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Gunnera magnifica; photograph (c) William Stephens, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) William Stephens, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2018-02-14

Gunnera magnifica H.St.John

Gunneraceae · Colombia

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Habitat figuresfrom few records
Coldest month, mean nightly low
3.8°C
Jul at the habitat, not a floor; extremes not used (the weather cell's ground is too far off) CHELSA
Warmest month, mean daily high
13°C
Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jul, Aug and Sep at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
3,436mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
26–36DLI
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, March to May and September to December (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.

From few records: 8 records in 3 grid cells. The records.

Summary

Gunnera magnifica, commonly called hoja de pantano, is a large herbaceous shrub or tree-like plant native to the montane rainforests of the Colombian Andes in Caldas Province. It can grow as tall as 4.7 m (15 ft). The lower stem is decumbent and rhizomatous, while the upper stem curves upright and palm-like. This pachycaul stem is up to 40 cm (16 in) thick. More on Wikipedia ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Gunnera magnifica", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Gunnera

Gunnera is the sole genus of herbaceous flowering plants in the family Gunneraceae, which contains 63 species. Some species in this genus, namely those in the subgenus Panke, have extremely large leaves. Species in the genus are variously native to Latin America, Australia, New Zealand, Papuasia, Hawaii, insular Southeast Asia, eastern Africa, and Madagascar. More on Wikipedia ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Gunnera", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a sharp season: 70% of the median year's rain (2,443 mm of 3,422 mm) falls in March to May and September to December. The temperature curve is flat, 0.9 °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. 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

3,422 mm in the median year at the habitat, 2,443 mm of it March to May and September to December. Wettest month October at 429 mm, driest month July at 147 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 3,076 mm to 3,658 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 3,436 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 3,422 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: 26 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 25, the highest 90th-percentile month 38).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 3.8 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range 3.2 °C to 7.2 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 13.2 °C in August and September (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: none read. The nearest figure is 3.8 °C, the coldest month's mean nightly low, July, in the median year (CHELSA); a month's mean of its nightly lows is warmer than the nights a floor is read from. The daily extremes were read at a weather cell whose ground is too far above or below the typical spot to correct for, and are not used.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 66 to 71% 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. CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. No cold floor is read without a daily extremes series; the coldest month's mean nightly low named in its sentence is not one. 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

From few records: this habitat climate is read from 8 records in 3 grid cells; a page says so under 12 records or 5 cells, and shows the figures as read.

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Gunnera magnifica through the yearWarmest months February, March, April, May, July, August and September, mean daily high 13 °C; coldest month July, mean nightly low 3.8 °C; 3,422 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.0°5°10°15°20°°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 26–36RH 66–71%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 3 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C12 / 12–1613 / 12–1613 / 13–1613 / 12–1613 / 12–1612 / 12–1613 / 12–1613 / 13–1613 / 13–1612 / 12–1612 / 11–1512 / 12–15
Night °C4 / 4–85 / 4–85 / 4–85 / 5–95 / 5–95 / 4–84 / 3–74 / 3–74 / 4–75 / 4–85 / 4–84 / 4–8
Rain mm200 / 182–206232 / 206–248304 / 276–322406 / 374–422388 / 350–415236 / 199–266147 / 109–181164 / 118–207276 / 222–321429 / 407–430386 / 384–396254 / 244–256
DLI31 / 30–3131 / 31–3332 / 30–3429 / 26–3329 / 25–3231 / 26–3434 / 29–3736 / 32–3834 / 30–3729 / 27–3126 / 25–2727 / 27–28
RH %66 / 65–6966 / 66–6967 / 67–7069 / 68–7270 / 70–7471 / 69–7769 / 68–7569 / 67–7370 / 69–7369 / 68–7168 / 68–7167 / 67–70

The daily extremes were not used: the correction for elevation, +1425 m, is beyond the 1,000 m either way that a lapse rate is applied over, so the weather cell's ground is other terrain than the typical spot's. So no cold floor is read for this species, and the coldest month's mean nightly low is not taken as one. What that cell gave, so corrected, over 44 years: absolute minimum -2.8 °C, 1st-percentile night 0.4 °C.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 3 grid cells holding the 8 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 1700:2092 (4.975, -75.375). 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 3 distinct grid cells holding 8 of the 8 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1700:2092 (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 5.00_-75.625, lapse-corrected +1425 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 3563 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.
NativeColombia · 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 marker4.983, -75.383 · in the densest population, 10 records (83% of those in range)
Kew's description“perennial or rhizomatous geophyte” · “montane tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 12 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 8 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 7 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 3 km away. 1 record outside the WCVP native range not used. Under a dozen records behind the climate. 4 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 12 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

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

Andicolea colombiana Andicolea colombiana Asteraceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Jose David Niño VelasquezOritrophium peruvianum Oritrophium peruvianum Asteraceae Photo: CC BY, Yuri SofronovSenecio formosus Senecio formosus Asteraceae Photo: CC0, author not statedSenecio niveoaureus Senecio niveoaureus Asteraceae Photo: CC0, author not statedValeriana pilosa Valeriana pilosa Caprifoliaceae Photo: CC BY, Emma OxfordCarex pichinchensis Carex pichinchensis Cyperaceae Photo: CC BY, Yuri Sofronov

Other Gunnera 24 in the reference

Gunnera albocarpa Gunneraceae Gunnera berteroi Gunnera berteroi Gunneraceae Photo: CC0, Matias Adolfo González Tobar Gunnera bogotana Gunneraceae Gunnera bracteata Gunnera bracteata Gunneraceae Photo: CC BY, Flavien SaboureauGunnera brephogea Gunnera brephogea Gunneraceae Photo: CC BY, EstebanMHGunnera cordifolia Gunnera cordifolia Gunneraceae Photo: CC BY, Nina Kerr Gunnera × cryptica Gunneraceae Gunnera densiflora Gunnera densiflora Gunneraceae Photo: CC BY, Alice ShanksGunnera dentata Gunnera dentata Gunneraceae Photo: CC BY, Lorraine Cook Gunnera diazii Gunneraceae Gunnera flavida Gunneraceae Gunnera hamiltonii Gunnera hamiltonii Gunneraceae Photo: CC BY, Irisa Hudson all 25 ›

Names & registers

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Gunneraceae
Described by
H.St.John
Native to
Colombia
Wild records
12 in range · 7 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
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 5.00_-75.625, lapse-corrected +1425 m at 6.5 °C/km; read, and set aside: the correction for elevation, +1425 m, is beyond the 1,000 m either way that a lapse rate is applied over, so the weather cell's ground is other terrain than the typical spot's, so no cold floor is shown
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22IPNI and POWO linked by Kew's number for Gunnera magnifica H.St.John (the item's: IPNI 430164-1, POWO 114797-2)
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 2026-10-22none of the photographs on this page is credited to GBIF: those shown are other sources', and GBIF's were the same photographs or were set aside by the photograph rules
Wikimedia Commons commons nothing to reportasked 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 4 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

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