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Heteropterys chrysophylla; photograph Diogo Luiz, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF CC BYDiogo Luiz, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF

Heteropterys chrysophylla (Lam.) Kunth

Malpighiaceae · Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast

Cited as Kew's World Checklist cites it, Heteropterys chrysophylla (Lam.) Kunth: GBIF's backbone key for this page carries the name with another author, (Lam.) DC.

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Sow seed
Heteropterys chrysophylla, photograph BotBN, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia CommonsHeteropterys chrysophylla, photograph Michael Wolf (Webseite), CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia CommonsHeteropterys chrysophylla, photograph Michael Wolf (Webseite), CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons 4 photographs ›
Habitat figuresfrom few records
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
14.8°C
Record low 11.9 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
29°C
Jan and Feb at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,189mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
22–40DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Wet summers: the rain comes April to October (October to April at the habitat), read as a summer growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

From few records: 10 records in 8 grid cells. The records.

Summary

Heteropterys chrysophylla is a species of flowering plant that grows in South America and can be found from Brazil to Argentina.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Heteropterys chrysophylla", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (927 mm of 1,199 mm) falls in October to April, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 25.1 °C against a yearly mean of 23.7 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: April to October.

Rain

1,199 mm in the median year at the habitat, 927 mm of it October to April. Wettest month December at 176 mm, driest month August at 40 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,058 mm to 1,598 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,189 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,199 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, southern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 22 to 40 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 21, the highest 90th-percentile month 41).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 14.8 °C, the absolute minimum 11.9 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 35.0 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 17.8 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range 17.4 °C to 18.5 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 29.3 °C in February (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 14.8 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 62 to 66% 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. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected -95 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. 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 10 records in 8 grid cells; a page says so under 12 records or 5 cells, and shows the figures as read.

Habitat months, southern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Heteropterys chrysophylla through the yearWarmest months January and February, mean daily high 29 °C; coldest month July, mean nightly low 17.8 °C; 1,199 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, southern hemisphere.10°15°20°25°30°35°40°35.0° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER11.9° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250mm rainDLI 22–40RH 62–66%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 8 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C29 / 28–3029 / 28–3028 / 27–2927 / 26–2825 / 25–2624 / 24–2524 / 23–2525 / 23–2525 / 24–2626 / 24–2727 / 25–2828 / 27–29
Night °C24 / 23–2424 / 23–2424 / 23–2422 / 21–2320 / 20–2118 / 18–1918 / 17–1918 / 18–1919 / 19–2020 / 20–2122 / 21–2223 / 22–23
Rain mm159 / 147–232104 / 89–172132 / 122–19699 / 94–12564 / 55–8348 / 42–6247 / 43–6640 / 36–5473 / 64–97108 / 82–120149 / 102–196176 / 142–211
DLI39 / 38–4040 / 39–4134 / 34–3529 / 29–3024 / 23–2522 / 21–2323 / 22–2427 / 27–2829 / 29–3134 / 33–3536 / 35–3737 / 37–38
RH %66 / 65–6665 / 64–6666 / 65–6665 / 64–6564 / 63–6463 / 61–6463 / 61–6362 / 62–6463 / 62–6464 / 63–6565 / 65–6666 / 65–66
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 8 grid cells holding the 10 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 2260:2730 (-23.025, -43.475). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 11.9 °C, 1st-percentile night 14.8 °C, 99th-percentile day 35.0 °C. 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 8 distinct grid cells holding 10 of the 10 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2260:2730 (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 -23.00_-43.750, lapse-corrected -95 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 5 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.
NativeBrazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast · 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 marker-20.617, -40.467 · in the densest population, 45 records (39% of those in range)
Kew's description“climber” · “wet tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 114 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 10 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 107 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker in the same place. 4 records outside the WCVP native range not used. Under a dozen records behind the climate. 104 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 114 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Heteropterys chrysophylla, photograph 1did not loadHeteropterys chrysophylla, photograph 2did not loadHeteropterys chrysophylla, photograph 3did not load

Photographs: BotBN, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons; Michael Wolf (Webseite), CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (2).

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

Ceiba erianthos Ceiba erianthos Malvaceae Photo: CC BY, Paulo NogueiraPeperomia incana Peperomia incana Piperaceae Photo: CC BY, Victor Farjalla PontesAndira legalis Andira legalis Fabaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedColeocephalocereus fluminensis Coleocephalocereus fluminensis Cactaceae Photo: CC BY, fmunoz Eugenia sulcata Myrtaceae Campomanesia espiritosantensis Myrtaceae

Other Heteropterys 2 in the reference

Heteropterys glabra Heteropterys glabra Red wing Photo: CC BY, Cecilia Fer DíazHeteropterys syringifolia Heteropterys syringifolia Malpighiaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, JP Corrêa Carvalho

Names & registers

Also known as Banisteria chrysophylla; Banisteria monoptera; Heteropteris chrysophylla; Heteropterys chrysophylla f. longifolia; Heteropterys chrysophylla var. chrysophylla and 1 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipedia

The record

Family
Malpighiaceae
Described by
(Lam.) Kunth
Native to
Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast
Wild records
114 in range · 107 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 2026-10-22GBIF's key 7285287 is Heteropterys chrysophylla (Lam.) DC.; the page links Kew's Heteropterys chrysophylla (Lam.) Kunth, and the name is cited as Kew cites it
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; 3 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (2 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 1 at a herbarium; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -23.00_-43.750, lapse-corrected -95 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist taxon inat.taxon not asked
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild not asked
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikimedia Commons commons answeredasked 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 34 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…