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Croton hirtus; photograph author not stated, no rights reserved CC0author not stated, no rights reserved · observed growing wild · 2026-02-19

Croton hirtus L'Hér.

Hairy Croton

Euphorbiaceae · Mexico Central, Mexico Gulf +30

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Croton hirtus, photograph (c) Gustavo Heleno Ferreira, some rights reserved (CC BY)Croton hirtus, photograph (c) Gustavo Heleno Ferreira, some rights reserved (CC BY)Croton hirtus, photograph (c) Gustavo Heleno Ferreira, some rights reserved (CC BY)Croton hirtus, photograph (c) Lucas Carbone, some rights reserved (CC BY)Croton hirtus, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedCroton hirtus, photograph author not stated, no rights reserved 61 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
21.5°C
Record low 19.1 °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)
1,703mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
30–37DLI
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

Croton hirtus, the hairy croton, is a species of flowering plant in the family Euphorbiaceae. It is an annual herb native to regions from Mexico to tropical Argentina, occurring mainly in wet tropical biomes. The species has also been introduced to parts of Asia and Africa, and is known for its traditional medicinal uses.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Croton hirtus", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a sharp season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,283 mm of 1,634 mm) falls in April to October. The temperature curve is flat, 1.1 °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, 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

1,634 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,283 mm of it April to October. Wettest month June at 224 mm, driest month January at 55 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 928 mm to 3,288 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,703 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,634 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: 30 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 46).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 21.5 °C, the absolute minimum 19.1 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 42.4 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 21.9 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 14.3 °C to 24.0 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 29.9 °C in April (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 21.5 °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: 61 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 -71 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, southern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Croton hirtus through the yearWarmest months April and May, mean daily high 30 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 21.9 °C; 1,634 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.10°15°20°25°30°35°40°45°42.4° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER19.1° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 30–37RH 61–67%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 199 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 / 25–3229 / 25–3329 / 26–3330 / 27–3330 / 26–3329 / 26–3229 / 26–3229 / 26–3229 / 25–3229 / 25–3229 / 25–3228 / 25–32
Night °C22 / 14–2422 / 15–2423 / 15–2423 / 17–2423 / 18–2523 / 18–2423 / 18–2423 / 18–2523 / 18–2523 / 17–2522 / 16–2522 / 15–24
Rain mm55 / 8–30757 / 8–25572 / 7–301146 / 12–357193 / 48–442224 / 70–406202 / 50–361175 / 16–375196 / 12–403147 / 11–384111 / 13–27356 / 12–280
DLI33 / 25–3736 / 28–3937 / 31–4334 / 29–4632 / 26–4432 / 26–3933 / 27–3735 / 29–3933 / 29–4132 / 28–4331 / 26–4230 / 25–39
RH %63 / 54–6961 / 53–6861 / 54–6862 / 55–6965 / 56–7167 / 59–7166 / 58–7066 / 57–7066 / 58–7165 / 60–7164 / 57–7063 / 55–70

Records on both sides of the equator: the 32 cells at least 10° south of it have seasons six months apart and are left out, not combined into a year no place has. These figures are across the 199 cells that remain: the 95 at least 10° north and the 104 within 10° of the equator, which stay in either way.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 199 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (260 records in those cells; 1 more cell holds records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cell is 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 1595:2119 (10.225, -74.025). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 19.1 °C, 1st-percentile night 21.5 °C, 99th-percentile day 42.4 °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 199 distinct grid cells holding 260 of the 294 in-range records (1 further cell with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out) on the northern side of the equator (95 cells poleward of 10° north, 32 poleward of 10° south: the two sides' seasons are not combined, and cells within 10° of the equator stay in); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1595:2119 (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_-73.750, lapse-corrected -71 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 125 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 Northwest, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Jamaica, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Trinidad-Tobago, Windward Is., French Guiana, Guyana, Surinam, Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil West-Central, Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast, Brazil North, Brazil South, Argentina Northeast, Argentina Northwest, Paraguay · introduced: Benin, Burkina, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Zaïre, Tanzania, Chagos Archipelago, Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Borneo, Jawa, Malaya, Sumatera, New Guinea · 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-9.55, -37.164 · in the densest population, 258 records (27% of those in range)
Kew's description“annual” · “wet tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 951 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 260 of them in the land cells it reads, of 294 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 783 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 8 km away. 402 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 657 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 951 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Croton hirtus, photograph 1did not loadCroton hirtus, photograph 2did not loadCroton hirtus, photograph 3did not loadCroton hirtus, photograph 4did not loadCroton hirtus, photograph 5did not loadCroton hirtus, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Gustavo Heleno Ferreira, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Lucas Carbone, some rights reserved (CC BY); author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0 (2).

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

Bignonia aequinoctialis Bignonia aequinoctialis Garlicvine Photo: CC BY, fmunozRuellia geminiflora Ruellia geminiflora Acanthaceae Photo: CC BY, fmunozCeiba pentandra Ceiba pentandra Silk cotton tree Photo: CC BY, Malaika Mathew ChawlaCnidoscolus urens Cnidoscolus urens Bull-nettle Photo: CC BY, Marcello Mastroianni Albuquerque AraújoAndira inermis Andira inermis Cabbagebark tree Photo: CC BY, Alexis López HernándezPiper tuberculatum Piper tuberculatum Monkey pepper Photo: CC BY, Gabriel M. Rolim

Other Croton 49 in the reference

Croton alabamensis Croton alabamensis Alabama croton Photo: CC0, author not statedCroton bonplandianus Croton bonplandianus Bonpland's croton Photo: CC BY, Rocío Esmeralda PoseCroton californicus Croton californicus California croton Photo: CC0, author not statedCroton capitatus Croton capitatus Woolly croton Photo: CC BY, CH HemphillCroton cascarilloides Croton cascarilloides Euphorbiaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, vrxzCroton chilensis Croton chilensis Euphorbiaceae Photo: CC BY, Nicolás LavanderoCroton ciliatoglandulifer Croton ciliatoglandulifer Bush croton Photo: CC BY, Cody HinchliffCroton coriaceus Croton coriaceus Euphorbiaceae Photo: CC BY, Dick CulbertCroton cortesianus Croton cortesianus Cortez's croton Photo: CC BY-SA, Jalil R.Croton draco Croton draco Weeping blood Photo: CC BY, River Ahlquist Croton elegans Euphorbiaceae Croton eluteria Cascarilla all 50 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Brachystachys hirta; Croton comes; Croton glandulosus subsp. hirtus; Croton glandulosus var. cordovensis; Croton glandulosus var. hirtus and 8 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Euphorbiaceae
Described by
L'Hér.
Native to
Mexico Central, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northwest +29
Wild records
951 in range · 783 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 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
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; 25 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (5 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 18 at a herbarium, 2 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 10.00_-73.750, lapse-corrected -71 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
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 2026-10-22
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 175 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

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