Manihot esculenta Crantz
Ai
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
Manihot esculenta, commonly called cassava, manioc, or yuca, is a woody shrub of the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae, native to South America, from Brazil, Paraguay and parts of the Andes. Although a perennial plant, cassava is extensively cultivated in tropical and subtropical regions as an annual crop for its edible starchy tuberous root. Cassava is predominantly consumed in boiled form, but substantial quantities are processed to extract cassava starch, called tapioca, which is used for food, animal feed, and industrial purposes. The Brazilian farofa, and the related garri of West Africa, is an edible coarse flour obtained by grating cassava roots, pressing moisture off the obtained grated pulp, and finally drying and roasting it.
Text from Wikipedia, “Cassava”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.
About the genus · Manihot
Manihot is a genus in the diverse milkspurge family, Euphorbiaceae. It was described as a genus in 1754.
Text from Wikipedia, “Manihot”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.
At a glance
Also known as Janipha aipi (Pohl) J.Presl; Janipha manihot (L.) Kunth; Jatropha aipi (Pohl) A.Moller; Jatropha aipi (Pohl) Göpp.; Jatropha diffusa (Pohl) Steud. and 45 more.
Cultivation
Its year Rain rule: a sharp rainy season, October to April at the habitat (not shifted); the temperature curve is flat (2.1 °C of range), so no growing season is inferred.
This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.
The rain rule reads a sharp season: 70% of the year's rain (1255 mm of 1761 mm) falls in October to April. The temperature curve is flat, 2.1 °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, within 10° of the equator; with no thermal season there there is no season to reverse, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.
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 1761 mm a year, wettest March at 204 mm, driest August at 73 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
1761 mm a year at the habitat, 1255 mm of it October to April. Wettest month March at 204 mm, driest August at 73 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1064 mm to 3384 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: 27 to 35 mol/m²/day.
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
Open sky over the habitat: 27 to 35 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 22, the highest 90th-percentile month 40).
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 15.5 °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 15.5 °C, the absolute minimum 7.7 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 40.0 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 19.5 °C in July (across the envelope cells 12.5 °C to 22.9 °C), warmest day 29.2 °C in February (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 15.5 °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: 63 to 66% 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 | 29 / 23–32 | 29 / 24–32 | 29 / 24–32 | 29 / 23–30 | 28 / 22–30 | 27 / 21–30 | 27 / 21–30 | 28 / 22–32 | 29 / 22–32 | 29 / 23–32 | 29 / 23–31 | 29 / 23–31 |
| Night °C | 22 / 16–24 | 22 / 16–24 | 22 / 16–24 | 22 / 16–24 | 21 / 14–24 | 20 / 13–23 | 20 / 13–23 | 20 / 13–23 | 21 / 14–23 | 22 / 15–23 | 22 / 16–24 | 22 / 16–24 |
| Rain mm | 169 / 29–339 | 171 / 45–314 | 204 / 86–343 | 183 / 88–377 | 149 / 35–395 | 103 / 9–383 | 82 / 6–332 | 73 / 10–288 | 99 / 26–283 | 164 / 37–316 | 188 / 42–290 | 176 / 47–323 |
| DLI | 34 / 29–40 | 34 / 29–39 | 33 / 29–37 | 30 / 26–34 | 28 / 23–32 | 27 / 22–33 | 29 / 23–35 | 32 / 27–38 | 34 / 29–40 | 35 / 28–40 | 34 / 27–40 | 33 / 28–40 |
| RH % | 65 / 58–71 | 65 / 58–71 | 65 / 60–71 | 66 / 60–72 | 66 / 57–72 | 65 / 54–73 | 64 / 51–72 | 63 / 49–72 | 63 / 51–71 | 64 / 56–72 | 66 / 59–72 | 66 / 59–71 |
Each figure is the median across the 550 grid cells holding the 619 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 2032:2376 (-11.625, -61.175). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 7.7 °C, 1st-percentile night 15.5 °C, 99th-percentile day 40.0 °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 550 distinct grid cells holding the 619 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2032:2376 (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 -11.50_-61.250, lapse-corrected -27 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 207 m (cell mean).
Natural habitat
Photographs
Photographs: no rights reserved · CC0 (2); (c) Gabriel, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Sindhu Haridas, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Mark Richman, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Ong Jyh Seng, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA).
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 Manihot esculenta, 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.
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Passiflora miniata red granadillaHistory & 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 answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skippedinat.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 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 102 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.








