Species
+

Guaiacum sanctum L.

Bera, Bulabari, Bulubari, Burobari

Climate known 66 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

Guaiacum sanctum, commonly known as holywood, lignum vitae or holywood lignum-vitae, is a species of flowering plant in the creosote bush family, Zygophyllaceae. It is native to the Neotropical realm, from Mexico through Central America, Florida in the United States, the Caribbean, and northern South America. It has been introduced to other tropical areas of the world. It is currently threatened by habitat loss in its native region, and as such, is currently rated near threatened on the IUCN Red List. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Guaiacum sanctum”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Guaiacum

Guaiacum, sometimes spelled Guajacum, is a genus of flowering plants in the caltrop family Zygophyllaceae. It contains five species of slow-growing shrubs and trees, reaching a height of approximately 20 m (66 ft) but usually less than half of that. All are native to subtropical and tropical regions of the Americas and are commonly known as lignum-vitae, guayacán (Spanish), or gaïac (French). More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Guaiacum”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Zygophyllaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Florida, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Southwest +16
Wild records
945 in range· 666 open

At a glance

Warmest month
30°C
Aug, mean day; nights 25 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1189mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Sep 192 mm (CHELSA)
Light
26–42DLI
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 summer growing season, May to October in the northern hemisphere (May to October at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 1189 mm a year, wettest September at 192 mm, driest February at 36 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 26 to 42 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 17.1 °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 Guaiacum guatemalense Herb.Kew.; Guaiacum guatemalense Herb.Kew. ex Brigham; Guaiacum guatemalense Planch.; Guaiacum guatemalense Planch. ex Hemsl.; Guaiacum guatemalense Planch. ex Rydb. & Vail and 7 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, May to October in the northern hemisphere (May 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 (901 mm of 1189 mm) falls in May to October, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 27.0 °C against a yearly mean of 25.8 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November 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 1189 mm a year, wettest September at 192 mm, driest February at 36 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1189 mm a year at the habitat, 901 mm of it May to October. Wettest month September at 192 mm, driest February at 36 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 844 mm to 1715 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: 26 to 42 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 26 to 42 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 23, the highest 90th-percentile month 44).

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 17.1 °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 17.1 °C, the absolute minimum 12.4 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 30.4 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 20.7 °C in January (across the envelope cells 17.3 °C to 23.6 °C), warmest day 29.8 °C in August (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 17.1 °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: 59 to 64% 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 27 °C in Jan to 30 °C in Aug; mean night from 21 °C in Jan to 25 °C in Aug. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1189 mm of rain a year, most in Sep. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 507 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 12.4 °C and the 99th-percentile day 30.4 °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°30.4° 99th-percentile day (undated)12.4° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 26–42RH 59–64 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 507 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 °C27 / 23–3028 / 23–3228 / 24–3329 / 25–3529 / 26–3429 / 27–3330 / 28–3330 / 28–3329 / 28–3228 / 27–3128 / 25–3027 / 24–30
Night °C21 / 17–2421 / 18–2422 / 19–2423 / 20–2524 / 22–2625 / 22–2625 / 22–2725 / 22–2725 / 22–2724 / 21–2623 / 20–2522 / 18–24
Rain mm43 / 7–7336 / 5–5940 / 7–6745 / 20–84117 / 57–222164 / 78–265124 / 63–199154 / 87–242192 / 117–313150 / 93–30476 / 40–13148 / 13–83
DLI27 / 24–3533 / 29–3938 / 35–4342 / 40–4441 / 37–4340 / 34–4341 / 35–4439 / 35–4235 / 31–3931 / 29–3428 / 25–3226 / 23–32
RH %60 / 57–6359 / 56–6259 / 55–6259 / 55–6362 / 57–6564 / 61–6863 / 60–6663 / 61–6764 / 63–6963 / 61–6961 / 59–6660 / 58–64

Each figure is the median across the 507 grid cells holding the 921 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 1274:2057 (26.275, -77.125). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 12.4 °C, 1st-percentile night 17.1 °C, 99th-percentile day 30.4 °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 507 distinct grid cells holding the 921 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1274:2057 (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 26.50_-76.875, lapse-corrected +23 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 23 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.
NativeFlorida, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Aruba, Bahamas, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Netherlands Antilles, Puerto Rico, Turks-Caicos Is.· introduced: Trinidad-Tobago
Kew's description“tree” · “wet tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker21.112, -89.292 · in the densest population, 442 records (47% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 945 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 666 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 276 km away. 20 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 24 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 4° block of the 945 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Guaiacum sanctumGuaiacum sanctumGuaiacum sanctumGuaiacum sanctumGuaiacum sanctumGuaiacum sanctumGuaiacum sanctumGuaiacum sanctum

Photographs: no rights reserved · CC0 (2); (c) Reid Hardin, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Alexis Tinker-Tsavalas, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Ruth Nielsen, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Étienne Léveillé-Bourret, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2).

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

Need for Integrated Research for a Sustainable Future in Tropical Dry Forests
Arturo Sánchez‐Azofeifa, Margaret Kalácska, Maurício Quesada, Julio Calvo‐Alvarado (2005) · Conservation Biology
La vegetación de Calakmul, Campeche, México: clasificación, descripción y distribución
Esteban Martı́nez, Carlos Galindo‐Leal (2002) · Botanical Sciences
Responses to Fire in Selected Tropical Dry Forest Trees 1
Sarah Otterstrom, Mark W. Schwartz, Ileana Velázquez‐Rocha (2006) · Biotropica
Global Ecology and Biogeography
Gordon, J.E., Schreckenberg, Kathrin, Barrance, A.J. (2010) · Global Ecology and Biogeography
Genetic Diversity in the Endangered Tropical Tree, Guaiacum sanctum (Zygophyllaceae)
Eric J. Fuchs, J. L. Hamrick (2010) · Journal of Heredity
Avian Consumption of Guaiacum sanctum Fruit in the Arid Interior of Guatemala
Peter W. Wendelken, Robert F. Martin (1987) · Biotropica
Conservation Assessment of Guaiacum sanctum and Guaiacum coulteri: Historic Distribution and Future Trends in Mexico
Leonel López-Toledo, Constantino González‐Salazar, David F. R. P. Burslem, Miguel Martı́nez-Ramos (2010) · Biotropica
Identificación de especies de árboles en peligro o amenazadas de Costa Rica basada en la anatomía de la madera y fluorescencia
Róger Moya, Michael C. Wiemann, Carlos Olivares (2013) · Revista de Biología Tropical

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 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 68 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.