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Morisonia hastata (Jacq.) Christenh. & Byng

Capparaceae · Dominican Republic, Haiti +10

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

Photographs not checked iNaturalist and GBIF media were skipped (not asked) when this page was built. Not asked, or not answered, is not "none": nothing here claims there is none. Why the site says it this way.
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Sow seed
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
21.0°C
Record low 17.8 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
29°C
Jan, Feb, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep and Oct at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,082mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
31–39DLI
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, April to June and August 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.

Summary

Morisonia hastata is a species of flowering plant in the caper family, Capparaceae. It is a tree native to the tropical Americas, including the Caribbean, Venezuela, Colombia, and eastern Brazil.

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

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a sharp season: 70% of the median year's rain (808 mm of 1,137 mm) falls in April to June and August to November. The temperature curve is flat, 1.8 °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

1,137 mm in the median year at the habitat, 808 mm of it April to June and August to November. Wettest month October at 157 mm, driest month February at 56 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 579 mm to 1,896 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,082 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,137 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: 31 to 39 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 27, the highest 90th-percentile month 45).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 21.0 °C, the absolute minimum 17.8 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 38.5 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 23.1 °C in February (across the grid cells of the range 20.8 °C to 24.8 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 29.0 °C in August and September (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 21.0 °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: 61 to 64% 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 -277 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 hastata through the yearWarmest months January, February, June, July, August, September and October, mean daily high 29 °C; coldest month February, mean nightly low 23.1 °C; 1,137 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°38.5° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER17.8° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250mm rainDLI 31–39RH 61–64%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 84 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 °C29 / 25–3329 / 25–3328 / 25–3228 / 26–3228 / 27–3129 / 27–3129 / 26–3129 / 27–3229 / 28–3429 / 27–3528 / 27–3528 / 26–34
Night °C23 / 21–2523 / 21–2523 / 21–2523 / 21–2524 / 21–2624 / 20–2624 / 19–2624 / 19–2623 / 19–2624 / 20–2624 / 20–2624 / 21–25
Rain mm66 / 12–13556 / 12–12473 / 12–209104 / 49–181109 / 39–20979 / 22–16877 / 14–167111 / 5–192123 / 3–215157 / 3–223125 / 5–21657 / 22–159
DLI34 / 31–4037 / 33–4139 / 35–4136 / 32–4334 / 29–4235 / 27–4336 / 27–4239 / 30–4238 / 33–4335 / 31–4531 / 30–4432 / 29–42
RH %61 / 55–6461 / 57–6461 / 59–6563 / 59–6764 / 58–6863 / 55–6763 / 54–6764 / 52–6764 / 51–6864 / 50–6963 / 51–6862 / 53–66
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 84 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (110 records in those cells; 3 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 1576:2149 (11.175, -72.525). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 17.8 °C, 1st-percentile night 21.0 °C, 99th-percentile day 38.5 °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 84 distinct grid cells holding 110 of the 113 in-range records (3 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1576:2149 (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 11.00_-72.500, lapse-corrected -277 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 109 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: 3873513 (Cynophalla hastata (Jacq.) J.Presl, 1079 records). No name was matched to GBIF; the keys are read from Kew's synonymy. How.

NativeDominican Republic, Haiti, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Netherlands Antilles, Puerto Rico, Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuelan Antilles, Windward Is., Venezuela, Colombia, Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast · 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-7.988, -38.469 · in the densest population, 163 records (25% of those in range)
Kew's description“tree” · “seasonally dry tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 660 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 110 of them in the land cells it reads, of 113 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 573 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 2 km away. 22 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 547 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 3873513 (Cynophalla hastata (Jacq.) J.Presl): Kew's file holds it as Cynophalla hastata (Jacq.) J.Presl (synonym under Morisonia hastata (Jacq.) Christenh. & Byng); 1,079 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 of the 660 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Not checked. iNaturalist and GBIF media were skipped (not asked) when this page was built. Not a statement that none exist.

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

Cnidoscolus urens Cnidoscolus urens Bull-nettle Photo: CC BY, Marcello Mastroianni Albuquerque AraújoJatropha gossypiifolia Jatropha gossypiifolia Bellyache bush Photo: CC BY, Ben MachadoNymphaea pulchella Nymphaea pulchella Nymphaeaceae Photo: CC BY, fmunozBauhinia aculeata Bauhinia aculeata Fabaceae Photo: CC BY, Raúl A. Ruiz M.Pictetia aculeata Pictetia aculeata Fustic Photo: CC BY, Daniel CahenPhlebotaenia cowellii Phlebotaenia cowellii Violet Tree Photo: CC BY-SA, Krzysztof Ziarnek, Kenraiz

Other Morisonia 10 in the reference

Morisonia americana Morisonia americana Ratapple Photo: CC BY, Mario Guzmán Morisonia cynophallophora Capparaceae Morisonia flexuosa Morisonia flexuosa Capparaceae Photo: CC BY, Tournasol7 Morisonia frondosa 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 Capparis collina; Capparis coccolobifolia; Capparis coccolobifolia f. parvifolia; Capparis cynophallophora var. latifolia; Capparis flexuosa f. hastata and 4 more. (WCVP, RBG Kew)

IPNIPOWOWikidataWFOWikipedia

The record

Family
Capparaceae
Described by
(Jacq.) Christenh. & Byng
Native to
Dominican Republic, Haiti, Leeward Is. AB Ant +9
Wild records
660 in range · 573 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 hastata (Jacq.) Christenh. & Byng (plant_name_id 3228642), 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; 1079 records of GBIF's key 3873513, Cynophalla hastata (Jacq.) J.Presl (Kew's file holds it as Cynophalla hastata (Jacq.) J.Presl (synonym under Morisonia hastata (Jacq.) Christenh. & Byng)): the GBIF download; 2 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (2 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 11.00_-72.500, lapse-corrected -277 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22found by Kew's IPNI identifier 77183736-1, POWO 77183736-1
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 nothing to reportasked 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 79 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…