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Miconia crenata; photograph author not stated, no rights reserved CC0author not stated, no rights reserved · observed growing wild · 2026-09-20

Miconia crenata (Vahl) Michelang.

Koster's curse; Curse

Melastomataceae · Mexico Central, Mexico Gulf +33

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Miconia crenata, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedMiconia crenata, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedMiconia crenata, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedMiconia crenata, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedMiconia crenata, photograph (c) Thibaud Aronson, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Miconia crenata, photograph (c) Thibaud Aronson, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) 75 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
19.5°C
Record low 16.6 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
28°C
Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep and Oct at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
2,396mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
29–36DLI
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
Rain spread: 70% of the median year's rain takes 8 months, so no short rainy season. rain rule, CHELSA
Not shifted: the shift rule does not apply to this habitat. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Miconia crenata (syn. Clidemia hirta), commonly called Koster's curse, is a species of plant in the family Melastomataceae. It is a perennial shrub native to Central and South America, including the Caribbean, and it has been introduced to tropical parts of the Indian Ocean, Asia, Australia, and the Pacific Ocean. It is regarded as an invasive species in many of these regions.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Miconia crenata", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads no short rainy season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,840 mm of 2,370 mm) takes 8 months, April to November. Mean temperature moves 1.6 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, southern 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

2,370 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,840 mm of it April to November. Wettest month May at 269 mm, driest month February at 111 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,462 mm to 3,867 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 2,396 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 2,370 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: 29 to 36 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 24, the highest 90th-percentile month 43).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 19.5 °C, the absolute minimum 16.6 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 35.4 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 21.4 °C in January and February (across the grid cells of the range 16.3 °C to 23.5 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 28.2 °C in September (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 19.5 °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: 66 to 69% 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 -284 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 Miconia crenata through the yearWarmest months April, May, June, July, August, September and October, mean daily high 28 °C; coldest months January and February, mean nightly low 21.4 °C; 2,370 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.15°20°25°30°35°40°35.4° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER16.6° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 29–36RH 66–69%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 207 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 °C27 / 23–3027 / 23–3027 / 24–3028 / 25–3028 / 25–3028 / 25–3028 / 25–3028 / 25–3028 / 25–3128 / 25–3127 / 24–3027 / 23–29
Night °C21 / 16–2421 / 16–2422 / 17–2422 / 18–2422 / 18–2422 / 18–2522 / 18–2422 / 17–2522 / 18–2522 / 18–2522 / 17–2422 / 17–24
Rain mm127 / 43–354111 / 46–302129 / 51–332203 / 74–407269 / 111–489239 / 114–419225 / 107–397212 / 102–390239 / 65–413242 / 65–403211 / 61–370163 / 49–346
DLI31 / 25–3533 / 28–3735 / 29–4136 / 27–4331 / 25–4232 / 24–4234 / 25–4236 / 29–4135 / 30–3933 / 28–3830 / 25–3529 / 24–33
RH %67 / 61–7166 / 60–7166 / 61–7168 / 62–7369 / 64–7369 / 64–7467 / 63–7467 / 63–7368 / 63–7368 / 63–7468 / 63–7468 / 63–72

Records on both sides of the equator: the 50 cells at least 10° south of it have seasons six months apart and are left out, not combined into a year no place has. These figures are across the 207 cells that remain: the 96 at least 10° north and the 111 within 10° of the equator, which stay in either way.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 207 grid cells holding the 227 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 1749:2116 (2.525, -74.175). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 16.6 °C, 1st-percentile night 19.5 °C, 99th-percentile day 35.4 °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 207 distinct grid cells holding 227 of the 279 in-range records on the northern side of the equator (96 cells poleward of 10° north, 50 poleward of 10° south: the two sides' seasons are not combined, and cells within 10° of the equator stay in); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1749:2116 (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 2.50_-74.375, lapse-corrected -284 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 292 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.
NativeMexico Central, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Belize, Costa Rica, C. American Pacific Is., Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Puerto Rico, Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuelan Antilles, Windward Is., French Guiana, Guyana, Surinam, Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil West-Central, Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast, Brazil North, Brazil South, Argentina Northeast, Paraguay · introduced: Comoros, Mauritius, Madagascar, Réunion, Seychelles, India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Jawa, Malaya, Philippines, Fiji, Samoa, Caroline Is., Hawaii · 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-25.431, -48.716 · in the densest population, 146 records (17% of those in range)
Kew's description“shrub” · “wet tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 862 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 227 of them in the land cells it reads, of 279 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 619 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 610 km away. 768 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 583 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 862 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Miconia crenata, photograph 1did not loadMiconia crenata, photograph 2did not loadMiconia crenata, photograph 3did not loadMiconia crenata, photograph 4did not loadMiconia crenata, photograph 5did not loadMiconia crenata, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0 (4); (c) Thibaud Aronson, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (2).

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

Microgramma lycopodioides Microgramma lycopodioides Clubmoss snakefern Photo: CC BY, portioidSauvagesia erecta Sauvagesia erecta Creole tea Photo: CC BY, Justin PonderDieffenbachia seguine Dieffenbachia seguine Dumb cane Photo: CC BY, Adriana García RamírezPharus latifolius Pharus latifolius Broad stalkgrass Photo: CC BY, keesgroenendijkEryngium foetidum Eryngium foetidum Spiritweed Photo: CC0, author not statedHyptis atrorubens Hyptis atrorubens Marubio oscuro Photo: CC BY, Guillaume Delaitre

Other Miconia 26 in the reference

Miconia albicans Miconia albicans Melastomataceae Photo: CC BY, avocatMiconia argentea Miconia argentea Silver miconia Photo: CC BY, Alexis López HernándezMiconia australis Miconia australis Melastomataceae Photo: CC BY, John LeszczynskiMiconia bicolor Miconia bicolor Johnnyberry Photo: CC BY, Tom FieldMiconia calvescens Miconia calvescens Purple plague Photo: CC0, author not statedMiconia caudata Miconia caudata Melastomataceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Ángela Patricia Rojas CortésMiconia crinita Miconia crinita Melastomataceae Photo: CC BY, Nicolás Baresch UribeMiconia crocea Miconia crocea Melastomataceae Photo: CC BY, Esteban PovedaMiconia dependens Miconia dependens Melastomataceae Photo: CC BY, Erick Vélez SánchezMiconia dolichorrhyncha Miconia dolichorrhyncha Melastomataceae Photo: CC BY, Ben JobsonMiconia impetiolaris Miconia impetiolaris Camasey De Costilla Photo: CC BY, Tom FieldMiconia longifolia Miconia longifolia Melastomataceae Photo: CC0, author not stated all 27 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Clidemia benthamiana; Clidemia cognata; Clidemia crenata; Clidemia elegans; Clidemia hirta and 30 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Melastomataceae
Described by
(Vahl) Michelang.
Native to
Mexico Central, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Southwest +32
Wild records
862 in range · 619 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; 65 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (55 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 10 at a zoo; 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 2.50_-74.375, lapse-corrected -284 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 172 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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