Species
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Parkinsonia praecox (Ruiz & Pav.) Hawkins

Maas, Sonoran palo verde

Climate known 24 photographs
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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

Parkinsonia praecox, the palo brea or Sonoran palo verde, is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae. It is native to the dry Neotropics from Mexico to Argentina. A small tree reaching 6 to 9 m, it is usually a bit wider than it is tall.

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

About the genus · Parkinsonia

Parkinsonia, also Cercidium, is a genus of flowering plants in the pea family, Fabaceae. It contains about 12 species that are native to semidesert regions of Africa and the Americas. The name of the genus honors English apothecary and botanist John Parkinson (1567–1650).

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

Family
Fabaceae
Described by
(Ruiz & Pav.) Hawkins
Native to
Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf +14
Wild records
1592 in range· 866 open

At a glance

Warmest month
28°C
Oct, mean day; nights 17 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
278mm/yr
5 wet months · peak Sep 42 mm (CHELSA)
Light
33–39DLI
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, August to February at the habitat (not shifted); the temperature curve is flat (2.3 °C of range), so no growing season is inferred. Habitat rain 278 mm a year, wettest September at 42 mm, driest June at 10 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 33 to 39 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 4.2 °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 Caesalpinia brea Gillies; Caesalpinia brea Gillies ex Steud.; Caesalpinia praecox Ruiz & Pav.; Caesalpinia praecox Ruiz & Pav. ex Hook. & Arn., 1833; Cercidium goldmanii Rose and 7 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a sharp rainy season, August to February at the habitat (not shifted); the temperature curve is flat (2.3 °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 (200 mm of 278 mm) falls in August to February. The temperature curve is flat, 2.3 °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, southern 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 278 mm a year, wettest September at 42 mm, driest June at 10 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

278 mm a year at the habitat, 200 mm of it August to February. Wettest month September at 42 mm, driest June at 10 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 190 mm to 986 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, southern 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: 33 to 39 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 33 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 17, the highest 90th-percentile month 52).

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 4.2 °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 4.2 °C, the absolute minimum -3.7 °C, 5 frost nights in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 35.0 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 15.1 °C in March (across the envelope cells 10.3 °C to 22.1 °C), warmest day 28.2 °C in October (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 4.2 °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: 54 to 57% 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 25 °C in Jul to 28 °C in Oct; mean night from 15 °C in Mar to 17 °C in Sep. The cold quarter, Feb to Apr, is the three months around the coldest night. 278 mm of rain a year, most in Sep. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 942 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -3.7 °C and the 99th-percentile day 35.0 °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°frost35.0° 99th-percentile day (undated)-3.7° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200mm rainDLI 33–39RH 54–57 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 942 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 °C26 / 21–3327 / 22–3227 / 23–3227 / 20–3327 / 17–3526 / 14–3625 / 13–3627 / 16–3528 / 18–3428 / 22–3227 / 23–3226 / 21–32
Night °C16 / 9–2316 / 10–2315 / 10–2215 / 10–2216 / 6–2217 / 3–2416 / 2–2617 / 4–2617 / 6–2517 / 10–2316 / 10–2216 / 9–22
Rain mm28 / 9–14623 / 7–13418 / 3–14318 / 1–8414 / 0–5910 / 1–13118 / 4–15726 / 4–14942 / 7–14633 / 9–8721 / 8–10327 / 7–133
DLI35 / 27–4937 / 32–4439 / 31–4336 / 24–4934 / 20–5234 / 17–5234 / 20–4736 / 26–4336 / 31–4036 / 33–4335 / 28–5033 / 25–51
RH %56 / 48–6255 / 47–6355 / 46–6356 / 43–6356 / 43–6257 / 43–6356 / 48–6355 / 49–6455 / 49–6454 / 48–6354 / 47–6255 / 48–62

Each figure is the median across the 942 grid cells holding the 1554 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 1436:1644 (18.175, -97.775). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -3.7 °C, 1st-percentile night 4.2 °C, 99th-percentile day 35.0 °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 942 distinct grid cells holding the 1554 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1436:1644 (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 18.00_-97.500, lapse-corrected -369 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1626 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 Northwest, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Guatemala, Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil West-Central, Argentina Northeast, Argentina South, Argentina Northwest, Paraguay
Kew's description“shrub or tree” · “subtropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-32.952, -68.917 · in the densest population, 441 records (28% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1592 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 866 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 6340 km away. 25 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 38 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 4° block of the 1592 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Parkinsonia praecoxParkinsonia praecoxParkinsonia praecoxParkinsonia praecoxParkinsonia praecoxParkinsonia praecoxParkinsonia praecoxParkinsonia praecox

Photographs: Abraham Sánchez Romero, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF (3); Thomaz Ricardo Favreto Sinani, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF (5).

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

Carbon‐nitrogen interactions in fertility island soil from a tropical semi‐arid ecosystem
Yareni Perroni, Carlos Montanā, Felipe García‐Oliva (2009) · Functional Ecology
Sequestration of Exogenous Volatiles by Plant Cuticular Waxes as a Mechanism of Passive Associational Resistance: A Proof of Concept
Xicotencatl Camacho-Coronel, Jorge Molina‐Torres, Martin Heil (2020) · Frontiers in Plant Science
Caesalpinioideae (Leguminosae) de um remanescente de Chaco em Porto Murtinho, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brasil
Fábio de Matos Alves, Ângela Lúcia Bagnatori Sartori (2009) · Rodriguésia
Subchronic toxicological evaluation of brea gum (Parkinsonia preacox) as a food additive in BALB/c mice
Axel R. von Müller, C.B. López, Aldo R. Eynard, Carlos A. Guzmán (2009) · Drug and Chemical Toxicology
Classification of Vegetation Types in the Habitat of White-Tailed Deer in a Location of the Tehuacán-Cuicatlán Biosphere Reserve, Mexico
Ariana Barrera-Salazar, Salvador Mandujano, O. A. Villarreal Espino-Barros, Daniel Jiménez‐García (2015) · Tropical Conservation Science
Physical and Chemical Variations of the Soil Under Two Desert Shrubs in Tehuacan, Mexico
Angélica Serrano-Vázquez, Salvador Rodrı́guez-Zaragoza, Horacio Pérez-Juárez, Jesús Bazán-Cuenca (2013) · Soil Science
Anatomical and histochemical bark changes due to growth of Tillandsia recurvata (ball moss)
Silvia Aguilar‐Rodríguez, Teresa Terrazas, María Elena Huidobro‐Salas, Ernesto Aguirre‐León (2016) · Botanical Sciences
Cambios anatómicos en la corteza de Parkinsonia praecox (Ruiz et Pavón) Hawkins causados por la epífita Tillandsia recurvata L. (Bromeriaceae)
Luis Enrique Páez-Gerardo, Silvia Aguilar‐Rodríguez, Teresa Terrazas, Ma. Elena Huidobro-Salas (2005) · Botanical Sciences

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 Parkinsonia 2 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 not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: not asked: 22 wild photographs already from the GBIF download
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: filled 2026-09-20
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 106 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.