Example ⟳ +
An example collection, so you can see what this page does. Nothing added here is kept: leaving deletes it.
Oncidium fuscatum; photograph (c) Daniel Mesa, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Daniel Mesa, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2024-11-03

Oncidium fuscatum Rchb.f.

Orchidaceae · Panama, Colombia +3 · listed by its genus as an orchid

Add one to my plants
Sow seed
Oncidium fuscatum, photograph (c) Daniel Mesa, some rights reserved (CC BY)Oncidium fuscatum, photograph (c) desertnaturalist, some rights reserved (CC BY)Oncidium fuscatum, photograph (c) desertnaturalist, some rights reserved (CC BY)Oncidium fuscatum, photograph (c) Frank Dietze, some rights reserved (CC BY)Oncidium fuscatum, photograph Eduardo A. Pacheco from Turrialba, Costa Rica, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia CommonsOncidium fuscatum, photograph David J. Stang, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons 13 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
15.5°C
Record low 12.2 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
25°C
Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov and Dec at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
3,970mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
26–35DLI
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

Oncidium fuscatum is a species of orchid occurring from Panama to Peru.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Oncidium fuscatum", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Oncidium

Oncidium is a genus of about 370 species of orchid in the family Orchidaceae. It is distributed across tropical and subtropical America from Mexico, Central America and the West Indies to northern Argentina, with one species (O. ensatum) extending into Florida. Common names for plants in this genus include dancing-lady orchid.

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

Cultivation

Grouped as an orchid, listed under the genus Oncidium in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “pseudobulbous epiphyte”.

Seasons

The rain rule reads no short rainy season: 70% of the median year's rain (2,879 mm of 3,761 mm) takes 8 months, April to November. Mean temperature moves 1.2 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern 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

3,761 mm in the median year at the habitat, 2,879 mm of it April to November. Wettest month May at 428 mm, driest month January at 167 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 2,021 mm to 4,868 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 3,970 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 3,761 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 26 to 35 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 19, the highest 90th-percentile month 40).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 15.5 °C, the absolute minimum 12.2 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 30.0 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 16.6 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range 14.0 °C to 19.4 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 25.3 °C in September (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 15.5 °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: 63 to 70% 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 -893 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.

Group. Listed under the genus Oncidium in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “pseudobulbous epiphyte”. A group is taken only where Kew's description of the species agrees with the table's listing. The table gives no figure and no prose; the cold floor is the habitat's alone.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Oncidium fuscatum through the yearWarmest months January, February, March, April, May, August, September, October, November and December, mean daily high 25 °C; coldest month July, mean nightly low 16.6 °C; 3,761 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, northern hemisphere.10°15°20°25°30°35°30.0° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER12.2° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500600mm rainDLI 26–35RH 63–70%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 33 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 °C25 / 20–2725 / 21–2825 / 21–2725 / 21–2725 / 21–2724 / 20–2724 / 21–2825 / 21–2825 / 21–2825 / 20–2725 / 20–2725 / 20–27
Night °C18 / 14–2018 / 14–2018 / 14–2018 / 15–2118 / 15–2117 / 14–2017 / 14–1917 / 14–2017 / 14–2017 / 14–2018 / 14–2018 / 14–20
Rain mm167 / 98–376193 / 106–356284 / 147–389398 / 201–506428 / 195–535357 / 176–480333 / 138–417291 / 133–430332 / 160–484375 / 200–548365 / 204–437238 / 163–439
DLI32 / 24–3432 / 25–3532 / 25–3630 / 22–3428 / 20–3326 / 19–3727 / 21–3933 / 21–4035 / 20–3732 / 20–3630 / 19–3330 / 21–32
RH %66 / 62–7667 / 62–7567 / 63–7568 / 64–7668 / 65–7767 / 62–7665 / 60–7663 / 59–7766 / 62–7768 / 63–7870 / 64–7869 / 63–77
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 33 grid cells holding the 40 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 1830:2040 (-1.525, -77.975). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 12.2 °C, 1st-percentile night 15.5 °C, 99th-percentile day 30.0 °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 33 distinct grid cells holding 40 of the 40 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1830:2040 (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 -1.50_-78.125, lapse-corrected -893 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 922 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.
NativePanama, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil North · 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 marker6.25, -75.1 · in the densest population, 26 records (47% of those in range)
Kew's description“pseudobulbous epiphyte” · “wet tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 55 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 40 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 17 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 30 km away. 15 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 of the 55 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Oncidium fuscatum, photograph 1did not loadOncidium fuscatum, photograph 2did not loadOncidium fuscatum, photograph 3did not loadOncidium fuscatum, photograph 4did not loadOncidium fuscatum, photograph 5did not loadOncidium fuscatum, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Daniel Mesa, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) desertnaturalist, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Frank Dietze, some rights reserved (CC BY); Eduardo A. Pacheco from Turrialba, Costa Rica, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons; David J. Stang, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

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

Erycina pumilio Erycina pumilio Orchidaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedMaxillaria nasuta Maxillaria nasuta Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY, Frank Dietze Maxillaria pendula Orchidaceae Polycycnis muscifera Polycycnis muscifera Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY, Samuel Peláez VélezCaladium steudnerifolium Caladium steudnerifolium Araceae Photo: CC BY, Zihao WangSpathiphyllum wallisii Spathiphyllum wallisii Peace Lily Photo: CC0, author not stated

Other Oncidium 69 in the reference

Oncidium abruptum Orchidaceae Oncidium alexandrae Oncidium alexandrae Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY, Carlos TorrenteOncidium altissimum Oncidium altissimum Wydler's dancing-lady orchid Photo: CC BY, chrisdt Oncidium ansiferum Orchidaceae Oncidium anthocrene Orchidaceae Oncidium astranthum Orchidaceae Oncidium baueri Oncidium baueri Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY, Diogo Luiz Oncidium boothianum Orchidaceae Oncidium bracteatum Oncidium bracteatum Orchidaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedOncidium bryolophotum Oncidium bryolophotum Orchidaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedOncidium cariniferum Oncidium cariniferum Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY, River AhlquistOncidium cheirophorum Oncidium cheirophorum Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Lesley Aguirre all 70 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Chamaeleorchis warszewiczii; Miltonia warscewiczii; Miltonia warszewiczii; Miltonia warszewiczii var. aetherea; Miltonioides warszewiczii and 2 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Orchidaceae
Described by
Rchb.f.
Native to
Panama, Colombia, Ecuador +2
Wild records
55 in range · 17 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
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -1.50_-78.125, lapse-corrected -893 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 2026-10-22none of the photographs on this page is credited to GBIF: those shown are other sources', and GBIF's were the same photographs or were set aside by the photograph rules
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 13 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…