67 photographs › At a glance
- Jan
- Feb
- Mar
- Apr, under 5 mm of rain
- May, under 5 mm of rain
- Jun
- Jul, shaded
- Aug, shaded
- Sep, shaded
- Oct
- Nov
- Dec
About the genus · Fouquieria
Fouquieria is a genus of 11 species of desert flowering plants, the sole genus in the family Fouquieriaceae. The genus is native to North America and includes the ocotillo and the Boojum tree or cirio. They have semi succulent stems with thinner spikes projecting from them, with leaves on the bases of the spikes. More on Wikipedia ›
Quoted from Wikipedia, "Fouquieria", CC BY-SA 4.0.
Cultivation
Seasons
The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (372 mm of 530 mm) falls in July to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 28.7 °C against a yearly mean of 23.3 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: January to March.
Rain
530 mm in the median year at the habitat, 372 mm of it July to September. Wettest month July at 141 mm, driest month May at 2 mm; 2 months under 5 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 370 mm to 832 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 529 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 530 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: 25 to 52 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 23, the highest 90th-percentile month 53).
Warmth and air
Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 4.4 °C, the absolute minimum -3.0 °C, 7 frost nights in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 43.8 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 9.7 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 5.4 °C to 13.3 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 36.0 °C in June (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 4.4 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).
Relative humidity at the habitat: 43 to 60% 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 -46 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, northern hemisphere
Mean daily high from 23 °C in Jan and Dec to 36 °C in Jun; mean nightly low from 10 °C in Jan and Dec to 25 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Nov to Jan, is the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low, centred on the 2 months in a row that tie for it. 530 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added), the wettest month Jul. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 203 habitat cells. Over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER) the absolute minimum was -3.0 °C and the 99th-percentile day 43.8 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.
Figures by month
| Figure | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day °C | 23 / 20–27 | 25 / 22–28 | 27 / 24–30 | 31 / 27–33 | 34 / 30–36 | 36 / 32–39 | 34 / 31–38 | 34 / 31–36 | 33 / 30–35 | 31 / 28–34 | 27 / 24–30 | 23 / 20–27 |
| Night °C | 10 / 5–13 | 11 / 6–14 | 12 / 8–15 | 15 / 11–17 | 18 / 15–20 | 23 / 19–24 | 25 / 20–27 | 24 / 20–27 | 23 / 19–26 | 19 / 14–23 | 14 / 9–18 | 10 / 6–14 |
| Rain mm | 26 / 19–43 | 17 / 11–30 | 7 / 4–17 | 4 / 1–9 | 2 / 0–8 | 18 / 5–52 | 141 / 68–228 | 135 / 91–216 | 96 / 62–164 | 36 / 20–69 | 19 / 14–30 | 29 / 21–45 |
| DLI | 27 / 25–28 | 33 / 31–34 | 42 / 41–42 | 48 / 47–49 | 52 / 50–53 | 50 / 45–52 | 42 / 35–45 | 39 / 34–41 | 37 / 32–38 | 34 / 33–35 | 28 / 27–30 | 25 / 23–26 |
| RH % | 52 / 47–59 | 50 / 46–57 | 47 / 43–55 | 44 / 40–54 | 43 / 38–54 | 49 / 41–58 | 58 / 51–63 | 60 / 55–67 | 58 / 53–68 | 52 / 47–62 | 50 / 46–59 | 52 / 48–59 |
How this section is made
Natural habitat
How this section is made
Photographs
Photographs: (c) Sue Carnahan, some rights reserved (CC BY) (6).
Related
Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.
Bursera laxiflora Burseraceae Photo: CC BY, Jonathan Rodriguez
Jatropha cordata Euphorbiaceae Photo: CC BY, Sue Carnahan
Piscidia mollis Fabaceae Photo: CC BY, Enrique Martínez Núñez Hymenocallis sonorensis Amaryllidaceae 
Cochlospermum gonzalezii Cochlospermaceae Photo: CC0, Stickpen
Cochemiea mainiae Cactaceae Photo: CC BY, Rodrigo Osvaldo Borbon VázquezOther Fouquieria 8 in the reference
Fouquieria burragei Pichilingue Photo: CC BY, Abraham Sánchez Romero
Fouquieria columnaris Boojum tree Photo: CC BY, Trevor Harding
Fouquieria diguetii Adam's tree Photo: CC0, author not stated
Fouquieria fasciculata Fouquieriaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Stan Shebs
Fouquieria formosa Fouquieriaceae Photo: CC BY, Alexis López Hernández
Fouquieria ochoterenae Fouquieriaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Eugenio Padilla
Fouquieria purpusii Fouquieriaceae Photo: Public domain, Tangopaso
Fouquieria splendens Vine-cactus Photo: CC BY, Justin Williams Names & registers
Also known as Fouquieria jaboncillo. (GBIF Backbone)
Under another author Echeveria paniculata Moc. & Sessé and Echeveria paniculata Moc. & Sessé ex DC. is an older name of this species, not Echeveria paniculata, a species of the reference. (GBIF Backbone)
The record
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 answeredasked 2026-10-22gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 11 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (3 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 1 at a herbarium, 7 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)climate answeredasked 2026-10-22climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 28.50_-110.625, lapse-corrected -46 m at 6.5 °C/kmwikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22wikipedia nothing to reportasked 2026-10-22inat.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 2026-10-22inat.photos.cultivated not askedgbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshotEvery 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 35 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.