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Gentiana sedifolia; photograph (c) Andrés Romero Bravo, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Andrés Romero Bravo, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-09-14

Gentiana sedifolia Kunth

Gentianaceae · Mexico Southeast, Costa Rica +6

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Gentiana sedifolia, photograph (c) Andrés Romero Bravo, some rights reserved (CC BY)Gentiana sedifolia, photograph (c) Andrés Romero Bravo, some rights reserved (CC BY)Gentiana sedifolia, photograph (c) Denis Zabin, some rights reserved (CC BY)Gentiana sedifolia, photograph (c) Denis Zabin, some rights reserved (CC BY)Gentiana sedifolia, photograph (c) Pablo Bombín, some rights reserved (CC BY)Gentiana sedifolia, photograph (c) Alfredo Gutierrez Dipaz, some rights reserved (CC BY) 74 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
-3.0°C
Record low -5.3 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
12°C
Oct and Nov at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,792mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
29–36DLI
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, October to April (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

Gentiana sedifolia is a species of plant in the family Gentianaceae. It can be found in regions from Costa Rica to northern Chile.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Gentiana sedifolia", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a sharp season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,310 mm of 1,663 mm) falls in October to April. The temperature curve is flat, 1.9 °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 habitat lies within 10° of the equator, where the shift rule does not apply, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

Rain

1,663 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,310 mm of it October to April. Wettest month March at 235 mm, driest month July at 50 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,007 mm to 3,225 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,792 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,663 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: 29 to 36 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 46).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is -3.0 °C, the absolute minimum -5.3 °C, 3,783 frost nights in 44 years, 86.0 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 13.3 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 1.0 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range -4.7 °C to 6.1 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 11.8 °C in November (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -3.0 °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: 62 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. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected +909 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 Gentiana sedifolia through the yearWarmest months October and November, mean daily high 12 °C; coldest month July, mean nightly low 1.0 °C; 1,663 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.-10°-5°0°5°10°15°20°frost13.3° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-5.3° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 29–36RH 62–69%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 498 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 °C11 / 8–1511 / 8–1511 / 8–1511 / 8–1511 / 8–1511 / 7–1410 / 7–1411 / 7–1511 / 8–1612 / 9–1612 / 9–1611 / 9–15
Night °C4 / -1–84 / -1–84 / -1–84 / -2–83 / -3–72 / -4–71 / -5–61 / -4–62 / -3–73 / -2–73 / -2–74 / -1–8
Rain mm197 / 90–398207 / 119–342235 / 136–347171 / 61–34896 / 15–34764 / 8–28550 / 7–23756 / 14–21787 / 31–256150 / 65–331169 / 90–321181 / 104–310
DLI32 / 28–4132 / 28–4131 / 27–4030 / 25–3830 / 25–3729 / 24–3531 / 26–3734 / 29–4036 / 30–4335 / 28–4633 / 27–4632 / 28–44
RH %68 / 64–7369 / 64–7369 / 64–7368 / 61–7265 / 54–7263 / 50–7262 / 49–7162 / 51–7064 / 55–6966 / 58–7066 / 59–7067 / 61–71
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 498 grid cells holding the 1113 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 1833:2023 (-1.675, -78.825). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -5.3 °C, 1st-percentile night -3.0 °C, 99th-percentile day 13.3 °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 498 distinct grid cells holding 1113 of the 1113 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1833:2023 (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 -1.50_-78.750, lapse-corrected +909 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 3912 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, Panama, Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru · 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-0.563, -78.478 · in the densest population, 589 records (42% of those in range)
Kew's description“annual or perennial” · “montane tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 1404 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 1113 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 561 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 17 km away. 9 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 291 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 1404 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Gentiana sedifolia, photograph 1did not loadGentiana sedifolia, photograph 2did not loadGentiana sedifolia, photograph 3did not loadGentiana sedifolia, photograph 4did not loadGentiana sedifolia, photograph 5did not loadGentiana sedifolia, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Andrés Romero Bravo, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Denis Zabin, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Pablo Bombín, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Alfredo Gutierrez Dipaz, some rights reserved (CC BY).

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

Werneria nubigena Werneria nubigena Asteraceae Photo: CC BY, Dick Culbert from Gibsons, B.C., CanadaMuehlenbeckia volcanica Muehlenbeckia volcanica Polygonaceae Photo: CC BY, Yuri SofronovPlantago sericea Plantago sericea Plantaginaceae Photo: CC BY, Staci OréValeriana rigida Valeriana rigida Caprifoliaceae Photo: CC BY, Denis ZabinPlantago rigida Plantago rigida Plantaginaceae Photo: CC BY, Denis ZabinGentianella cerastioides Gentianella cerastioides Gentianaceae Photo: CC BY, Denis Zabin

Other Gentiana 103 in the reference

Gentiana acaulis Gentiana acaulis Gentian Photo: CC BY, Antoine ThivolleGentiana affinis Gentiana affinis Pleated gentian Photo: CC0, author not statedGentiana alba Gentiana alba Gentianaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedGentiana algida Gentiana algida Whitish gentian Photo: CC0, author not statedGentiana alpina Gentiana alpina Southern gentian Photo: CC BY, Antoine MARNATGentiana andrewsii Gentiana andrewsii Andrews' bottle gentian Photo: CC BY, FunkyRatGentiana angustifolia Gentiana angustifolia Gentianaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedGentiana arethusae Gentiana arethusae Gentianaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Philippe.pechouxGentiana arisanensis Gentiana arisanensis Alishan gentian Photo: CC BY, 如此甚好Gentiana asclepiadea Gentiana asclepiadea Willow gentian Photo: CC BY, Flavien SaboureauGentiana autumnalis Gentiana autumnalis Pine barren gentian Photo: CC0, author not statedGentiana bavarica Gentiana bavarica Gentianaceae Photo: CC BY, Elias all 104 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Ericala sedifolia; Ericoila sedifolia; Gentiana casapaltensis; Gentiana cespitosa; Gentiana chimboracensis and 15 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Gentianaceae
Described by
Kunth
Native to
Mexico Southeast, Costa Rica, Panama +5
Wild records
1404 in range · 561 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; 3 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (1 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 2 at a herbarium; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -1.50_-78.750, lapse-corrected +909 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
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
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 66 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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