Species
+

Euphorbia bracteata Jacq.

Euphorbiaceae

Climate known 23 photographs Cactus or succulent
Add one to my plants Sow seed

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

Euphorbia bracteata, the tall slipper plant, emerald bird cactus or little bird flower, is a perennial succulent spurge native to Mexico. It was formerly placed in the genus Pedilanthus, the slipper spurges, and was known as Pedilanthus bracteatus.

Text from Wikipedia, “Euphorbia bracteata”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Euphorbia

Euphorbia is a large and diverse genus of flowering plants, commonly called spurge, in the family Euphorbiaceae.

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

Family
Euphorbiaceae
Described by
Jacq.
Native to
Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Northwest +1
Wild records
97 in range· 61 open

At a glance

Warmest month
30°C
May, mean day; nights 19 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
822mm/yr
6 wet months · peak Aug 206 mm (CHELSA)
Light
27–49DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a cactus or succulent by the genus Euphorbia, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a summer growing season, July to October in the northern hemisphere (July to October at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 822 mm a year, wettest August at 206 mm, driest April at 4 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 27 to 49 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 12.4 °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 Diadenaria articulata Klotzsch & Garcke; Diadenaria involucrata Klotzsch & Garcke; Diadenaria pavonis Klotzsch & Garcke; Pedilanthus articulatus (Klotzsch & Garcke) Boiss.; Pedilanthus bracteatus (Jacq.) Boiss. and 24 more.

Cultivation

Grouped as a cactus or succulent by the genus Euphorbia, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). The table holds no figure for this group, which spans too much for one minimum; the cold floor is the habitat's alone, and no prose comes from the table.

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, July to October in the northern hemisphere (July to October at the habitat, northern).

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

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (648 mm of 822 mm) falls in July to October, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 26.1 °C against a yearly mean of 23.5 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: January to April.

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 822 mm a year, wettest August at 206 mm, driest April at 4 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

822 mm a year at the habitat, 648 mm of it July to October. Wettest month August at 206 mm, driest April at 4 mm; 1 month under 5 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 567 mm to 1281 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern 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: 27 to 49 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 27 to 49 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 25, the highest 90th-percentile month 50).

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 12.4 °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 12.4 °C, the absolute minimum 6.3 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 36.0 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 12.6 °C in January (across the envelope cells 8.1 °C to 17.6 °C), warmest day 29.9 °C in May (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 12.4 °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 68% 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 24 °C in Jan to 30 °C in May; mean night from 13 °C in Jan to 22 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 822 mm of rain a year, most in Aug. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 75 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 6.3 °C and the 99th-percentile day 36.0 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°15°20°25°30°35°40°36.0° 99th-percentile day (undated)6.3° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250300mm rainDLI 27–49RH 54–68 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 75 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 °C24 / 22–2725 / 24–2827 / 25–3029 / 26–3330 / 28–3430 / 25–3430 / 24–3229 / 24–3229 / 23–3129 / 23–3027 / 23–2924 / 22–27
Night °C13 / 8–1813 / 9–1815 / 10–1817 / 13–2019 / 14–2222 / 15–2522 / 15–2622 / 15–2622 / 14–2620 / 13–2517 / 10–2114 / 9–19
Rain mm24 / 12–3112 / 9–175 / 4–154 / 2–2710 / 1–8276 / 22–247180 / 115–262206 / 115–252181 / 98–25281 / 42–10326 / 10–3617 / 6–25
DLI29 / 26–3435 / 31–3942 / 39–4547 / 43–4849 / 42–5042 / 36–4536 / 34–4035 / 33–3932 / 30–3533 / 29–3530 / 27–3427 / 25–32
RH %57 / 49–6556 / 47–6354 / 44–6354 / 44–6356 / 48–6361 / 55–6665 / 59–6866 / 58–6968 / 60–7064 / 57–6760 / 52–6658 / 49–65

Each figure is the median across the 75 grid cells holding the 97 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 1306:1453 (24.675, -107.325). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 6.3 °C, 1st-percentile night 12.4 °C, 99th-percentile day 36.0 °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 75 distinct grid cells holding the 97 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1306:1453 (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 24.50_-107.500, lapse-corrected +56 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 91 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.
NativeMexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southwest
Kew's description“semisucculent shrub” · “desert or dry shrubland”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker23.638, -106.633 · in the densest population, 54 records (56% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 97 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 61 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 4 km away. 19 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 97 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Euphorbia bracteataEuphorbia bracteataEuphorbia bracteataEuphorbia bracteataEuphorbia bracteataEuphorbia bracteataEuphorbia bracteataEuphorbia bracteata

Photographs: (c) Carlos Domínguez-Rodríguez, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Yael Ruiz, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (3); (c) Francisco Farriols Sarabia, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4).

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 Euphorbia bracteata, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2025) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.Org User (2024) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.Org User (2024) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.Org User (2023) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.Org User (2023) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.Org User (2020) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.Org User (2017) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility

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.

Other Euphorbia 29 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (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 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; 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 22 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.