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Cyrtopodium saintlegerianum; photograph author not stated, no rights reserved CC0author not stated, no rights reserved · observed growing wild · 2022-08-02

Cyrtopodium saintlegerianum Rchb.f.

Orchidaceae · Brazil West-Central, Brazil Northeast +5

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Cyrtopodium saintlegerianum, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedCyrtopodium saintlegerianum, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedCyrtopodium saintlegerianum, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedCyrtopodium saintlegerianum, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedCyrtopodium saintlegerianum, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedCyrtopodium saintlegerianum, photograph (c) Pedro Van Kan, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) 25 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
9.0°C
Record low 1.6 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
31°C
Sep and Oct at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,366mm
9 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
27–39DLI
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, November to March (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

Seasons

The rain rule reads a sharp season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,048 mm of 1,393 mm) falls in November to March. The temperature curve is flat, 3.9 °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 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

1,393 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,048 mm of it November to March. Wettest month January at 258 mm, driest month July at 9 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 804 mm to 1,885 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,366 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,393 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: 27 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 24, the highest 90th-percentile month 40).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 9.0 °C, the absolute minimum 1.6 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 39.4 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 16.7 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range 14.0 °C to 18.6 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 30.9 °C in October (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 9.0 °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: 52 to 64% 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 +19 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 Cyrtopodium saintlegerianum through the yearWarmest months September and October, mean daily high 31 °C; coldest month July, mean nightly low 16.7 °C; 1,393 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.0°10°20°30°40°50°39.4° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER1.6° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 27–39RH 52–64%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 19 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 °C29 / 27–3129 / 28–3229 / 27–3129 / 26–3128 / 25–2927 / 24–2928 / 24–3030 / 25–3231 / 27–3331 / 28–3329 / 27–3229 / 27–31
Night °C21 / 19–2421 / 19–2421 / 19–2420 / 18–2319 / 16–2117 / 15–2017 / 14–1918 / 14–2020 / 16–2221 / 17–2421 / 18–2421 / 19–24
Rain mm258 / 120–337189 / 79–264200 / 126–27295 / 53–12842 / 14–7520 / 6–469 / 4–3419 / 8–3455 / 16–79105 / 53–164168 / 126–231233 / 149–343
DLI35 / 33–4036 / 34–4034 / 32–3733 / 31–3429 / 26–3127 / 24–3129 / 25–3233 / 29–3636 / 34–3939 / 37–4038 / 34–3937 / 32–38
RH %64 / 60–6664 / 58–6564 / 61–6662 / 59–6459 / 55–6358 / 52–6255 / 50–6152 / 48–5954 / 50–5758 / 56–5961 / 59–6263 / 60–65
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 19 grid cells holding the 23 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 2174:2527 (-18.725, -53.625). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 1.6 °C, 1st-percentile night 9.0 °C, 99th-percentile day 39.4 °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 19 distinct grid cells holding 23 of the 23 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2174:2527 (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 -18.50_-53.750, lapse-corrected +19 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 455 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.
NativeBrazil West-Central, Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast, Brazil North, Argentina Northeast, Argentina Northwest, Paraguay · 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-13.966, -48.955 · in the densest population, 43 records (57% of those in range)
Kew's description“pseudobulbous geophyte” · “seasonally dry tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 76 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 23 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 54 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 952 km away. 3 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 53 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 76 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Cyrtopodium saintlegerianum, photograph 1did not loadCyrtopodium saintlegerianum, photograph 2did not loadCyrtopodium saintlegerianum, photograph 3did not loadCyrtopodium saintlegerianum, photograph 4did not loadCyrtopodium saintlegerianum, photograph 5did not loadCyrtopodium saintlegerianum, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0 (5); (c) Pedro Van Kan, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA).

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

Astronium fraxinifolium Astronium fraxinifolium Kingwood Photo: CC BY, Thomaz Ricardo Favreto SinaniAnnona coriacea Annona coriacea Annonaceae Photo: CC BY, Thomaz Ricardo Favreto SinaniHymenaea martiana Hymenaea martiana Fabaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Gustavo SandresMagonia pubescens Magonia pubescens Sapindaceae Photo: CC BY, Nicola CrockfordDipteryx alata Dipteryx alata Baru tree Photo: CC0, author not statedEriotheca gracilipes Eriotheca gracilipes Malvaceae Photo: CC BY, Thomaz Ricardo Favreto Sinani

Other Cyrtopodium 9 in the reference

Cyrtopodium andersonii Cyrtopodium andersonii Anderson's Orchid Photo: CC BY, fmunozCyrtopodium flavum Cyrtopodium flavum Yellow Cowhorn Orchid Photo: CC0, author not statedCyrtopodium glutiniferum Cyrtopodium glutiniferum Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY, Henrique NogueiraCyrtopodium holstii Cyrtopodium holstii Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY, Fabricio Carvalho da SilvaCyrtopodium macrobulbon Cyrtopodium macrobulbon Grandeur Bulb Orchid Photo: CC BY, José Javier Barrios FloresCyrtopodium palmifrons Cyrtopodium palmifrons Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Thibaud AronsonCyrtopodium paniculatum Cyrtopodium paniculatum Orchidaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedCyrtopodium punctatum Cyrtopodium punctatum Cowhorn orchid Photo: CC0, author not statedCyrtopodium virescens Cyrtopodium virescens Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY, Emma Walker

Names & registers

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataiNaturalist

The record

Family
Orchidaceae
Described by
Rchb.f.
Native to
Brazil West-Central, Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast +4
Wild records
76 in range · 54 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
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -18.50_-53.750, lapse-corrected +19 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22IPNI and POWO linked by Kew's number for Cyrtopodium saintlegerianum Rchb.f. (the item's: IPNI 626380-1, POWO 626379-1)
Wikipedia wikipedia nothing to reportasked 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 2026-10-22none 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
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 27 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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