Species
+

Pachira aquatica Aubl.

Cacao cimarron (Dominican Republic), Carolina, Carolina blanca, Castano silvestre

Climate known 54 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

Pachira aquatica is a species of tropical wetland tree in the mallow family Malvaceae, native to Central and South America where it grows in swamps. It is known by its common names Malabar chestnut, French peanut, Guiana chestnut, provision tree, Saba nut, Monguba (Brazil), Pumpo (Guatemala) and Jelinjoche and is commercially sold under the names money tree and money plant. This tree is sometimes sold with a braided trunk and is commonly grown as a houseplant, although more commonly what is sold as a "Pachira aquatica" houseplant is in fact a similar species, Pachira glabra.

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

About the genus · Pachira

Pachira is a genus of tropical trees distributed in Central and South America and the Caribbean, ranging from Mexico to Bolivia and southern Brazil. They are classified in the subfamily Bombacoideae of the family Malvaceae. Previously the genus was assigned to Bombacaceae. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Pachira”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Malvaceae
Described by
Aubl.
Native to
Mexico Central, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northwest +19
Wild records
1391 in range· 834 open

At a glance

Warmest month
29°C
Apr, mean day; nights 23 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
2065mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Sep 280 mm (CHELSA)
Light
26–38DLI
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 November at the habitat (not shifted); the temperature curve is flat (2.9 °C of range), so no growing season is inferred. Habitat rain 2065 mm a year, wettest September at 280 mm, driest March at 64 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 26 to 38 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 17.7 °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 Bombax aquaticum (Aubl.) K.Schum.; Bombax macrocarpum (Cham. & Schltdl.) K.Schum.; Bombax rigidifolium Ducke; Carolinea grandiflora (Tussac) Spach; Carolinea macrocarpa Cham. & Schltdl. and 13 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a sharp rainy season, May to November at the habitat (not shifted); the temperature curve is flat (2.9 °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 (1595 mm of 2065 mm) falls in May to November. The temperature curve is flat, 2.9 °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; with a flat temperature curve 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 2065 mm a year, wettest September at 280 mm, driest March at 64 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

2065 mm a year at the habitat, 1595 mm of it May to November. Wettest month September at 280 mm, driest March at 64 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1322 mm to 3893 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: 26 to 38 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 26 to 38 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 22, 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 17.7 °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 17.7 °C, the absolute minimum 14.9 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 35.3 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 20.6 °C in January (across the envelope cells 16.8 °C to 23.7 °C), warmest day 29.2 °C in April (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 17.7 °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: 63 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 Jan to 29 °C in Apr; mean night from 21 °C in Jan to 24 °C in May. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 2065 mm of rain a year, most in Sep. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 931 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 14.9 °C and the 99th-percentile day 35.3 °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°35.3° 99th-percentile day (undated)14.9° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500600mm rainDLI 26–38RH 63–67 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 931 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 / 24–3028 / 25–3029 / 26–3229 / 27–3329 / 26–3429 / 25–3229 / 25–3229 / 26–3229 / 26–3128 / 26–3128 / 25–3027 / 24–30
Night °C21 / 17–2421 / 17–2422 / 18–2423 / 19–2524 / 19–2523 / 19–2523 / 19–2523 / 19–2523 / 19–2523 / 19–2422 / 18–2421 / 17–24
Rain mm102 / 28–35083 / 20–30064 / 21–32384 / 25–391163 / 64–435265 / 114–460238 / 96–499250 / 63–494280 / 58–515246 / 65–440153 / 46–374137 / 35–339
DLI28 / 23–3531 / 28–3836 / 29–4038 / 27–4337 / 26–4333 / 24–3934 / 25–4035 / 28–3932 / 28–3930 / 26–3927 / 24–3626 / 22–34
RH %65 / 59–7064 / 58–7063 / 57–6964 / 57–7065 / 58–7167 / 63–7266 / 62–7266 / 62–7267 / 62–7266 / 61–7265 / 61–7266 / 60–71

Each figure is the median across the 931 grid cells holding the 1366 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 1401:1792 (19.925, -90.375). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 14.9 °C, 1st-percentile night 17.7 °C, 99th-percentile day 35.3 °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 931 distinct grid cells holding the 1366 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1401:1792 (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 20.00_-90.625, lapse-corrected +4 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 14 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 Gulf, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, French Guiana, Guyana, Surinam, Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil Northeast, Brazil North· introduced: Guinea, Senegal, Cameroon, Congo, Comoros, Caroline Is., Marianas, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Puerto Rico, Trinidad-Tobago, Windward Is.
Kew's description“tree” · “wet tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker18.116, -92.52 · in the densest population, 470 records (34% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1391 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 834 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 8 km away. 169 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 25 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 1391 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Pachira aquaticaPachira aquaticaPachira aquaticaPachira aquaticaPachira aquaticaPachira aquaticaPachira aquaticaPachira aquatica

Photographs: (c) Ricard Busquets Reverte, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Alberto Cardeñas, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA); (c) Greg III Espera, some rights reserved (CC BY); no rights reserved · CC0 (2); (c) desertnaturalist, some rights reserved (CC BY).

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

Immobilization of a Plant Lipase from Pachira aquatica in Alginate and Alginate/PVA Beads
Bárbara Martineli Bonine, Patrícia Peres Polizelli, Gustavo Orlando Bonilla‐Rodriguez (2014) · Enzyme Research
Composition and nutritional properties of seeds from Pachira aquatica Aubl, Sterculia striata St Hil et Naud and Terminalia catappa Linn
José T.A. Oliveira, Ilka M. Vasconcelos, L.C.N.M Bezerra, Silvana B Silveira (2000) · Food Chemistry
Marine Fungi from Tropical America and Africa
Jan Kohlmeyer, Erika Kohlmeyer (1971) · Mycologia
Handbook of Nuts: Herbal Reference Library
James A. Düke (2017) · Medical Entomology and Zoology
Removal of mercury(II) ions in aqueous solution using the peel biomass of Pachira aquatica Aubl: kinetics and adsorption equilibrium studies
Andrea. J. Santana, Walter Nei Lopes dos Santos, Laiana O.B. Silva, Cesário Francisco das Virgens (2016) · Environmental Monitoring and Assessment
Chemical Composition and Antioxidant Activity of Monguba (Pachira aquatica) Seeds
Alexsandra Pereira Rodrigues, Gustavo Araújo Pereira, Pedro Henrique Ferreira Tomé, Henrique Silvano Arruda (2019) · Food Research International
Caracterização do óleo das sementes de Pachira aquatica Aublet para aproveitamento alimentar
Neuza Jorge, Débora Maria Moreno Luzia (2011) · Acta Amazonica
Marine Fungi from Tropical America and Africa
Jan Kohlmeyer, Erika Kohlmeyer (1971) · Mycologia
Heat stress increases the use of cytosolic pyruvate for isoprene biosynthesis
Ana María Yáñez‐Serrano, Lucas Mahlau, Lukas Fasbender, Joseph Byron (2019) · Journal of Experimental Botany
Sequential green extractions based on supercritical carbon dioxide and pressurized ethanol for the recovery of lipids and phenolics from Pachira aquatica seeds
Gerson Lopes Teixeira, Laércio Galvão Maciel, Simone Mazzutti, Rafaela Cristina Turola Barbi (2021) · Journal of Cleaner Production
Effect of Surfactants and Polyethylene Glycol on the Activity and Stability of a Lipase from Oilseeds of Pachira aquatica
Patrícia Peres Polizelli, Márcio José Tiera, Gustavo Orlando Bonilla‐Rodriguez (2008) · Journal of the American Oil Chemists Society

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.

Other Pachira 1 in the reference

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