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Lycaste tricolor; photograph Franz Xaver, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SAFranz Xaver, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Lycaste tricolor Rchb.f.

Orchidaceae · Belize, Costa Rica +2 · listed by its genus as an orchid

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Lycaste tricolor, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedLycaste tricolor, photograph Franz Xaver, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia CommonsLycaste tricolor, photograph NasserHalaweh, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons 4 photographs ›
Habitat figuresfrom few records
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
17.5°C
Record low 15.2 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
27°C
Apr at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
3,828mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
23–37DLI
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, May to November (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: 4 records in 4 grid cells. The records.

Cultivation

Grouped as an orchid, listed under the genus Lycaste in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “pseudobulbous epiphyte”.

Seasons

The rain rule reads a sharp season: 70% of the median year's rain (2,960 mm of 3,807 mm) falls in May to November. The temperature curve is flat, 2.3 °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 temperature curve moves under 4 °C between the warmest and coldest month, where the shift rule does not apply, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

Rain

3,807 mm in the median year at the habitat, 2,960 mm of it May to November. Wettest month October at 476 mm, driest month March at 96 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 3,661 mm to 4,579 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 3,828 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 3,807 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: 23 to 37 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 22, the highest 90th-percentile month 38).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 17.5 °C, the absolute minimum 15.2 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 32.2 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 17.3 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 16.8 °C to 19.3 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 27.2 °C in April (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 17.5 °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: 68 to 76% 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 -499 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.

Group. Listed under the genus Lycaste in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “pseudobulbous epiphyte”. A group is taken only where Kew's description of the species agrees with the table's listing. The table gives no figure and no prose; the cold floor is the habitat's alone.

Climate across the habitat

From few records: this habitat climate is read from 4 records in 4 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 Lycaste tricolor through the yearWarmest month April, mean daily high 27 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 17.3 °C; 3,807 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, northern hemisphere.10°15°20°25°30°35°32.2° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER15.2° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 23–37RH 68–76%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 4 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 °C24 / 24–2625 / 25–2726 / 26–2827 / 26–3026 / 26–2825 / 25–2725 / 24–2725 / 24–2725 / 24–2725 / 24–2724 / 23–2624 / 23–26
Night °C17 / 17–1917 / 17–1918 / 17–2019 / 18–2120 / 19–2220 / 19–2219 / 19–2120 / 19–2120 / 19–2119 / 19–2119 / 18–2118 / 17–20
Rain mm220 / 199–349123 / 110–23496 / 90–21398 / 91–214342 / 325–421434 / 421–447436 / 425–457464 / 444–479442 / 409–460476 / 472–496366 / 348–453310 / 280–422
DLI29 / 28–3134 / 33–3437 / 37–3837 / 37–3830 / 29–3126 / 25–2926 / 24–2927 / 26–3027 / 26–3024 / 23–2823 / 22–2526 / 24–27
RH %72 / 70–7469 / 68–7168 / 66–6868 / 66–6872 / 71–7376 / 74–7776 / 73–7876 / 73–7775 / 73–7676 / 73–7776 / 73–7874 / 71–76
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 4 grid cells holding the 4 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 1600:1927 (9.975, -83.625). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 15.2 °C, 1st-percentile night 17.5 °C, 99th-percentile day 32.2 °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 4 distinct grid cells holding 4 of the 4 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1600:1927 (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 10.00_-83.750, lapse-corrected -499 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 566 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.
NativeBelize, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Panama · 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 marker10.18, -84.42 · in the densest population, 12 records (100% of those in range)
Kew's description“pseudobulbous epiphyte” · “wet 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 4 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 10 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker in the same place. Under a dozen records behind the climate. 8 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.

Photographs

Lycaste tricolor, photograph 1did not loadLycaste tricolor, photograph 2did not loadLycaste tricolor, photograph 3did not load

Photographs: author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0; Franz Xaver, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons; NasserHalaweh, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

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

Guzmania dissitiflora Guzmania dissitiflora Bromeliaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Thibaud AronsonGuzmania donnellsmithii Guzmania donnellsmithii Bromeliaceae Photo: CC BY, Jason AlexanderBegonia tonduzii Begonia tonduzii Begoniaceae Photo: CC BY, Alan PratherGoeppertia leucostachys Goeppertia leucostachys Marantaceae Photo: CC BY, Eduardo Chacón MadrigalSobralia chrysostoma Sobralia chrysostoma Golden-Lipped Sobralia Photo: CC BY, Sean KriegScutellaria costaricana Scutellaria costaricana Costa Rican skullcap Photo: CC BY-SA, Yu

Other Lycaste 17 in the reference

Lycaste aromatica Lycaste aromatica Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY, Victor De la CruzLycaste bradeorum Lycaste bradeorum Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY, Motohiro SunouchiLycaste brevispatha Lycaste brevispatha Orchidaceae Photo: CC0, DaderotLycaste campbellii Lycaste campbellii Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY, Motohiro SunouchiLycaste cochleata Lycaste cochleata Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Claire H. from New York City, USALycaste consobrina Lycaste consobrina Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, J Alejandro González CastilloLycaste crinita Lycaste crinita Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, NasserHalawehLycaste cruenta Lycaste cruenta Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY, Neptalí Ramírez MarcialLycaste deppei Lycaste deppei Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY, Eleazar Pérez TrujilloLycaste dowiana Lycaste dowiana Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY, darmozracLycaste lasioglossa Lycaste lasioglossa Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY, Alexis López Hernández Lycaste leucantha Orchidaceae all 18 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Maxillaria tricolor. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataiNaturalist

The record

Family
Orchidaceae
Described by
Rchb.f.
Native to
Belize, Costa Rica, Guatemala +1
Wild records
12 in range · 10 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 10.00_-83.750, lapse-corrected -499 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia nothing to reportasked 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 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 5 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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