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Palicourea sulphurea; photograph Nicolás Baresch Uribe, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF CC BYNicolás Baresch Uribe, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF

Palicourea sulphurea (Ruiz & Pav.) DC.

Rubiaceae · Venezuela, Colombia +2

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Palicourea sulphurea, photograph Nicolás Baresch Uribe, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFPalicourea sulphurea, photograph Nicolás Baresch Uribe, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFPalicourea sulphurea, photograph Nicolás Baresch Uribe, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIFPalicourea sulphurea, photograph Nicolás Baresch Uribe, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF 5 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Coldest month, mean nightly low
9.0°C
Jan and Dec at the habitat, not a floor; extremes not used (the weather cell's ground is too far off) CHELSA
Warmest month, mean daily high
19°C
Sep at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
2,142mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
26–32DLI
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, March to June and September 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.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a sharp season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,488 mm of 2,077 mm) falls in March to June and September to November. The temperature curve is flat, 0.8 °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. 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

2,077 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,488 mm of it March to June and September to November. Wettest month October at 256 mm, driest month January at 82 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,145 mm to 4,442 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 2,142 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 2,077 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 32 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 22, the highest 90th-percentile month 37).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 9.0 °C in January and December (across the grid cells of the range 6.5 °C to 14.1 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 18.6 °C in September (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: none read. The nearest figure is 9.0 °C, the coldest month's mean nightly low, January and December, in the median year (CHELSA); a month's mean of its nightly lows is warmer than the nights a floor is read from. The daily extremes were read at a weather cell whose ground is too far above or below the typical spot to correct for, and are not used.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 64 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. CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. No cold floor is read without a daily extremes series; the coldest month's mean nightly low named in its sentence is not one. 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, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Palicourea sulphurea through the yearWarmest month September, mean daily high 19 °C; coldest months January and December, mean nightly low 9.0 °C; 2,077 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.5°10°15°20°25°°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 26–32RH 64–70%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 32 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C18 / 16–2218 / 16–2318 / 16–2318 / 16–2218 / 15–2118 / 15–2018 / 15–2118 / 15–2219 / 16–2218 / 16–2217 / 15–2218 / 16–22
Night °C9 / 7–149 / 7–1510 / 7–1510 / 8–1510 / 7–1510 / 7–149 / 6–149 / 6–149 / 6–149 / 7–149 / 7–159 / 7–14
Rain mm82 / 39–177116 / 59–193181 / 92–285254 / 133–466253 / 153–486154 / 74–420129 / 66–364134 / 61–388168 / 79–448256 / 142–477222 / 123–362128 / 62–228
DLI32 / 30–3432 / 30–3531 / 29–3527 / 24–3326 / 22–3227 / 22–3328 / 24–3531 / 27–3632 / 27–3730 / 25–3428 / 24–3130 / 27–32
RH %66 / 60–7066 / 60–7067 / 63–7169 / 65–7369 / 64–7367 / 62–7265 / 60–7264 / 60–7164 / 60–7068 / 63–7370 / 64–7368 / 63–72

The daily extremes were not used: the correction for elevation, +1298 m, is beyond the 1,000 m either way that a lapse rate is applied over, so the weather cell's ground is other terrain than the typical spot's. So no cold floor is read for this species, and the coldest month's mean nightly low is not taken as one. What that cell gave, so corrected, over 44 years: absolute minimum 3.9 °C, 1st-percentile night 6.9 °C.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 32 grid cells holding the 34 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 1683:2094 (5.825, -75.275). 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 32 distinct grid cells holding 34 of the 34 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1683:2094 (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 6.00_-75.000, lapse-corrected +1298 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 2496 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.
NativeVenezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru · 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 marker5.447, -73.77 · in the densest population, 56 records (47% of those in range)
Kew's description“subshrub or shrub” · “wet tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 119 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 34 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 95 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 14 km away. 85 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 119 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Palicourea sulphurea, photograph 1did not loadPalicourea sulphurea, photograph 2did not loadPalicourea sulphurea, photograph 3did not loadPalicourea sulphurea, photograph 4did not load

Photographs: Nicolás Baresch Uribe, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF (4).

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

Oreopanax incisus Oreopanax incisus Araliaceae Photo: CC BY, Nicolás Baresch UribeTillandsia biflora Tillandsia biflora Bromeliaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Ángela Patricia Rojas CortésViburnum tinoides Viburnum tinoides Viburnaceae Photo: CC BY, Nicolás Baresch UribePleurothallis adonis Pleurothallis adonis Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY, Ligia Stella Peñafiel RodriguezDaphnopsis caracasana Daphnopsis caracasana Thymelaeaceae Photo: CC BY, Nicolás Baresch UribePiper artanthe Piper artanthe Piperaceae Photo: CC BY, Nicolás Baresch Uribe

Other Palicourea 24 in the reference

Palicourea acuminata Palicourea acuminata Rubiaceae Photo: CC BY, reagan peschkePalicourea amethystina Palicourea amethystina Rubiaceae Photo: CC BY, Esteban PovedaPalicourea angustifolia Palicourea angustifolia Rubiaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Ángela Patricia Rojas CortésPalicourea boqueronensis Palicourea boqueronensis Rubiaceae Photo: CC BY, Andrés Ramírez-BarreraPalicourea chiriquiensis Palicourea chiriquiensis Rubiaceae Photo: CC BY, Trevor Van LoonPalicourea colorata Palicourea colorata Rubiaceae Photo: CC BY, Helio LourenciniPalicourea crocea Palicourea crocea Red cappel Photo: CC0, author not statedPalicourea croceoides Palicourea croceoides Yellow cedar Photo: CC BY, Matteo BellucciPalicourea cyanococca Palicourea cyanococca Rubiaceae Photo: CC BY, Justine CobaledaPalicourea deflexa Palicourea deflexa Nodding wild coffee Photo: CC BY, Yoannis DomínguezPalicourea elata Palicourea elata Hooker's lips Photo: CC BY, Martin JungPalicourea guianensis Palicourea guianensis Showy cappel Photo: CC BY, reagan peschke all 25 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Palicourea mitis; Palicourea puberulenta; Palicourea vaginata; Psychotria mitis; Psychotria sulphurea and 3 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidata

The record

Family
Rubiaceae
Described by
(Ruiz & Pav.) DC.
Native to
Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador +1
Wild records
119 in range · 95 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 6.00_-75.000, lapse-corrected +1298 m at 6.5 °C/km; read, and set aside: the correction for elevation, +1298 m, is beyond the 1,000 m either way that a lapse rate is applied over, so the weather cell's ground is other terrain than the typical spot's, so no cold floor is shown
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia nothing to reportasked 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 answeredasked 2026-10-22
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 24 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

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