Ibervillea sonorae (S.Watson) Greene
wareque
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
Ibervillea sonorae is a tuberous perennial plant in the Cucurbitaceae family known by the common names wereke, wareque, guarequi, and coyote melon. It is a highly variable species characterized by a large, succulent tuberous root, which in the dry sand of its native habitat resembles a gray, dust-covered boulder. Emerging from the root yearly are long, flexible liana-like shoots, which reach a length of three or more meters. This species is native to northwestern Mexico, being found in the states of Baja California, Baja California Sur, Sonora and Sinaloa.
Text from Wikipedia, “Ibervillea sonorae”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.
About the genus · Ibervillea
Ibervillea is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Cucurbitaceae.
Text from Wikipedia, “Ibervillea”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.
At a glance
Also known as Ibervillea sonorae var. peninsularis (I.M.Johnst.) Wiggins; Ibervillea sonorae var. sonorae; Maximowiczia sonorae S.Watson; Maximowiczia sonorae var. brevicaulis I.M.Johnst.; Maximowiczia sonorae var. peninsularis I.M.Johnst. and 1 more.
Cultivation
Grouped as a cactus or succulent by the genus Ibervillea, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). The table holds no figure for this group, which spans too much for one minimum; the cold floor is the habitat's alone, and no prose comes from the table.
Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, July to October in the northern hemisphere (July 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 (192 mm of 252 mm) falls in July to October, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 28.3 °C against a yearly mean of 23.7 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: January 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 252 mm a year, wettest September at 74 mm, driest May at 0 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
252 mm a year at the habitat, 192 mm of it July to October. Wettest month September at 74 mm, driest May at 0 mm; 4 months under 5 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 132 mm to 441 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 52 mol/m²/day.
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
Open sky over the habitat: 26 to 52 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 24, the highest 90th-percentile month 53).
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 7.1 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 7.1 °C, the absolute minimum 0.4 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 41.7 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 13.6 °C in January (across the envelope cells 9.6 °C to 17.7 °C), warmest day 33.0 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 7.1 °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.
Relative humidity at the habitat: 50 to 60% 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
Figures by month
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day °C | 23 / 20–25 | 24 / 20–26 | 25 / 22–28 | 28 / 23–32 | 30 / 24–35 | 32 / 26–38 | 33 / 28–37 | 33 / 29–36 | 32 / 29–35 | 30 / 28–33 | 27 / 24–29 | 23 / 21–25 |
| Night °C | 14 / 10–18 | 14 / 10–18 | 15 / 12–18 | 17 / 14–19 | 19 / 16–22 | 23 / 18–25 | 25 / 22–27 | 26 / 23–28 | 25 / 22–27 | 22 / 18–25 | 18 / 13–22 | 15 / 10–19 |
| Rain mm | 20 / 15–25 | 8 / 6–14 | 3 / 2–7 | 1 / 0–3 | 0 / 0–1 | 1 / 0–8 | 29 / 9–97 | 68 / 23–116 | 74 / 31–152 | 21 / 9–48 | 10 / 6–17 | 17 / 13–26 |
| DLI | 28 / 26–29 | 34 / 32–36 | 42 / 41–43 | 48 / 48–49 | 52 / 51–53 | 51 / 49–52 | 46 / 42–48 | 43 / 39–45 | 39 / 37–40 | 36 / 34–37 | 30 / 28–31 | 26 / 24–27 |
| RH % | 55 / 49–60 | 54 / 47–59 | 51 / 44–59 | 50 / 41–59 | 50 / 40–61 | 52 / 42–62 | 56 / 50–63 | 59 / 53–64 | 60 / 53–65 | 56 / 48–61 | 55 / 48–59 | 56 / 49–59 |
Each figure is the median across the 348 grid cells holding the 657 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 1242:1382 (27.875, -110.875). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 0.4 °C, 1st-percentile night 7.1 °C, 99th-percentile day 41.7 °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 348 distinct grid cells holding the 657 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1242:1382 (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 28.00_-110.625, lapse-corrected -26 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 77 m (cell mean).
Natural habitat
Photographs
Photographs: Chris Garrod, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIF; Joel Gómez Murillo, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF; Sula Vanderplank, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF; Alexis López Hernández, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF (5).
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 Ibervillea sonorae, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.
Related
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.
Ruellia californica Acanthaceae
Echinocereus brandegeei Brandegee's Hedgehog Cactus
Agave sobria La Paz Agave
Agave datylio Asparagaceae
Yucca capensis Cape Region Yucca
Agave aurea Baja California Sur Century AgaveOther Ibervillea 7 in the reference
Ibervillea fusiformis Cucurbitaceae
Ibervillea hypoleuca Cucurbitaceae
Ibervillea lindheimeri Balsam Gourd
Ibervillea macdougalii Cucurbitaceae
Ibervillea maxima Cucurbitaceae
Ibervillea millspaughii Cucurbitaceae
Ibervillea tenuisecta deer-apples 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 answeredgbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zamclimate answeredwikidata 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: skippedinat.taxon not askedinat.photos.wild not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: not asked: 19 wild photographs already from the GBIF downloadinat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: filled 2026-09-20commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)gbif.media answeredopenalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skippedEvery upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 37 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.








