Species
+

Gliricidia sepium (Jacq.) Kunth

Bulë́gli, Fence Post Tree, Nicaraguan cocoashade, Quickstick

Climate known 14 photographs
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

Gliricidia sepium, often simply referred to as gliricidia or by its Spanish common name madre de cacao, is a medium size leguminous tree belonging to the family Fabaceae. It is an important multi-purpose legume tree, with a native range from Mexico to Colombia, but now widely introduced to other tropical zones.

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

About the genus · Gliricidia

Gliricidia is a genus of flowering plants in the legume family, Fabaceae and tribe Robinieae. Its native range is Mexico to Peru, but Gliricidia sepium has been widely introduced to other tropical zones.

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

Family
Fabaceae
Described by
(Jacq.) Kunth
Native to
Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf +14
Wild records
911 in range· 411 open

At a glance

Warmest month
30°C
Apr, mean day; nights 23 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1522mm/yr
10 wet months · peak Sep 220 mm (CHELSA)
Light
29–38DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: a sharp rainy season, May to October at the habitat (not shifted); the temperature curve is flat (1.9 °C of range), so no growing season is inferred. Habitat rain 1522 mm a year, wettest September at 220 mm, driest January at 23 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 29 to 38 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 19.4 °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 Gliricidia lambii Fernald; Gliricidia maculata (Kunth) Walp.; Gliricidia maculata Kunth; Gliricidia maculata var. multijuga Micheli; Gliricidia maculata var. multijuga Micheli ex Donn.Sm. and 9 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a sharp rainy season, May to October at the habitat (not shifted); the temperature curve is flat (1.9 °C of range), so no growing season is inferred.

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

The rain rule reads a sharp season: 70% of the year's rain (1161 mm of 1522 mm) falls in May to October. 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, northern hemisphere, within 10° of the equator; with no thermal season there there is no season to reverse, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

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 1522 mm a year, wettest September at 220 mm, driest January at 23 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1522 mm a year at the habitat, 1161 mm of it May to October. Wettest month September at 220 mm, driest January at 23 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 996 mm to 2957 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: 29 to 38 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 29 to 38 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 24, the highest 90th-percentile month 45).

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 19.4 °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 19.4 °C, the absolute minimum 17.4 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 37.9 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 21.3 °C in January (across the envelope cells 15.1 °C to 24.1 °C), warmest day 30.4 °C in April (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 19.4 °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: 61 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 28 °C in Nov to 30 °C in Apr; mean night from 21 °C in Jan to 23 °C in May. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1522 mm of rain a year, most in Sep. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 398 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 17.4 °C and the 99th-percentile day 37.9 °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°37.9° 99th-percentile day (undated)17.4° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 29–38RH 61–68 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 398 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 °C29 / 24–3229 / 25–3330 / 26–3330 / 27–3330 / 26–3329 / 26–3229 / 26–3229 / 26–3229 / 25–3128 / 25–3028 / 25–3028 / 24–30
Night °C21 / 15–2422 / 16–2522 / 16–2523 / 18–2523 / 19–2523 / 18–2523 / 18–2523 / 18–2523 / 18–2523 / 18–2522 / 17–2422 / 16–24
Rain mm23 / 6–11424 / 6–11537 / 5–16488 / 14–234176 / 51–332183 / 116–353176 / 115–354198 / 139–364220 / 153–428208 / 98–401136 / 27–28553 / 11–172
DLI33 / 25–3636 / 30–3938 / 34–4337 / 32–4533 / 29–4333 / 28–3934 / 30–4034 / 30–3932 / 29–3630 / 27–3429 / 25–3330 / 24–33
RH %63 / 55–6861 / 54–6761 / 54–6764 / 55–6966 / 57–7167 / 61–7167 / 60–7067 / 61–7168 / 63–7268 / 62–7267 / 60–7265 / 57–70

Each figure is the median across the 398 grid cells holding the 901 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 1590:1898 (10.475, -85.075). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 17.4 °C, 1st-percentile night 19.4 °C, 99th-percentile day 37.9 °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 398 distinct grid cells holding the 901 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1590:1898 (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 10.50_-85.000, lapse-corrected -181 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 200 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 Gulf, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Southwest Caribbean, Colombia, Brazil North, Brazil South· introduced: Benin, Burkina, Ghana, Guinea, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Cameroon, Tanzania, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Comoros, Seychelles, Assam, Bangladesh, East Himalaya, India, Laccadive Is., Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, West Himalaya, Andaman Is., Myanmar, Nicobar Is., Borneo, Jawa, Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Philippines, Bismarck Archipelago, New Guinea, Queensland, Western Australia, Gilbert Is., Vanuatu, Society Is., Caroline Is., Marianas, Marshall Is., Hawaii, Florida, Aruba, Cayman Is., Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Netherlands Antilles, Puerto Rico, Trinidad-Tobago, Windward Is., French Guiana, Guyana, Surinam, Venezuela, Ecuador, Brazil West-Central, Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast
Kew's description“shrub or tree” · “seasonally dry tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker9.29, -75.433 · in the densest population, 525 records (58% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 911 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 411 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 40 km away. 212 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 10 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 2° block of the 911 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Gliricidia sepiumGliricidia sepiumGliricidia sepiumGliricidia sepiumGliricidia sepiumGliricidia sepiumGliricidia sepiumGliricidia sepium

Photographs: Efra González, CC BY-SA, via GBIF (2); monkeyjodey, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIF (4); Quentin Groom, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIF; Isaac Chacón, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF.

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

Detection of genetic variation between and within populations of Gliricidia sepium and G. maculata using RAPD markers
K. J. Chalmers, Robbie Waugh, Janet I. Sprent, Anthony Simons (1992) · Heredity
Phytosynthesis of Silver Nanoparticle Using Gliricidia sepium (Jacq.)
Rajesh W. Raut, R. Lakkakula, Sanjay S. Kolekar, D. Mendhulkar (2009) · Current Nanoscience
Tropical Forest Restoration: Tree Islands As Recruitment Foci In Degraded Lands Of Honduras
Rakan A. Zahawi, Carol K. Augspurger (2006) · Ecological Applications
Efficacy of homemade botanical insecticides based on traditional knowledge. A review
Julien Dougoud, Stefan Toepfer, Melanie Bateman, W. H. Jenner (2019) · Agronomy for Sustainable Development
Impact of Gliricidia sepium intercropping on soil organic matter fractions in a maize-based cropping system
Tracy Beedy, Sieglinde S. Snapp, Festus K. Akinnifesi, Gudeta W. Sileshi (2010) · Agriculture Ecosystems & Environment

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.

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 not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: not asked: 15 wild photographs already from the GBIF download
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: filled 2026-09-20
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 147 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.