Species
+

Peltophorum dubium (Spreng.) Taub.

Cana-fístula, Horsebush, Yellow Poinciana, copperpod

Climate known 85 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

Peltophorum dubium is a tree in the family Fabaceae and subfamily Caesalpinioideae. This species is known as ibirá-pitá in Argentina and Paraguay, árbol de Artigas in Uruguay, and Cambuí in Brazil. It is a large tree, growing around 20–25 meters, with a more or less straight trunk.Foliage: bright green, and deciduous Leaves: compound, bipinnate, large. Numerous leaves with a central nervous system. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Peltophorum dubium”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Peltophorum

Peltophorum is a genus of 5–15 species of flowering plants in the family Fabaceae, subfamily Caesalpinioideae. The genus is native to certain tropical regions across the world, including northern South America, central and southern Africa, Indochina, southeastern China, Malesia, New Guinea, and northern Australia. The species are medium-sized to large trees growing up to 15–25 m tall, rarely 50 m.

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

Family
Fabaceae
Described by
(Spreng.) Taub.
Native to
Bahamas, Cuba, Dominican Republic +12
Wild records
1205 in range· 889 open

At a glance

Warmest month
29°C
Jan, mean day; nights 21 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1298mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Dec 173 mm (CHELSA)
Light
23–39DLI
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 summer growing season, April to October in the northern hemisphere (October to April at the habitat, southern). Habitat rain 1298 mm a year, wettest December at 173 mm, driest August at 42 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 23 to 39 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 10.2 °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 Baryxylum dubium (Spreng.) Pierre; Brasilettia dubia (Spreng.) Kuntze; Caesalpinia dubia Spreng.; Peltophorum vogelianum Walp.

Cultivation

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

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 (993 mm of 1298 mm) falls in October to April, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 24.3 °C against a yearly mean of 22.6 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: April to October.

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 1298 mm a year, wettest December at 173 mm, driest August at 42 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1298 mm a year at the habitat, 993 mm of it October to April. Wettest month December at 173 mm, driest August at 42 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 764 mm to 1860 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: 23 to 39 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 23 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 16, the highest 90th-percentile month 44).

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 10.2 °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 10.2 °C, the absolute minimum 4.1 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 37.9 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 14.4 °C in July (across the envelope cells 10.1 °C to 20.7 °C), warmest day 29.2 °C in January (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 10.2 °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: 58 to 62% 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 Jun to 29 °C in Jan; mean night from 14 °C in Jul to 21 °C in Jan. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest night. 1298 mm of rain a year, most in Dec. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 929 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 4.1 °C and the 99th-percentile day 37.9 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°20°30°40°37.9° 99th-percentile day (undated)4.1° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250300mm rainDLI 23–39RH 58–62 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 929 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 °C29 / 26–3229 / 27–3129 / 26–3127 / 24–3025 / 21–2924 / 19–2824 / 19–2826 / 21–3027 / 22–3028 / 24–3128 / 26–3129 / 26–31
Night °C21 / 19–2321 / 19–2321 / 18–2319 / 16–2216 / 13–2215 / 11–2114 / 10–2116 / 11–2117 / 13–2119 / 15–2320 / 17–2321 / 18–23
Rain mm172 / 58–282148 / 59–207139 / 85–18593 / 53–18886 / 27–16457 / 11–15043 / 7–13142 / 13–11577 / 18–159126 / 39–202142 / 70–205173 / 56–253
DLI38 / 33–4337 / 34–4034 / 32–3730 / 24–3625 / 20–3323 / 16–3124 / 19–3329 / 24–3833 / 29–3836 / 32–4039 / 32–4238 / 32–44
RH %62 / 57–6662 / 58–6662 / 59–6661 / 59–6662 / 58–6562 / 56–6560 / 54–6459 / 51–6458 / 53–6459 / 56–6560 / 57–6561 / 57–66

Each figure is the median across the 929 grid cells holding the 1173 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 2159:2663 (-17.975, -46.825). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 4.1 °C, 1st-percentile night 10.2 °C, 99th-percentile day 37.9 °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 929 distinct grid cells holding the 1173 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2159:2663 (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_-46.875, lapse-corrected -96 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 644 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.
NativeBahamas, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Guyana, Venezuela, Bolivia, Brazil West-Central, Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast, Brazil North, Brazil South, Argentina Northeast, Paraguay, Uruguay· introduced: Zimbabwe, India, Florida, Mexico Southwest, Windward Is.
Kew's description“tree” · “seasonally dry tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-25.673, -54.449 · in the densest population, 514 records (43% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1205 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 889 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 15 km away. 54 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 32 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 1205 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Peltophorum dubiumPeltophorum dubiumPeltophorum dubiumPeltophorum dubiumPeltophorum dubiumPeltophorum dubiumPeltophorum dubiumPeltophorum dubium

Photographs: (c) Douglas Goldman, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (3); (c) Alix Sanchis, some rights reserved (CC BY); no rights reserved · CC0 (3); (c) Pablo H Capovilla, 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 Peltophorum dubium, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

A trypsin inhibitor from Peltophorum dubium seeds active against pest proteases and its effect on the survival of Anagasta kuehniella (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae)
Maria Lı́gia Rodrigues Macedo, Maria das Graças Machado Freire, Elaine Cristina Cabrini, Marcos Hikari Toyama (2003) · Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) - General Subjects
Sleeping site preferences in tufted capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella nigritus)
Mario S. Di Bitetti, Estela Maris Luengos Vidal, Mar�a Celia Baldovino, Viviana Benesovsky (2000) · American Journal of Primatology
Enrichment planting in overexploited subtropical forests of the Paranaense region of Misiones, Argentina
Florencia Montagnini, Beatriz Eibl, Luis Grance, Domingo Maiocco (1997) · Forest Ecology and Management
Potencial alelopático de espécies nativas na germinação e crescimento inicial de Lactuca sativa L. (Asteraceae)
Fabiana Maraschin-Silva, Maria Estefânia Alves Áquila (2006) · Acta Botanica Brasilica
Avaliação de métodos para quebra da dormência e para a desinfestação de sementes de canafístula (Peltophorum dubium (Sprengel) Taubert
Luciana Magda de Oliveira, Antônio Cláudio Davide, María Laene Moreira de Carvalho (2003) · Revista Árvore
Root morphology and leaf gas exchange in Peltophorum dubium (Spreng.) Taub. (Caesalpinioideae) exposed to copper-induced toxicity
Douglas José Marques, Adriano Bortolotti da Silva, José Ricardo Mantovani, P. C. Magalhães (2018) · South African Journal of Botany
Flúor em chuva simulada: sintomatologia e efeitos sobre a estrutura foliar e o crescimento de plantas arbóreas
Luzimar Campos da Silva, Aristéa Alves Azevedo, Eldo Antônio Monteiro da Silva, Marco Antônio Oliva (2000) · Revista Brasileira de Botânica
Antimicrobial and structural insights of a new snakin-like peptide isolated from Peltophorum dubium (Fabaceae)
Susana Rodríguez-Decuadro, Mariana Barraco-Vega, Pablo D. Dans, Valesca Pandolfi (2018) · Amino Acids
Sobrevivência e crescimento inicial em campo de espécies florestais nativas do Brasil Central indicadas para sistemas silvipastoris
Alex Marcel Melotto, Maria Luiza Franceschi Nicodemo, Ricardo Anghinoni Bocchese, Valdemir Antônio Laura (2009) · Revista Árvore
Teste de tetrazólio para avaliação da qualidade de sementes de peltophorum dubium (sprengel) taubert - leguminosae caesalpinioideae
Luciana Magda de Oliveira, María Laene Moreira de Carvalho, Antônio Cláudio Davide (2005) · Redalyc (Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México)
A novel trypsin inhibitor from Peltophorum dubium seeds, with lectin-like properties, triggers rat lymphoma cell apoptosis
María F. Troncoso, Paula Cerdá Zolezzi, Ulf Hellman, Carlota Wolfenstein‐Todel (2003) · Archives of Biochemistry and Biophysics

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 Peltophorum 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 138 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.