Species
+

Guazuma ulmifolia Lam.

Bastardcedar, Guacima; Bastard cedar, Guásimo, West Indian elm

Climate known 65 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

Guazuma ulmifolia, commonly known as West Indian elm or bay cedar, is a medium-sized tree normally found in pastures and disturbed forests. This flowering plant from the family Malvaceae grows up to 30m in height and 30–40 cm in diameter. It is widely found in areas such as the Caribbean, South America, Central America and Mexico serving several uses that vary from its value in carpentry to its utility in medicine.

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

About the genus · Guazuma

Guazuma is a genus of flowering plants in the family Malvaceae native Mexico and tropical America.

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

Family
Malvaceae
Described by
Lam.
Native to
Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf +37
Wild records
363 in range· 45 open

At a glance

Warmest month
30°C
Apr, mean day; nights 22 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1234mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Sep 206 mm (CHELSA)
Light
30–40DLI
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, June to October at the habitat (not shifted); the temperature curve is flat (3.4 °C of range), so no growing season is inferred. Habitat rain 1234 mm a year, wettest September at 206 mm, driest February at 30 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 30 to 40 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 14.2 °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 Bubroma guasuma Willd.; Bubroma guazuma (L.) Willd.; Bubroma polybotryum (Cav.) Willd.; Bubroma tomentosum (Kunth) Spreng.; Bubroma ulmifolia (Lam.) Oken and 28 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a sharp rainy season, June to October at the habitat (not shifted); the temperature curve is flat (3.4 °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 (873 mm of 1234 mm) falls in June to October. The temperature curve is flat, 3.4 °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; with a flat temperature curve 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 1234 mm a year, wettest September at 206 mm, driest February at 30 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1234 mm a year at the habitat, 873 mm of it June to October. Wettest month September at 206 mm, driest February at 30 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 879 mm to 2147 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: 30 to 40 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 30 to 40 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 48).

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 14.2 °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 14.2 °C, the absolute minimum 11.6 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 38.8 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 19.6 °C in January (across the envelope cells 12.1 °C to 23.5 °C), warmest day 29.8 °C in April (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 14.2 °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: 60 to 65% 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 Apr; mean night from 20 °C in Jan to 24 °C in Jun. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1234 mm of rain a year, most in Sep. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 237 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 11.6 °C and the 99th-percentile day 38.8 °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°38.8° 99th-percentile day (undated)11.6° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 30–40RH 60–65 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 237 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 / 24–3128 / 25–3129 / 26–3330 / 27–3330 / 26–3429 / 25–3329 / 24–3229 / 25–3229 / 26–3129 / 26–3028 / 26–3027 / 24–30
Night °C20 / 12–2420 / 13–2421 / 14–2422 / 16–2523 / 16–2524 / 16–2523 / 16–2523 / 16–2623 / 16–2523 / 16–2521 / 15–2420 / 13–24
Rain mm34 / 9–20530 / 8–16632 / 3–20449 / 3–17494 / 10–241168 / 29–274176 / 37–286187 / 35–288206 / 60–326136 / 60–31274 / 15–22548 / 7–209
DLI32 / 24–3736 / 29–3939 / 33–4440 / 31–4839 / 28–4836 / 26–4236 / 28–4235 / 30–4133 / 30–3832 / 28–3731 / 26–3830 / 23–36
RH %61 / 52–6560 / 51–6560 / 49–6560 / 47–6662 / 51–6763 / 57–6864 / 58–6764 / 57–6865 / 58–6965 / 58–6863 / 55–6762 / 53–66

Each figure is the median across the 237 grid cells holding the 352 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 1382:1837 (20.875, -88.125). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 11.6 °C, 1st-percentile night 14.2 °C, 99th-percentile day 38.8 °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 237 distinct grid cells holding the 352 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1382:1837 (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 21.00_-88.125, lapse-corrected +2 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 24 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, Cayman Is., Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Puerto Rico, Southwest Caribbean, Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuelan Antilles, Windward Is., French Guiana, Guyana, Surinam, Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Galápagos, Peru, Brazil West-Central, Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast, Brazil North, Brazil South, Argentina Northeast, Paraguay· introduced: Mauritius, Réunion, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Vietnam
Kew's description“tree” · “seasonally dry tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker19.395, -103.401 · in the densest population, 124 records (34% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 363 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 45 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 594 km away. 14 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 11 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 363 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Guazuma ulmifoliaGuazuma ulmifoliaGuazuma ulmifoliaGuazuma ulmifoliaGuazuma ulmifoliaGuazuma ulmifoliaGuazuma ulmifoliaGuazuma ulmifolia

Photographs: no rights reserved · CC0; (c) Kurt Miller, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA); (c) Dairon Cuevas Riveras, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (6).

Photographs: iNaturalist and GBIF media 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 Guazuma ulmifolia, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Determination of antibacterial and antioxidant potential of some medicinal plants from Saurashtra Region, India
S. Chanda, Mital Kaneria, Yogesh Baravalia, Yogeshkumar Vaghasiya (2009) · Indian Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences
IMPACTS OF EARLY‐ AND LATE‐SERAL MYCORRHIZAE DURING RESTORATION IN SEASONAL TROPICAL FOREST, MEXICO
Edith B. Allen, Michael F. Allen, Louise M. Egerton‐Warburton, Lea Corkidi (2003) · Ecological Applications
Insolation and photoperiodic control of tree development near the equator
Rolf Borchert, Zoraida Calle, Alan H. Strahler, André Baertschi (2014) · New Phytologist
Guazuma ulmifolia bark-synthesized Ag, Au and Ag/Au alloy nanoparticles: Photocatalytic potential, DNA/protein interactions, anticancer activity and toxicity against 14 species of microbial pathogens
Viswanathan Karthika, Ayyakannu Arumugam, Kasi Gopinath, Periyannan Kaleeswarran (2017) · Journal of Photochemistry and Photobiology B Biology
Antiviral Effect of Guazuma ulmifolia and Stryphnodendron adstringens on Poliovirus and Bovine Herpesvirus
Adriana Meri Mestrimer Felipe, Vinícius Pires Rincão, Fabrı́cio José Benati, Rosa Elisa Carvalho Linhares (2006) · Biological and Pharmaceutical Bulletin
Trees enhance soil carbon sequestration and nutrient cycling in a silvopastoral system in south-western Nicaragua
Marcel R. Hoosbeek, Roy P. Remme, Graciela M. Rusch (2016) · Agroforestry Systems
Agricultural crops in the diet of bearded capuchin monkeys, Cebus libidinosus Spix (Primates: Cebidae), in forest fragments in southeast Brazil
Carlos Henrique de Freitas, Eleonore Zulnara Freire Setz, Alba Regina Barbosa Araújo, Nivar Gobbi (2008) · Revista Brasileira de Zoologia

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 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence search API
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media did not answercarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: api.gbif.org not asked: offline re-derivation
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; 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 10 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.