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Dalbergia retusa; photograph Valverde José M., CC BY-SA, via GBIF CC BY-SAValverde José M., CC BY-SA, via GBIF

Dalbergia retusa Hemsl.

Fabaceae · Mexico Southeast, Costa Rica +6

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Dalbergia retusa, photograph (c) Yu, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Dalbergia retusa, photograph SINAC oscar, CC BY-SA, via GBIFDalbergia retusa, photograph SINAC oscar, CC BY-SA, via GBIFDalbergia retusa, photograph SINAC oscar, CC BY-SA, via GBIFDalbergia retusa, photograph SINAC oscar, CC BY-SA, via GBIFDalbergia retusa, photograph David J. Stang, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons 18 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Coldest month, mean nightly low
21.0°C
Jan at the habitat, not a floor; extremes not used (the weather cell's ground is too far off) CHELSA
Warmest month, mean daily high
30°C
Mar and Apr at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
2,351mm
10 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
32–42DLI
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, June 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

Dalbergia retusa (Caviuna, Cocobolo, Cocobolo Prieto, Funeram, Granadillo, Jacarandáholz, Nambar, ñamba, Nicaraguan Rosewood, Palisander, Palissandro, Palo Negro, Pau Preto, Rosewood, Urauna) is a plant species in the family Fabaceae. It is found in Pacific regions of Central America, ranging from Colombia through Central America to southern Mexico. It produces the cocobolo wood.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Dalbergia retusa", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Dalbergia

Dalbergia is a large genus of small to medium-size trees, shrubs and lianas in the pea family, Fabaceae, subfamily Faboideae. It was recently assigned to the informal monophyletic Dalbergia clade : the Dalbergieae. The genus has a wide distribution, native to the tropical regions of Central and South America, Africa, Madagascar and Southern Asia.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Dalbergia", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a sharp season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,596 mm of 2,110 mm) falls in June to October. The temperature curve is flat, 1.4 °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

2,110 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,596 mm of it June to October. Wettest month September at 391 mm, driest month February at 10 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,490 mm to 3,491 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 2,351 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 2,110 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: 32 to 42 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 27, the highest 90th-percentile month 44).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 21.0 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 16.6 °C to 23.8 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 29.7 °C in April (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: none read. The nearest figure is 21.0 °C, the coldest month's mean nightly low, January, 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: 59 to 69% 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.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Dalbergia retusa through the yearWarmest months March and April, mean daily high 30 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 21.0 °C; 2,110 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.15°20°25°30°35°°C · day and nightcold quarter0200400600800mm rainDLI 32–42RH 59–69%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 15 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 °C28 / 25–3129 / 26–3230 / 27–3330 / 28–3229 / 27–3128 / 25–2928 / 26–3028 / 26–3028 / 25–2927 / 25–2927 / 25–3028 / 25–30
Night °C21 / 17–2421 / 17–2422 / 17–2423 / 18–2524 / 19–2523 / 19–2523 / 19–2523 / 19–2523 / 19–2523 / 18–2522 / 18–2421 / 17–24
Rain mm25 / 3–4910 / 4–2915 / 8–5457 / 24–114258 / 156–374303 / 245–580269 / 219–503291 / 222–576391 / 264–699342 / 196–457114 / 40–30935 / 7–156
DLI35 / 32–3739 / 35–4042 / 38–4441 / 37–4436 / 31–3934 / 28–3635 / 29–3836 / 29–3733 / 30–3532 / 28–3332 / 27–3432 / 28–35
RH %62 / 54–6560 / 55–6359 / 56–6260 / 58–6465 / 64–7168 / 67–7367 / 63–7368 / 65–7369 / 67–7367 / 65–7465 / 60–7363 / 57–68

The daily extremes were not used: the correction for elevation, -1203 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 13.6 °C, 1st-percentile night 16.9 °C.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 15 grid cells holding the 17 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 1493:1745 (15.325, -92.725). 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 15 distinct grid cells holding 17 of the 17 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1493:1745 (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 15.50_-92.500, lapse-corrected -1203 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 36 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 Southeast, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Colombia · 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 marker10.55, -85.69 · in the densest population, 164 records (66% of those in range)
Kew's description“tree” · “wet tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 249 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 17 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 222 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 14 km away. 9 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 232 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 249 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Dalbergia retusa, photograph 1did not loadDalbergia retusa, photograph 2did not loadDalbergia retusa, photograph 3did not loadDalbergia retusa, photograph 4did not loadDalbergia retusa, photograph 5did not loadDalbergia retusa, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Yu, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA); SINAC oscar, CC BY-SA, via GBIF (4); David J. Stang, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

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

Calycophyllum candidissimum Calycophyllum candidissimum Dagame Photo: CC BY, Alexis López HernándezJusticia carthaginensis Justicia carthaginensis Acanthaceae Photo: CC BY, Anthony Mora AguilarEncyclia cordigera Encyclia cordigera Large-Lipped Encyclia Photo: CC BY, Alexis López HernándezAristolochia anguicida Aristolochia anguicida Harlequin dutchman's pipe Photo: CC BY, Skjold SøndergaardBravaisia integerrima Bravaisia integerrima Acanthaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedAnthurium cubense Anthurium cubense Cuban anthurium Photo: CC BY, Aidan

Other Dalbergia 18 in the reference

Dalbergia armata Dalbergia armata Thorny Rope Photo: CC BY, Mark CostelloDalbergia assamica Dalbergia assamica Fabaceae Photo: CC0, LannafoliumDalbergia benthamii Dalbergia benthamii Bentham's Rosewood Photo: CC BY, Denys VynokurovDalbergia cochinchinensis Dalbergia cochinchinensis Siamese Rosewood Photo: CC0, PamputtDalbergia ecastaphyllum Dalbergia ecastaphyllum Coinvine Photo: CC BY, Guillaume DelaitreDalbergia hupeana Dalbergia hupeana Hwangdan Photo: Public domain, CiftoniaDalbergia lanceolaria Dalbergia lanceolaria Fabaceae Photo: CC BY, Ravuri Krishna ChaitanyaDalbergia latifolia Dalbergia latifolia Indian rosewood Photo: CC BY, Ravuri Krishna ChaitanyaDalbergia melanoxylon Dalbergia melanoxylon African blackwood Photo: CC BY, Aadi KulkarniDalbergia millettii Dalbergia millettii Fabaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedDalbergia miscolobium Dalbergia miscolobium Fabaceae Photo: CC BY, Marcio Santos FerreiraDalbergia nigra Dalbergia nigra Bahia rosewood Photo: CC BY, Diogo Luiz all 19 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Amerimnon retusum; Machaerium retusum. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Fabaceae
Described by
Hemsl.
Native to
Mexico Southeast, Costa Rica, El Salvador +5
Wild records
249 in range · 222 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 15.50_-92.500, lapse-corrected -1203 m at 6.5 °C/km; read, and set aside: the correction for elevation, -1203 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 2026-10-22IPNI and POWO linked by Kew's number for Dalbergia retusa Hemsl. (the item's: IPNI 75972-2, POWO 490428-1)
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
Wikimedia Commons commons 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 25 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

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