Species
+

Ibervillea sonorae (S.Watson) Greene

wareque

Climate known 20 photographs Cactus or succulent
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

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.

Family
Cucurbitaceae
Described by
(S.Watson) Greene
Native to
Mexico Northwest
Wild records
681 in range· 283 open

At a glance

Warmest month
33°C
Jul, mean day; nights 25 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
252mm/yr
3 wet months · peak Sep 74 mm (CHELSA)
Light
26–52DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a cactus or succulent by the genus Ibervillea, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a summer growing season, July to October in the northern hemisphere (July to October at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 252 mm a year, wettest September at 74 mm, driest May at 0 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 26 to 52 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 7.1 °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 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.

Temperature

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.

Humidity

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

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 23 °C in Jan to 33 °C in Jul; mean night from 14 °C in Jan to 26 °C in Aug. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 252 mm of rain a year, most in Sep. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 348 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 0.4 °C and the 99th-percentile day 41.7 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-10°10°20°30°40°50°frost41.7° 99th-percentile day (undated)0.4° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200mm rainDLI 26–52RH 50–60 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 348 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 °C23 / 20–2524 / 20–2625 / 22–2828 / 23–3230 / 24–3532 / 26–3833 / 28–3733 / 29–3632 / 29–3530 / 28–3327 / 24–2923 / 21–25
Night °C14 / 10–1814 / 10–1815 / 12–1817 / 14–1919 / 16–2223 / 18–2525 / 22–2726 / 23–2825 / 22–2722 / 18–2518 / 13–2215 / 10–19
Rain mm20 / 15–258 / 6–143 / 2–71 / 0–30 / 0–11 / 0–829 / 9–9768 / 23–11674 / 31–15221 / 9–4810 / 6–1717 / 13–26
DLI28 / 26–2934 / 32–3642 / 41–4348 / 48–4952 / 51–5351 / 49–5246 / 42–4843 / 39–4539 / 37–4036 / 34–3730 / 28–3126 / 24–27
RH %55 / 49–6054 / 47–5951 / 44–5950 / 41–5950 / 40–6152 / 42–6256 / 50–6359 / 53–6460 / 53–6556 / 48–6155 / 48–5956 / 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

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 Northwest
Kew's description“climbing caudex geophyte” · “desert or dry shrubland”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker24.075, -110.275 · in the densest population, 355 records (52% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 681 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 283 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 9 km away. 3 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 24 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 681 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Ibervillea sonoraeIbervillea sonoraeIbervillea sonoraeIbervillea sonoraeIbervillea sonoraeIbervillea sonoraeIbervillea sonoraeIbervillea sonorae

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.

Acute and chronic hypoglycemic effect of Ibervillea sonorae root extracts-II
Francisco Javier Alarcón-Aguilar, F. Calzada-Bermejo, Erica Hernández-Galicia, C. Ruiz-Angeles (2005) · Journal of Ethnopharmacology
Antimicrobial Activity of Northwestern Mexican Plants Against Helicobacter pylori
Ramón Enrique Robles‐Zepeda, Carlos Velázquez, Adriana Garibay‐Escobar, J.C. Galvez-Ruiz (2011) · Journal of Medicinal Food
Antibacterial and Antifungal Activities of Some Mexican Medicinal Plants
Eduardo Ruíz-Bustos, Carlos Velázquez, Adriana Garibay‐Escobar, Zagaceta García (2009) · Journal of Medicinal Food
Cytotoxic activity of four Mexican medicinal plants.
Elisa Vega‐Avila, Adolfo Espejo‐Serna, Francisco Javier Alarcón-Aguilar, Rodolfo Velasco-Lezama (2009) · PubMed
Antiobesity and Hypoglycaemic Effects of Aqueous Extract of Ibervillea sonorae in Mice Fed a High‐Fat Diet with Fructose
Fabiola Rivera-Ramírez, Gerardo Escalona-Cardoso, Leticia Garduño‐Siciliano, Carlos Galavíz-Hernández (2011) · BioMed Research International
Monoglycerides and Fatty acids from Ibervillea sonorae Root: Isolation and Hypoglycemic Activity
Erica Hernández-Galicia, Fernando Calzada, Rubén Román‐Ramos, Francisco Javier Alarcón-Aguilar (2007) · Planta Medica
Cucurbitacin IIb, a steroidal triterpene from Ibervillea sonorae induces antiproliferative and apoptotic effects on cervical and lung cancer cells
Heriberto Torres‐Moreno, Maria Carla Marcotullio, Carlos Velázquez, Federica Ianni (2020) · Steroids
Selected Species of the Cucurbitaceae Family Used in Mexico for the Treatment of Diabetes Mellitus
Maira Huerta‐Reyes, Rosario Tavera‐Hernández, J. Javier Alvarado-Sansininea, Manuel Jiménez‐Estrada (2022) · Molecules
Antiproliferative and apoptosis induction of cucurbitacin-type triterpenes from Ibervillea sonorae
Heriberto Torres‐Moreno, Carlos Velázquez, Adriana Garibay‐Escobar, Massimo Curini (2015) · Industrial Crops and Products
Ibervillea sonorae (Cucurbitaceae) induces the glucose uptake in human adipocytes by activating a PI3K-independent pathway
Rocio Zapata-Bustos, Ángel Josabad Alonso‐Castro, Maricela Gómez-Sánchez, Luis A. Salazar‐Olivo (2014) · Journal of Ethnopharmacology
Cucurbitanes and cucurbitane-type glycosides from Ibervillea sonorae
Hans Achenbach, Konrad Horn, Xorge A. Domínguez, Carlos Rombold (1993) · Phytochemistry
Hypoglycaemic Activity of Ibervillea sonorae Roots in Healthy and Diabetic Mice and Rats
Francisco Javier Alarcón-Aguilar, Alfonso Efraín Campos-Sepúlveda, S. Xolalpa-Molina, Erica Hernández-Galicia (2002) · Pharmaceutical Biology

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.

Other Ibervillea 7 in the reference

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 not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: not asked: 19 wild photographs already from the GBIF download
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: filled 2026-09-20
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 37 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.