Species
+

Muntingia calabura L.

Budo, Cacanicua, Jamaica Cherry, Jamaica cherry

Climate known 75 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

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

Muntingia is a genus of plants in the family Muntingiaceae, comprising only one species, Muntingia calabura, named in honour of Abraham Munting. It is native from southern Mexico to Bolivia and Argentina. Its fruit is edible, and it has been widely introduced in other tropical areas.

Text from Wikipedia, “Muntingia”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Muntingia

Muntingia is a genus of plants in the family Muntingiaceae, comprising only one species, Muntingia calabura, named in honour of Abraham Munting. It is native from southern Mexico to Bolivia and Argentina. Its fruit is edible, and it has been widely introduced in other tropical areas.

Text from Wikipedia, “Muntingia”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Muntingiaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf +17
Wild records
972 in range· 720 open

At a glance

Warmest month
30°C
Apr, mean day; nights 22 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1457mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Sep 223 mm (CHELSA)
Light
29–39DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: a sharp rainy season, May to October at the habitat (not shifted); the temperature curve is flat (2.8 °C of range), so no growing season is inferred. Habitat rain 1457 mm a year, wettest September at 223 mm, driest February at 38 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 29 to 39 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 16.6 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Muntingia calabura var. trinitensis Griseb.; Muntingia glabra Spreng.; Muntingia rosea H.Karst.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a sharp rainy season, May to October at the habitat (not shifted); the temperature curve is flat (2.8 °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 (1099 mm of 1457 mm) falls in May to October. The temperature curve is flat, 2.8 °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, 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 1457 mm a year, wettest September at 223 mm, driest February at 38 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1457 mm a year at the habitat, 1099 mm of it May to October. Wettest month September at 223 mm, driest February at 38 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 939 mm to 2886 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: 29 to 39 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 29 to 39 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 23, the highest 90th-percentile month 45).

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 16.6 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 16.6 °C, the absolute minimum 11.6 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 40.5 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 19.8 °C in January (across the envelope cells 15.4 °C to 23.6 °C), warmest day 29.7 °C in April (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 16.6 °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.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 60 to 67% 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

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 27 °C in Dec to 30 °C in Apr; mean night from 20 °C in Jan to 23 °C in Jun. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1457 mm of rain a year, most in Sep. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 520 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 11.6 °C and the 99th-percentile day 40.5 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°15°20°25°30°35°40°45°40.5° 99th-percentile day (undated)11.6° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 29–39RH 60–67 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 520 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C27 / 24–3128 / 25–3229 / 26–3330 / 26–3430 / 25–3429 / 25–3229 / 25–3229 / 25–3229 / 25–3128 / 25–3028 / 25–3027 / 24–30
Night °C20 / 15–2420 / 16–2421 / 17–2422 / 18–2523 / 18–2523 / 18–2523 / 17–2523 / 17–2523 / 18–2522 / 18–2521 / 17–2420 / 16–24
Rain mm48 / 7–19338 / 7–19238 / 6–22357 / 13–236115 / 39–317195 / 41–352182 / 37–353197 / 37–375223 / 66–414187 / 68–380111 / 21–27266 / 11–195
DLI31 / 24–3633 / 29–3937 / 31–4339 / 29–4537 / 26–4435 / 25–3935 / 27–4035 / 29–4033 / 29–3731 / 27–3529 / 25–3429 / 23–33
RH %62 / 56–6961 / 54–6960 / 54–6861 / 54–6963 / 57–7066 / 60–7065 / 60–7065 / 60–7067 / 61–7166 / 61–7165 / 59–7064 / 57–69

Each figure is the median across the 520 grid cells holding the 963 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 1499:1808 (15.025, -89.575). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 11.6 °C, 1st-percentile night 16.6 °C, 99th-percentile day 40.5 °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 520 distinct grid cells holding the 963 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1499:1808 (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 15.00_-89.375, lapse-corrected -577 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 185 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 every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeMexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Belize, Costa Rica, C. American Pacific Is., El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil North, Argentina Northwest· introduced: Kenya, Tanzania, Oman, Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Sri Lanka, Andaman Is., Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Borneo, Cocos (Keeling) I., Jawa, Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Christmas I., Nauru, Tokelau-Manihiki, Vanuatu, Wallis-Futuna Is., Marquesas, Society Is., Tuamotu, Tubuai Is., Caroline Is., Marianas, Florida, Bahamas, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Trinidad-Tobago, Galápagos
Kew's description“tree” · “seasonally dry tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker6.846, -75.846 · in the densest population, 301 records (31% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 972 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 720 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker in the same place. 525 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 9 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 972 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Muntingia calaburaMuntingia calaburaMuntingia calaburaMuntingia calaburaMuntingia calaburaMuntingia calaburaMuntingia calaburaMuntingia calabura

Photographs: (c) Julien Renoult, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Carlos Domínguez-Rodríguez, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Greg III Espera, some rights reserved (CC BY); no rights reserved · CC0; (c) Seema Merchant, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3).

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 Muntingia calabura, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Frugivorous Bats, Seed Shadows, and the Structure of Tropical Forests
Theodore H. Fleming, E. Raymond Heithaus (1981) · Biotropica
Novel Muntingia Calabura bark fiber reinforced green-epoxy composite: A sustainable and green material for cleaner production
A. Vinod, T. G. Yashas Gowda, R. Vijay, M.R. Sanjay (2021) · Journal of Cleaner Production
New and Interesting Fungi. 3
P.W. Crous, Michael J. Wingfield, R.K. Schumacher, Alexander Akulov (2020) · Fungal Systematics and Evolution
Activity-guided isolation of the chemical constituents of Muntingia calabura using a quinone reductase induction assay
Bao‐Ning Su, Eun‐Jung Park, Jose Schunke Vigo, James G. Graham (2003) · Phytochemistry
Isolation and identification of antibacterial and cytotoxic compounds from the leaves of Muntingia calabura L.
A. Sufian, Kalavathy Ramasamy, Norizan Ahmat, Zainul Amiruddin Zakaria (2012) · Journal of Ethnopharmacology
Bioinspiration synthesis of hydroxyapatite nanoparticles using eggshells as a calcium source: Evaluation of Congo red dye adsorption potential
Ramesh Vinayagam, Sandhya Kandati, Gokulakrishnan Murugesan, Louella Concepta Goveas (2022) · Journal of Materials Research and Technology
Muntingia calabura : A review of its traditional uses, chemical properties, and pharmacological observations
Nur Diyana Mahmood, Nurherlina Nasir, Mohd Salleh Rofiee, Siti Farah Md Tohid (2014) · Pharmaceutical Biology
Fabrication of novel SnWO4/ZnO using Muntingia calabura L. leaf extract with enhanced photocatalytic methylene blue degradation under visible light irradiation
Elviera, Yoki Yulizar, Dewangga Oky Bagus Apriandanu, Rizki Marcony Surya (2021) · Ceramics International
An Experimental Analysis of the Food Location Behavior of Frugivorous Bats
Theodore H. Fleming, E. Raymond Heithaus, William Sawyer (1977) · Ecology
Plant Anticancer Agents, XLVIII. New Cytotoxic Flavonoids from Muntingia calabura Roots
Norito Kaneda, John M. Pezzuto, Djaja D. Soejarto, A. Douglas Kinghorn (1991) · Journal of Natural Products
Mechanism(s) of action involved in the gastroprotective activity of Muntingia calabura
Zainul Amiruddin Zakaria, Tavamani Balan, Velan Suppaiah, Syahida Ahmad (2014) · Journal of Ethnopharmacology

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.

History & 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 answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata 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: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.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 answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 135 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.