Species
+

Hamelia patens Jacq.

Firebush, Mexican Firecracker, Scarletbush, Scarletbush

Climate known 69 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

Hamelia patens is a large evergreen perennial shrub or small tree in the family Rubiaceae, that is native to the American subtropics and tropics. Its range extends from Florida in the southern United States to as far south as Argentina. Common names include firebush, hummingbird bush, scarlet bush, and redhead. In Belize, this plant's Mayan name is Ix Canaan and is also known as "Guardian of the Forest".

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

About the genus · Hamelia

Hamelia is a genus of flowering plants in the coffee family, Rubiaceae. The name honors French botanist Henri-Louis Duhamel du Monceau (1700–1782).

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

Family
Rubiaceae
Described by
Jacq.
Native to
Florida, Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast +36
Wild records
1754 in range· 958 open

At a glance

Warmest month
29°C
Aug, mean day; nights 23 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1511mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Sep 218 mm (CHELSA)
Light
25–40DLI
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 summer growing season, May to October in the northern hemisphere (May to October at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 1511 mm a year, wettest September at 218 mm, driest January at 62 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 25 to 40 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 15.1 °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 Duhamelia odorata Willd.; Duhamelia odorata Willd. ex Schult.; Duhamelia patens (Jacq.) Pers.; Duhamelia sphaerocarpa (Ruiz & Pav.) Pers.; Hamelia brachystemon Wernham and 25 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 (1101 mm of 1511 mm) falls in May to October, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 25.9 °C against a yearly mean of 24.1 °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 1511 mm a year, wettest September at 218 mm, driest January at 62 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1511 mm a year at the habitat, 1101 mm of it May to October. Wettest month September at 218 mm, driest January at 62 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1126 mm to 3087 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: 25 to 40 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 25 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 20, the highest 90th-percentile month 43).

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 15.1 °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 15.1 °C, the absolute minimum 13.4 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 31.5 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 17.7 °C in January (across the envelope cells 11.0 °C to 22.6 °C), warmest day 29.3 °C in August (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 15.1 °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: 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 25 °C in Jan to 29 °C in Aug; mean night from 18 °C in Jan to 23 °C in Aug. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1511 mm of rain a year, most in Sep. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 1312 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 13.4 °C and the 99th-percentile day 31.5 °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°31.5° 99th-percentile day (undated)13.4° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 25–40RH 60–65 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 1312 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 °C25 / 20–2926 / 21–3027 / 23–3128 / 24–3329 / 25–3329 / 24–3229 / 24–3229 / 24–3229 / 24–3128 / 24–3026 / 22–2925 / 21–29
Night °C18 / 11–2318 / 12–2319 / 14–2320 / 16–2422 / 16–2523 / 16–2523 / 16–2523 / 16–2623 / 16–2521 / 16–2420 / 15–2319 / 12–23
Rain mm62 / 19–19763 / 14–17465 / 15–20367 / 28–225119 / 63–328208 / 101–378191 / 84–375203 / 83–387218 / 123–420162 / 81–38287 / 45–30566 / 25–228
DLI26 / 21–3530 / 26–3735 / 31–4039 / 29–4340 / 26–4337 / 25–4037 / 25–4136 / 28–4032 / 29–3629 / 26–3426 / 22–3325 / 20–33
RH %62 / 58–6961 / 57–6860 / 56–6860 / 56–6963 / 58–7065 / 61–7164 / 60–7164 / 60–7165 / 62–7265 / 60–7263 / 59–7162 / 58–70

Each figure is the median across the 1312 grid cells holding the 1712 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 1604:1916 (9.775, -84.175). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 13.4 °C, 1st-percentile night 15.1 °C, 99th-percentile day 31.5 °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 1312 distinct grid cells holding the 1712 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1604:1916 (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 10.00_-84.375, lapse-corrected +329 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 986 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 Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Bahamas, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Puerto Rico, Southwest Caribbean, Trinidad-Tobago, Windward Is., French Guiana, Guyana, Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil West-Central, Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast, Brazil North, Brazil South, Argentina Northeast, Argentina Northwest, Paraguay· introduced: West Himalaya, Myanmar, Malaya
Kew's description“shrub or tree” · “seasonally dry tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker26.39, -80.117 · in the densest population, 395 records (23% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1754 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 958 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 276 km away. 68 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 42 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 of the 1754 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Hamelia patensHamelia patensHamelia patensHamelia patensHamelia patensHamelia patensHamelia patensHamelia patens

Photographs: (c) Ricard Busquets Reverte, some rights reserved (CC BY) (5); (c) Ben Machado, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3).

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

Effect of discriminative plant-sugar feeding on the survival and fecundity of Anopheles gambiae
Hortance Manda, Louis‐Clément Gouagna, Woodbridge A. Foster, Robert R. Jackson (2007) · Malaria Journal
Ethnopharmacology of the Popoluca, Mexico: an evaluation
Marco Leonti, Heike Vibrans, Otto Sticher, Michael Heinrich (2001) · Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmacology
Frugivory in Some Migrant Tropical Forest Wood Warblers
Russell Greenberg (1981) · Biotropica
Biosynthesis of kratom opioids
Kyung‐Hee Kim, Mohammadamin Shahsavarani, Jorge Jonathan Oswaldo Garza‐García, Jack Edward Carlisle (2023) · New Phytologist
Phenolic content and antibacterial activity of extracts of Hamelia patens obtained by different extraction methods
Jorge E. Wong‐Paz, Carolina Rubio Contreras, Abigail Reyes Munguía, Cristóbal N. Aguilar (2017) · Brazilian Journal of Microbiology
Herbivore-induced changes in fruit-frugivore interactions
Susan R. Whitehead, Katja Poveda (2011) · Journal of Ecology
Screening of Venezuelan Medicinal Plant Extracts for Cytostatic and Cytotoxic Activity Against Tumor Cell Lines
Peter Taylor, Miriam Arsenak, María Jesús Abad, Ángel Fernández (2012) · Phytotherapy Research
Free radical scavenging potential of some Indian medicinal plants
Arvind Kumar, Rajbir Kaur, Arora Saroj (2010) · Journal of Medicinal Plants Research
Biofabrication of broad range antibacterial and antibiofilm silver nanoparticles
Shariq Qayyum, Asad U. Khan (2016) · IET Nanobiotechnology
Methanol Extracts of Hamelia patens Containing Oxindole Alkaloids Relax KCl-Induced Contraction in Rat Myometrium
Ricardo Reyes‐Chilpa, Jesús Antonio Amezola Rivera, Martha Oropeza, Pilar Mendoza (2004) · Biological and Pharmaceutical Bulletin

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