Species
+

Oncidium sphacelatum Lindl.

Kandyan Dancer Orchid

Climate known 58 photographs Orchid
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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

Oncidium sphacelatum is a species of orchid ranging from Mexico to Central America and southeastern Venezuela. It is known as Kandyan dancer orchid in Sri Lanka due to its resemblance to a Kandyan dancer.

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

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.

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

Family
Orchidaceae
Described by
Lindl.
Native to
Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf +8
Wild records
774 in range· 338 open

At a glance

Warmest month
30°C
May, mean day; nights 21 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1751mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Sep 316 mm (CHELSA)
Light
24–40DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a orchid by the genus Oncidium, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a summer growing season, June to October in the northern hemisphere (June to October at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 1751 mm a year, wettest September at 316 mm, driest March at 41 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 24 to 40 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 13 °C (archetype minimum for a orchid, above the 8.6 °C habitat night).
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 Oncidium schrautianum Königer; Oncidium sphacelatum f. xanthinum Roeth & O.Gruss; Oncidium sphacelatum var. majus Lindl.; Oncidium sphacelatum var. minus Lindl.; Oncidium stenostalix Rchb.f. and 1 more.

Cultivation

Grouped as a orchid by the genus Oncidium, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). The table supplies one figure for this group, a conventional minimum for the cold floor, and no prose.

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, June to October in the northern hemisphere (June to October at the habitat, northern).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (1289 mm of 1751 mm) falls in June to October, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 24.8 °C against a yearly mean of 23.3 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December to April.

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 1751 mm a year, wettest September at 316 mm, driest March at 41 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1751 mm a year at the habitat, 1289 mm of it June to October. Wettest month September at 316 mm, driest March at 41 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1208 mm to 2896 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: 24 to 40 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 24 to 40 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 21, the highest 90th-percentile month 43).

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 13 °C (archetype minimum for a orchid, above the 8.6 °C habitat night).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 8.6 °C, the absolute minimum -1.1 °C, 3 frost nights in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 40.2 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 15.9 °C in January (across the envelope cells 11.0 °C to 19.4 °C), warmest day 29.7 °C in May (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 13 °C. The habitat figure, the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER), is 8.6 °C; the archetype table's conventional minimum for a orchid (grouped by the genus Oncidium, which is reliably one kind of plant) is 13 °C, which is higher, and the floor rule takes the higher.

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, and the archetype table's group minimum where that is higher. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 61 to 68% 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 24 °C in Jan to 30 °C in May; mean night from 16 °C in Jan to 22 °C in Jun. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1751 mm of rain a year, most in Sep. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 478 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -1.1 °C and the 99th-percentile day 40.2 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-10°10°20°30°40°50°frost40.2° 99th-percentile day (undated)-1.1° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 24–40RH 61–68 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 478 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 °C24 / 20–2725 / 22–2928 / 24–3229 / 25–3330 / 25–3429 / 24–3228 / 23–3128 / 24–3228 / 23–3127 / 22–2925 / 22–2824 / 21–27
Night °C16 / 11–1917 / 12–2018 / 13–2120 / 15–2321 / 16–2422 / 16–2521 / 16–2421 / 16–2421 / 16–2420 / 15–2318 / 13–2117 / 12–20
Rain mm54 / 10–11946 / 10–9641 / 14–7355 / 31–93122 / 79–194268 / 162–399261 / 158–431250 / 154–431316 / 204–473194 / 133–33085 / 39–19659 / 14–145
DLI25 / 21–3330 / 25–3736 / 32–4140 / 36–4339 / 37–4136 / 32–3836 / 33–3936 / 33–3932 / 29–3429 / 27–3226 / 24–3224 / 21–31
RH %65 / 58–6964 / 57–6861 / 56–6661 / 56–6663 / 59–6767 / 63–7066 / 62–7166 / 63–7068 / 65–7267 / 64–7066 / 61–7066 / 59–69

Each figure is the median across the 478 grid cells holding the 753 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 1391:1654 (20.425, -97.275). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -1.1 °C, 1st-percentile night 8.6 °C, 99th-percentile day 40.2 °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 478 distinct grid cells holding the 753 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1391:1654 (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 20.50_-97.500, lapse-corrected -35 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 131 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, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Venezuela
Kew's description“pseudobulbous epiphyte” · “wet tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker19.471, -96.949 · in the densest population, 394 records (51% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 774 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 338 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 34 km away. 39 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 21 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 inside the densest 2° block of the 774 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Oncidium sphacelatumOncidium sphacelatumOncidium sphacelatumOncidium sphacelatumOncidium sphacelatumOncidium sphacelatumOncidium sphacelatumOncidium sphacelatum

Photographs: no rights reserved · CC0; (c) Ricard Busquets Reverte, some rights reserved (CC BY) (7).

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

Proteome changes in Oncidium sphacelatum (Orchidaceae) at different trophic stages of symbiotic germination
Rafael Borges da Silva Valadares, Silvia Perotto, Eder da Costa dos Santos, Márcio Rodrigues Lambais (2013) · Mycorrhiza
Multiple isoforms of phosphoenolpyruvate carboxylase in the Orchidaceae (subtribe Oncidiinae): implications for the evolution of crassulacean acid metabolism
Katia Silvera, Klaus Winter, B. Leticia Rodriguez, Rebecca L. Albion (2014) · Journal of Experimental Botany
Algal associates and the evidence of cyanobacterial nitrogen fixation in the velamen roots of epiphytic orchids
A. S. Deepthi, Joseph George Ray (2020) · Global Ecology and Conservation
Proteomic and morphometric study of the in vitro interaction between Oncidium sphacelatum Lindl. (Orchidaceae) and Thanatephorus sp. RG26 (Ceratobasidiaceae)
Mariana Y. López-Chávez, Karina Guillén‐Navarro, Vincenzo Bertolini, Sergio Encarnación‐Guevara (2016) · Mycorrhiza
The formation of hyaline caudicle in two vandoid orchids
Edward C. Yeung, Sandra K. Law (1987) · Canadian Journal of Botany
The complete chloroplast genome sequence of Gomesa flexuosa
Ping Mo, Jinhua Zhou, Fumin Zhou, Yazhi Chen (2022) · Mitochondrial DNA Part B
AISLAMIENTO, CARACTERIZACIÓN E INOCULACIÓN CON ENDOMICORRIZAS ORQUIDEALES EN ESPECIES DE ORQUIDEAS
Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Agrícolas. La Habana, Cuba, Bastian Nova, A. Oria, L. Casadesus (1999) · Revista Chapingo Serie Horticultura
Usos, festividades religiosas y conocimiento local de las orquídeas Laelia autumnalis y Oncidium sphacelatum
Adriana Martínez Morales, Ma. Antonia Pérez-Olvera, Marcelina Ortíz Medel, María Liliana Hernández Pérez (2020) · Ra Ximhai

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 49 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.