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Morisonia flexuosa; photograph Tournasol7, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons CC BYTournasol7, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Morisonia flexuosa L.

Capparaceae · Florida, Mexico Northeast +38

English names not checked: Wikidata's common names were not read for this page.

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Morisonia flexuosa, photograph Tournasol7, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsMorisonia flexuosa, photograph Tournasol7, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsMorisonia flexuosa, photograph Tournasol7, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsMorisonia flexuosa, photograph Tournasol7, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsMorisonia flexuosa, photograph Tournasol7, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsMorisonia flexuosa, photograph Tournasol7, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons 9 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
16.5°C
Record low 13.6 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
29°C
Jun, Jul, Aug and Sep at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,176mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
30–43DLI
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 October (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.

Summary

Morisonia flexuosa, the bay-leaved caper, is a 2–4 meter high shrub.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Morisonia flexuosa", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a sharp season: 70% of the median year's rain (781 mm of 1,103 mm) falls in May to October. The temperature curve is flat, 2.7 °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, southern hemisphere. The habitat lies within 10° of the equator, where the shift rule does not apply, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

Rain

1,103 mm in the median year at the habitat, 781 mm of it May to October. Wettest month September at 172 mm, driest month February at 40 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 707 mm to 1,831 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,176 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,103 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: 30 to 43 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 23, the highest 90th-percentile month 48).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 16.5 °C, the absolute minimum 13.6 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 38.0 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 22.3 °C in January and February (across the grid cells of the range 16.6 °C to 24.3 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 29.2 °C in August (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 16.5 °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: 60 to 65% 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 -6 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 Morisonia flexuosa through the yearWarmest months June, July, August and September, mean daily high 29 °C; coldest months January and February, mean nightly low 22.3 °C; 1,103 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.10°15°20°25°30°35°40°38.0° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER13.6° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250300mm rainDLI 30–43RH 60–65%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 453 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 °C26 / 23–3127 / 24–3127 / 25–3228 / 26–3228 / 26–3329 / 26–3329 / 26–3229 / 26–3229 / 27–3228 / 27–3128 / 25–3027 / 24–30
Night °C22 / 17–2422 / 17–2423 / 18–2523 / 20–2524 / 20–2625 / 21–2625 / 20–2625 / 20–2625 / 21–2624 / 21–2623 / 19–2623 / 18–25
Rain mm47 / 10–12540 / 8–10546 / 4–14363 / 2–15793 / 5–190109 / 28–218124 / 42–231154 / 37–245172 / 51–255129 / 43–22977 / 18–20749 / 12–151
DLI31 / 25–3735 / 30–3940 / 34–4343 / 31–4741 / 30–4840 / 28–4339 / 30–4338 / 32–4235 / 31–3933 / 30–3630 / 26–3730 / 23–38
RH %61 / 57–6560 / 56–6560 / 56–6662 / 56–6663 / 57–6763 / 60–6664 / 60–6764 / 61–6765 / 62–6864 / 60–6863 / 59–6761 / 58–66
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 453 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (689 records in those cells; 31 more cells hold records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cells are 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 1376:1798 (21.175, -90.075). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 13.6 °C, 1st-percentile night 16.5 °C, 99th-percentile day 38.0 °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 453 distinct grid cells holding 689 of the 734 in-range records (31 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1376:1798 (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 21.00_-90.000, lapse-corrected -6 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 0 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.

This species has no GBIF key of its own. Its records are GBIF's under the key of the name Kew's World Checklist holds as this plant: 3873525 (Cynophalla flexuosa (L.) J.Presl, 1963 records). No name was matched to GBIF; the keys are read from Kew's synonymy. How.

NativeFlorida, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Aruba, Bahamas, Cayman Is., Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Netherlands Antilles, Puerto Rico, Southwest Caribbean, Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuelan Antilles, Windward Is., Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil West-Central, Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast, Brazil North, Brazil South, Argentina Northeast, Argentina Northwest, Paraguay · 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-9.746, -37.52 · in the densest population, 362 records (23% of those in range)
Kew's description“scrambling tree” · “wet tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 1589 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 689 of them in the land cells it reads, of 734 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 1148 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 35 km away. 2 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 855 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.
Other GBIF keysRecords also from GBIF's key 3873525 (Cynophalla flexuosa (L.) J.Presl): Kew's file holds it as Cynophalla flexuosa (L.) J.Presl (synonym under Morisonia flexuosa L.); 1,963 records, from GBIF's download.
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 1589 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Morisonia flexuosa, photograph 1did not loadMorisonia flexuosa, photograph 2did not loadMorisonia flexuosa, photograph 3did not loadMorisonia flexuosa, photograph 4did not loadMorisonia flexuosa, photograph 5did not loadMorisonia flexuosa, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: Tournasol7, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (6).

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

Pithecellobium unguis-cati Pithecellobium unguis-cati Catclaw blackbead Photo: CC BY, Cricket RaspetPortulaca rubricaulis Portulaca rubricaulis Red-stem purslane Photo: CC BY, Josiah LonderéeLaguncularia racemosa Laguncularia racemosa White mangrove Photo: CC BY, Gaston Carvallo B.Casearia dodecandra Casearia dodecandra Guayabilla Photo: CC0, Yolanda M. LeonSenna sophera Senna sophera Algarrobilla Photo: CC BY, chiuluanSchaefferia frutescens Schaefferia frutescens Florida boxwood Photo: CC0, author not stated

Other Morisonia 10 in the reference

Morisonia americana Morisonia americana Ratapple Photo: CC BY, Mario Guzmán Morisonia cynophallophora Capparaceae Morisonia frondosa Capparaceae Morisonia hastata Capparaceae Morisonia incana Capparaceae Morisonia indica Capparaceae Morisonia odoratissima Morisonia odoratissima Capparaceae Photo: CC BY, keesgroenendijk Morisonia paradoxa Capparaceae Morisonia scabrida Capparaceae Morisonia tweedieana Capparaceae

Names & registers

Also known as Morisonia guayaquilensis; Capparis pluvialis; Cynophalla guayaquilensis; Colicodendron subbilobum; Capparis saligna and 21 more. (WCVP, RBG Kew)

IPNIPOWOWikidataWFOWikipedia

The record

Family
Capparaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Florida, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf +37
Wild records
1589 in range · 1148 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
Kew's names (WCVP) kew.names answeredas of 2026-06-04Kew's entry Morisonia flexuosa L. (plant_name_id 2371264), read from Kew's names file
GBIF species record gbif.species not askedGBIF's backbone holds no one accepted species of this name, and a name it holds only as another species' synonym is not taken for this one, so GBIF's records were not asked
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms not askedGBIF's backbone holds no one accepted species of this name, and a name it holds only as another species' synonym is not taken for this one, so GBIF's records were not asked
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular not askedGBIF's backbone holds no one accepted species of this name, and a name it holds only as another species' synonym is not taken for this one, so GBIF's records were not asked
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21this species has no GBIF key of its own; its records are read under GBIF's keys for the names Kew's file holds as this plant, never by a name matched; GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 1963 records of GBIF's key 3873525, Cynophalla flexuosa (L.) J.Presl (Kew's file holds it as Cynophalla flexuosa (L.) J.Presl (synonym under Morisonia flexuosa L.)): the GBIF download; 10 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (8 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 2 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 21.00_-90.000, lapse-corrected -6 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22found by Kew's IPNI identifier 316361-2, POWO 316361-2
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist taxon inat.taxon not asked
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild not asked
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media not askedGBIF's backbone holds no one accepted species of this name, and a name it holds only as another species' synonym is not taken for this one, so GBIF's records were not asked
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 175 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

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