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Columnea purpureovittata; photograph andrew2285, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIF CC0andrew2285, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIF

Columnea purpureovittata (Wiehler) B.D.Morley

Gesneriaceae · Colombia, Ecuador +1 · listed by its genus as an epiphyte

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Habitat figuresfrom few records
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
12.8°C
Record low 10.9 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
23°C
Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, Sep, Oct, Nov and Dec at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
5,933mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
24–34DLI
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
Rain spread: 70% of the median year's rain takes 8 months, so no short rainy season. rain rule, CHELSA
Not shifted: the shift rule does not apply to this habitat. The chart is in the habitat's months.

From few records: 4 records in 3 grid cells. The records.

Cultivation

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

Seasons

The rain rule reads no short rainy season: 70% of the median year's rain (4,237 mm of 5,933 mm) takes 8 months, November to January and March to July. Mean temperature moves 1.7 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, southern 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

5,933 mm in the median year at the habitat, 4,237 mm of it November to January and March to July. Wettest month April at 561 mm, driest month August at 392 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 2,731 mm to 6,158 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 5,933 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 5,933 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, southern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 24 to 34 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 35).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 12.8 °C, the absolute minimum 10.9 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 28.3 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 14.3 °C in July and August (across the grid cells of the range 14.3 °C to 16.1 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 22.9 °C in February and October (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 12.8 °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: 65 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. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected +180 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.

Group. Listed under the genus Columnea in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “epiphyte”. 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

From few records: this habitat climate is read from 4 records in 3 grid cells; a page says so under 12 records or 5 cells, and shows the figures as read.

Habitat months, southern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Columnea purpureovittata through the yearWarmest months January, February, March, April, September, October, November and December, mean daily high 23 °C; coldest months July and August, mean nightly low 14.3 °C; 5,933 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, southern hemisphere.5°10°15°20°25°30°28.3° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER10.9° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500600mm rainDLI 24–34RH 65–72%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 3 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 °C23 / 23–2423 / 23–2523 / 23–2423 / 23–2322 / 22–2321 / 21–2321 / 21–2322 / 22–2323 / 23–2323 / 23–2323 / 23–2323 / 23–23
Night °C15 / 15–1616 / 16–1716 / 16–1716 / 16–1716 / 16–1715 / 15–1614 / 14–1614 / 14–1615 / 15–1615 / 15–1615 / 15–1615 / 15–16
Rain mm470 / 121–480429 / 120–442528 / 167–545561 / 262–583551 / 303–577533 / 249–563501 / 233–525392 / 247–411410 / 285–432465 / 314–481542 / 253–555551 / 176–563
DLI34 / 33–3433 / 32–3431 / 30–3328 / 27–2927 / 26–2724 / 24–2926 / 25–3131 / 30–3233 / 31–3434 / 29–3531 / 27–3231 / 30–32
RH %65 / 62–6666 / 62–6766 / 63–6769 / 67–7071 / 69–7272 / 69–7370 / 67–7168 / 67–6969 / 67–6968 / 66–6968 / 67–6866 / 65–67
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 3 grid cells holding the 4 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 1813:2048 (-0.675, -77.575). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 10.9 °C, 1st-percentile night 12.8 °C, 99th-percentile day 28.3 °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 3 distinct grid cells holding 4 of the 4 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1813:2048 (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 -0.50_-77.500, lapse-corrected +180 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1348 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.
NativeColombia, 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 marker-0.677, -77.601 · in the densest population, 16 records (70% of those in range)
Kew's description“epiphyte” · “wet tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 23 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 4 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 17 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 557 km away. Under a dozen records behind the climate. 19 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 23 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

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

Maxillaria fletcheriana Maxillaria fletcheriana Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY, Dr. Alexey YakovlevScaphosepalum breve Scaphosepalum breve Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY, Frank DietzePescatoria lehmannii Pescatoria lehmannii Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY, Frank Dietze Elaphoglossum decoratum Showy tonguefern Pandanus conoideus Pandanus conoideus Pandanaceae Photo: CC BY, Cheongweei Gan Coelogyne carnea Orchidaceae

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 Trichantha purpureovittata. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidata

The record

Family
Gesneriaceae
Described by
(Wiehler) B.D.Morley
Native to
Colombia, Ecuador, Peru
Wild records
23 in range · 17 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 -0.50_-77.500, lapse-corrected +180 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-21
Wikipedia wikipedia nothing to reportasked 2026-10-21
iNaturalist taxon inat.taxon not asked
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild not asked
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-21
Wikimedia Commons commons nothing to reportasked 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 8 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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