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Maytenus magellanica; photograph author not stated, no rights reserved CC0author not stated, no rights reserved · observed growing wild · 2026-02-22

Maytenus magellanica (Lam.) Hook.f.

Magellan's mayten; Magellanic mayten

Celastraceae · Argentina South, Chile Central +1

Cited as Kew's World Checklist cites it, Maytenus magellanica (Lam.) Hook.f.: GBIF's backbone key for this page carries the name with another author, (Lam.) Hook.fil.

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Maytenus magellanica, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedMaytenus magellanica, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedMaytenus magellanica, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedMaytenus magellanica, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedMaytenus magellanica, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedMaytenus magellanica, photograph author not stated, no rights reserved 75 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
-6.7°C
Record low -15.0 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
16°C
Jan and Feb at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
2,527mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
7–42DLI
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 winters: the rain comes October to April (April to October at the habitat), with nights below freezing; no growing season read. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Maytenus magellanica (Magellan's mayten or hard log mayten; leña dura in Spanish) is a small evergreen tree from the genus Maytenus, up to 5 meters (16 ft), in the Celastraceae. It grows in southern Argentina and Chile from 36ºS to Cape Horn (56ºS).

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Maytenus magellanica", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Maytenus

Maytenus is a genus of flowering plants in the family Celastraceae. Members of the genus are distributed throughout Central and South America, Southeast Asia, Micronesia, and Australasia, the Indian Ocean and Africa. They grow in a very wide variety of climates, from tropical to subpolar. More on Wikipedia ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Maytenus", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a rainy season and no growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,853 mm of 2,440 mm) falls in April to October, the cooler part of the year, but the mean nightly low is below freezing in July, August and September, so the rule reads no growing season from it. Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: October to April.

Rain

2,440 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,853 mm of it April to October. Wettest month June at 351 mm, driest month February at 84 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 798 mm to 4,567 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 2,527 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 2,440 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: 7 to 42 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 3, the highest 90th-percentile month 52).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is -6.7 °C, the absolute minimum -15.0 °C, 2,631 frost nights in 44 years, 59.8 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 17.1 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low -1.8 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range -4.5 °C to 1.5 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 16.1 °C in February (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: -6.7 °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: 60 to 68% 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 -260 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

Habitat months, southern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Maytenus magellanica through the yearWarmest months January and February, mean daily high 16 °C; coldest month July, mean nightly low -1.8 °C; 2,440 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.-20°-10°0°10°20°30°frost17.1° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-15.0° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0200400600800mm rainDLI 7–42RH 60–68%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 148 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 °C16 / 11–2016 / 11–2114 / 10–1810 / 7–147 / 3–114 / 0–83 / 0–74 / 2–86 / 4–109 / 6–1311 / 8–1514 / 10–18
Night °C7 / 5–107 / 5–106 / 3–94 / 1–71 / -2–5-1 / -4–3-2 / -5–2-1 / -4–20 / -3–31 / -1–53 / 1–76 / 3–9
Rain mm111 / 51–25884 / 48–210137 / 64–292222 / 73–413323 / 67–636351 / 71–735327 / 56–592269 / 57–502179 / 48–348182 / 51–336136 / 56–279119 / 59–278
DLI42 / 32–5236 / 26–4525 / 18–3416 / 10–229 / 5–147 / 3–109 / 4–1314 / 9–1822 / 17–2831 / 26–3739 / 32–4642 / 34–50
RH %60 / 56–6560 / 56–6562 / 58–6764 / 60–6967 / 62–7068 / 64–7167 / 62–6965 / 62–6863 / 61–6763 / 60–6662 / 59–6661 / 58–65
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 148 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (289 records in those cells; 1 more cell holds records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cell is left out), 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 2826:2138 (-51.325, -73.075). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -15.0 °C, 1st-percentile night -6.7 °C, 99th-percentile day 17.1 °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 148 distinct grid cells holding 289 of the 290 in-range records (1 further cell with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2826:2138 (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 -51.50_-73.125, lapse-corrected -260 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 117 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.
NativeArgentina South, Chile Central, Chile South · introduced: Tasmania, Falkland Is. · 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-54.853, -68.406 · in the densest population, 208 records (56% of those in range)
Kew's description“shrub or tree” · “temperate” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 371 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 289 of them in the land cells it reads, of 290 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 176 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 184 km away. 7 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 81 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 inside the densest 4° block of the 371 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Maytenus magellanica, photograph 1did not loadMaytenus magellanica, photograph 2did not loadMaytenus magellanica, photograph 3did not loadMaytenus magellanica, photograph 4did not loadMaytenus magellanica, photograph 5did not loadMaytenus magellanica, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0 (6).

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

Ribes magellanicum Ribes magellanicum Patagonian wild currant Photo: CC BY, PabloCodonorchis lessonii Codonorchis lessonii Dog orchid Photo: CC BY, Cesar OrmazabalViola reichei Viola reichei Violaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedBaccharis patagonica Baccharis patagonica Patagonian groundsel tree Photo: CC BY, janitouuGaultheria mucronata Gaultheria mucronata Prickly Heath Photo: CC BY, Rosy ThomsonCalceolaria tenella Calceolaria tenella Calceolariaceae Photo: CC BY, Lucas Illanes

Other Maytenus 17 in the reference

Maytenus abbottii Maytenus abbottii Celastraceae Photo: CC BY, Sunčana BradleyMaytenus acuminata Maytenus acuminata Celastraceae Photo: Public domain, Abu ShawkaMaytenus boaria Maytenus boaria Mayten Photo: CC BY, nitsuga74Maytenus chubutensis Maytenus chubutensis Celastraceae Photo: CC BY, Ariadna TripaldiMaytenus disticha Maytenus disticha Celastraceae Photo: CC BY, Ezequiel RackerMaytenus ilicifolia Maytenus ilicifolia Celastraceae Photo: Public domain, author not stated Maytenus laevigata Celastraceae Maytenus laxiflora Maytenus laxiflora Celastraceae Photo: CC BY, Nicolás Baresch Uribe Maytenus meridensis Celastraceae Maytenus oleoides Maytenus oleoides Celastraceae Photo: Public domain, Abu Shawka Maytenus oleosa Celastraceae Maytenus orbicularis Celastraceae all 18 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Cassine magellanica; Celastrus magellanicus; Euthalis lucida; Maytenus andina. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Celastraceae
Described by
(Lam.) Hook.f.
Native to
Argentina South, Chile Central, Chile South
Wild records
371 in range · 176 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 3792012 is Maytenus magellanica (Lam.) Hook.fil.; the page links Kew's Maytenus magellanica (Lam.) Hook.f., 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; 1 record within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (1 at a botanic garden or arboretum; 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 -51.50_-73.125, lapse-corrected -260 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 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 2026-10-22
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 31 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

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