Species
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Cryptocarya alba (Molina) Looser

Chilean Acorn, Pengu, Peumo (Chile)

Climate known 72 photographs
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Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Cryptocarya alba, the peumo or Chilean acorn, is an evergreen tree that grows in central Chile from 33 to 40° southern latitude, with the southernmost distribution in northern Los Lagos Region. It can live both in wet and in dry conditions. Its distribution can reach up to 1500 meters (5000 ft) above sea level. It measures up to 20 meters (65 ft) height and one meter diameter, with cracked gray bark. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Cryptocarya alba”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Cryptocarya

Cryptocarya is a genus of about 360 species of flowering plants in the laurel family, Lauraceae. Most species are trees, occasionally shrubs, distributed through the Neotropical, Afrotropical, Indomalayan, and Australasian realms. Most plants in the genus Cryptocarya have leaves arranged alternately along the stems, small flowers with 6 tepals, stamens in 2 rows, the inner row alternating with staminodes, and the fruit is a drupe.

Text from Wikipedia, “Cryptocarya”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Lauraceae
Described by
(Molina) Looser
Native to
Chile Central, Chile South
Wild records
1200 in range· 303 open

At a glance

Warmest month
25°C
Jan, mean day; nights 14 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
775mm/yr
7 wet months · peak Jun 181 mm (CHELSA)
Light
15–57DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: a winter growing season, November to February in the northern hemisphere (May to August at the habitat, southern). Habitat rain 775 mm a year, wettest June at 181 mm, driest January at 3 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 15 to 57 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -1.6 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Cryptocarya boldus Pax; Cryptocarya laxiflora (Phil. ex Mez) Phil.; Cryptocarya mammosa (Molina) Kosterm.; Cryptocarya peumo (Dombey ex Lam.) Kosterm.; Cryptocarya peumus (Molina) Nees and 14 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a winter growing season, November to February in the northern hemisphere (May to August at the habitat, southern).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a winter growing season: 70% of the year's rain (617 mm of 775 mm) falls in May to August, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 9.5 °C against a yearly mean of 13.5 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: November to February.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: 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 gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 775 mm a year, wettest June at 181 mm, driest January at 3 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

775 mm a year at the habitat, 617 mm of it May to August. Wettest month June at 181 mm, driest January at 3 mm; 2 months under 5 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 464 mm to 1933 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 15 to 57 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 15 to 57 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 11, the highest 90th-percentile month 58).

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.

Warmth and air Cold floor -1.6 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -1.6 °C, the absolute minimum -5.3 °C, about 12 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 36.8 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 4.1 °C in July (across the envelope cells 0.8 °C to 8.1 °C), warmest day 25.4 °C in January (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -1.6 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 54 to 62% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 14 °C in Jul to 25 °C in Jan; mean night from 4 °C in Jul to 14 °C in Jan. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest night. 775 mm of rain a year, most in Jun. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 462 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -5.3 °C and the 99th-percentile day 36.8 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-10°10°20°30°40°frost36.8° 99th-percentile day (undated)-5.3° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 15–57RH 54–62 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 462 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C25 / 20–2925 / 20–2923 / 19–2720 / 17–2317 / 14–1914 / 11–1714 / 10–1615 / 11–1716 / 13–1918 / 15–2221 / 17–2524 / 19–28
Night °C14 / 11–1614 / 11–1612 / 10–1510 / 7–127 / 4–105 / 2–94 / 1–85 / 2–86 / 3–98 / 5–1110 / 7–1213 / 10–14
Rain mm3 / 1–254 / 1–3113 / 7–5639 / 17–122149 / 87–342181 / 109–414168 / 113–346119 / 74–27755 / 31–14925 / 13–10814 / 7–625 / 1–35
DLI56 / 55–5750 / 48–5140 / 37–4228 / 24–3119 / 15–2115 / 11–1717 / 13–1923 / 19–2532 / 29–3443 / 39–4452 / 50–5357 / 55–58
RH %54 / 51–6355 / 51–6457 / 51–6559 / 51–6662 / 51–6762 / 51–6862 / 51–6762 / 52–6662 / 55–6659 / 55–6557 / 53–6455 / 52–63

Each figure is the median across the 462 grid cells holding the 1183 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 2554:2155 (-37.725, -72.225). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -5.3 °C, 1st-percentile night -1.6 °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). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 462 distinct grid cells holding the 1183 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2554:2155 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -37.50_-72.500, lapse-corrected -10 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 158 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 every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeChile Central, Chile South· introduced: Juan Fernández Is.
Kew's description“tree” · “subtropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-33.417, -71.007 · in the densest population, 789 records (66% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1200 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 303 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 2 km away. 4 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 17 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 1200 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Cryptocarya albaCryptocarya albaCryptocarya albaCryptocarya albaCryptocarya albaCryptocarya albaCryptocarya albaCryptocarya alba

Photographs: (c) Nicolás Lavandero, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Javier Conejeros Gastó, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Cesar Ormazabal, some rights reserved (CC BY) (5); (c) Jorge Herreros de Lartundo, some rights reserved (CC BY).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Cryptocarya alba, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

A phylogenetic analysis of the Cryptocarya group (Lauraceae), and relationships of Dahlgrenodendron, Sinopora, Triadodaphne, and Yasunia
Jens G. Rohwer, Pedro Luís Rodrigues de Moraes, Barbara Rudolph, Henk van der Werff (2014) · Phytotaxa
Antifungal activity of the essential oil obtained from Cryptocarya alba against infection in honey bees by Nosema ceranae
Jéssica Bravo, Victoria Carbonell, B. Sepúlveda, Carla Delporte (2017) · Journal of Invertebrate Pathology
Assessing frequency-dependent seed size selection: a field experiment
Juan L. Celis‐Diez, Ramiro O. Bustamante, Rodrigo A. Vásquez (2004) · Biological Journal of the Linnean Society
Presence and development of lignotubers in shrubs of the Chilean matorral
Gloria Montenegro, Guacolda Ávila, Peter Schatte (1983) · Canadian Journal of Botany
Seasonal Water Stress in Some Chilean Matorral Shrubs
Juan Giliberto, Hiram Estay (1978) · Botanical Gazette
Cryptofolione derivatives from Cryptocarya alba fruits
Guillermo Schmeda‐Hirschmann, Luís Astudillo, Jaume Bastida, Carles Codina (2001) · Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmacology
Antimutagenic evaluation of traditional medicinal plants from South AmericaPeumus boldusandCryptocarya albausingDrosophila melanogaster
Erico R. Carmona, Marjorie Reyes‐Díaz, Jorge Parodí, Claudio Inostroza‐Blancheteau (2017) · Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health
Leaf Thermal and Chemical Properties as Natural Drivers of Plant Flammability of Native and Exotic Tree Species of the Valparaíso Region, Chile
Fabián Guerrero, Carla Hernández, Mario Toledo, Lorena Espinoza (2021) · International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
Insecticidal activity of powder and essential oil of Cryptocarya alba (Molina) Looser against Sitophilus zeamais Motschulsky
Juan J Pinto, Gonzalo Silva, Inés Figueroa, Maritza Tapia (2016) · Chilean journal of agricultural research

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 30 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.