914 (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 10.00_-84.375, lapse-corrected +1273 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1930 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.
NativeCosta Rica, Panama · 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 marker10.03, -84 · in the densest population, 138 records (86% of those in range)
Kew's description“epiphytic subshrub” · “wet tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 160 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 15 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 150 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 15 km away. 1 record outside the WCVP native range not used. 145 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 160 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Columnea magnifica, photograph 1did not loadColumnea magnifica, photograph 2did not loadColumnea magnifica, photograph 3did not loadColumnea magnifica, photograph 4did not loadColumnea magnifica, photograph 5did not loadColumnea magnifica, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Zac Peterson, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0 (2); (c) Lena Struwe, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (2).

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

Heliconia lankesteri Heliconia lankesteri Heliconiaceae Photo: CC BY, Maurice RaymondOncidium cariniferum Oncidium cariniferum Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY, River AhlquistLepanthes lindleyana Lepanthes lindleyana Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY, Jason AlexanderLepanthes elata Lepanthes elata Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY, harrierTillandsia longifolia Tillandsia longifolia Bromeliaceae Photo: CC BY, Jason AlexanderEncyclia mooreana Encyclia mooreana Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY, Andrey Loria

Other Columnea 30 in the reference

Columnea allenii Gesneriaceae Columnea ambigua Columnea ambigua Tibey de cresta Photo: CC BY, Alex DoyleColumnea angustata Columnea angustata Gesneriaceae Photo: CC BY, portioid Columnea arguta Gesneriaceae Columnea brenneri Columnea brenneri Gesneriaceae Photo: CC BY, Nolan ExeColumnea consanguinea Columnea consanguinea Blood of Christ Photo: CC0, author not statedColumnea crassifolia Columnea crassifolia Gesneriaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Krzysztof Ziarnek, KenraizColumnea dimidiata Columnea dimidiata Gesneriaceae Photo: CC BY, Daniel MesaColumnea eburnea Columnea eburnea Gesneriaceae Photo: CC BY, Nolan ExeColumnea erythrophaea Columnea erythrophaea Gesneriaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Matteo CassellaColumnea glabra Columnea glabra Gesneriaceae Photo: CC BY, Zac Peterson Columnea hirsutissima Gesneriaceae all 31 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Columnea oblanceolata; Columnea wendlandiana; Columnea wendlandisma. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataiNaturalist

The record

Family
Gesneriaceae
Described by
Klotzsch ex Oerst.
Native to
Costa Rica, Panama
Wild records
160 in range · 150 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 5589580 is Columnea magnifica Klotzsch & Hanst. ex Oerst.; the page links Kew's Columnea magnifica Klotzsch ex Oerst., 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; 1 record within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (1 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 10.00_-84.375, lapse-corrected +1273 m at 6.5 °C/km; read, and set aside: the correction for elevation, +1273 m, is beyond the 1,000 m either way that a lapse rate is applied over, so the weather cell's ground is other terrain than the typical spot's, so no cold floor is shown
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-21
Wikipedia wikipedia nothing to reportasked 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 2026-10-21none of the photographs on this page is credited to GBIF: those shown are other sources', and GBIF's were the same photographs or were set aside by the photograph rules
Wikimedia Commons commons 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 13 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

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