Species
+

Pereskia aculeata Mill.

Barbados Shrub, Barbados gooseberry, Barbados gooseberry, Barbados shrub

Climate known 80 photographs Cactus or succulent
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

Pereskia aculeata is a scrambling shrub in the family Cactaceae. Common names include Barbados gooseberry, blade-apple cactus, leaf cactus, rose cactus, and lemonvine. It is native to tropical America. The leaves and fruits are edible, containing high quantities of protein, iron and other nutrients, and it is a popular vegetable in parts of the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais under the name of ora-pro-nóbis.

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

About the genus · Pereskia

Pereskia is a small genus of about ten species of cacti that do not look much like other types of cacti, having substantial leaves and non-succulent stems. The genus is named after Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc, a 16th-century French botanist. The genus was more widely circumscribed until molecular phylogenetic studies showed that it was paraphyletic. More on Wikipedia ›

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

Family
Cactaceae
Described by
Mill.
Native to
Panama, French Guiana, Guyana +10
Wild records
1116 in range· 895 open

At a glance

Warmest month
28°C
Feb, mean day; nights 21 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1470mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jan 207 mm (CHELSA)
Light
22–37DLI
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 cactus or succulent by Cactaceae, which is usually but not always one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a summer growing season, April to October in the northern hemisphere (October to April at the habitat, southern). Habitat rain 1470 mm a year, wettest January at 207 mm, driest August at 53 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 22 to 37 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 7.0 °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 Cactus lucidus Salisb.; Cactus pereskia L.; Peireskia aculeata Plum.; Pereskia acardia J.Parm.; Pereskia acardia J.Parm. ex Pfeiff. and 23 more.

Cultivation

Grouped as a cactus or succulent by Cactaceae, which is usually but not always one kind of plant (archetype table). The table holds no figure for this group, which spans too much for one minimum; the cold floor is the habitat's alone, and no prose comes from the table.

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 (1118 mm of 1470 mm) falls in October to April, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 23.4 °C against a yearly mean of 21.5 °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 1470 mm a year, wettest January at 207 mm, driest August at 53 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1470 mm a year at the habitat, 1118 mm of it October to April. Wettest month January at 207 mm, driest August at 53 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1095 mm to 2027 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: 22 to 37 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 22 to 37 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 42).

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 7.0 °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 7.0 °C, the absolute minimum 0.1 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 37.8 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 13.0 °C in July (across the envelope cells 9.9 °C to 19.0 °C), warmest day 28.3 °C in February (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 7.0 °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: 61 to 64% 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 22 °C in Jul to 28 °C in Feb; mean night from 13 °C in Jul to 21 °C in Jan. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest night. 1470 mm of rain a year, most in Jan. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 814 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 0.1 °C and the 99th-percentile day 37.8 °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°frost37.8° 99th-percentile day (undated)0.1° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 22–37RH 61–64 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 814 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 °C28 / 26–3128 / 26–3028 / 25–3026 / 23–2824 / 20–2723 / 19–2622 / 19–2524 / 20–2725 / 21–2826 / 22–2927 / 24–2928 / 25–30
Night °C21 / 18–2321 / 18–2420 / 17–2318 / 15–2215 / 12–2114 / 11–2013 / 10–1914 / 11–1916 / 12–2018 / 14–2119 / 16–2220 / 17–23
Rain mm207 / 113–305168 / 83–232153 / 111–227107 / 69–19086 / 37–17064 / 19–14860 / 14–14053 / 19–11689 / 44–163133 / 78–212162 / 110–229188 / 109–282
DLI37 / 34–4137 / 34–4033 / 31–3629 / 24–3223 / 19–2822 / 17–2623 / 18–2727 / 22–3230 / 25–3635 / 30–3837 / 33–4037 / 34–42
RH %64 / 61–6864 / 61–6864 / 61–6964 / 60–6863 / 59–6763 / 58–6662 / 56–6661 / 54–6661 / 55–6662 / 58–6763 / 59–6764 / 60–68

Each figure is the median across the 814 grid cells holding the 1093 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 2233:2648 (-21.675, -47.575). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 0.1 °C, 1st-percentile night 7.0 °C, 99th-percentile day 37.8 °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 814 distinct grid cells holding the 1093 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2233:2648 (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 -21.50_-47.500, lapse-corrected -1 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 672 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.
NativePanama, French Guiana, Guyana, Surinam, Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Brazil West-Central, Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast, Brazil South, Argentina Northeast, Paraguay· introduced: Cape Provinces, KwaZulu-Natal, Northern Provinces, Ascension, China Southeast, India, Myanmar, Vietnam, New South Wales, Queensland, Hawaii, Texas, Florida, Mexico Southwest, Guatemala, Bermuda, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Puerto Rico, Trinidad-Tobago, Windward Is., Ecuador
Kew's description“scrambling tree” · “seasonally dry tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-22.228, -43.161 · in the densest population, 691 records (62% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1116 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 895 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 82 km away. 426 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 23 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 1116 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Pereskia aculeataPereskia aculeataPereskia aculeataPereskia aculeataPereskia aculeataPereskia aculeataPereskia aculeataPereskia aculeata

Photographs: (c) Ben Machado, some rights reserved (CC BY) (8).

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

Phytochemical profile and biological activities of 'Ora-pro-nobis' leaves (Pereskia aculeata Miller), an underexploited superfood from the Brazilian Atlantic Forest
Jéssica Amanda Andrade Garcia, Rúbia Carvalho Gomes Corrêa, Lillian Barros, Carla Pereira (2019) · Food Chemistry
Nutritive evaluation of a non-conventional leafy vegetable ( Pereskia aculeata Miller)
Cristina Yoshie Takeiti, Graziella Colato Antonio, Eliana Maria Pettirossi Motta, Fernanda Paula Collares‐Queiroz (2009) · International Journal of Food Sciences and Nutrition
Chemical structure and physical-chemical properties of mucilage from the leaves of Pereskia aculeata
Andressa Amado Martin, Rilton Alves de Freitas, Guilherme L. Sassaki, Paulo Henrique Labiak Evangelista (2017) · Food Hydrocolloids
Unconventional food plants: Nutritional aspects and perspectives for industrial applications
Gustavo Leite Milião, Ana Paula Hanke de Oliveira, Lucas de Souza Soares, Társila Rodrigues Arruda (2022) · Future Foods
Pereskia aculeata Miller leaves present in vivo topical anti-inflammatory activity in models of acute and chronic dermatitis
Nícolas de Castro Campos Pinto, Danielle Cunha Machado, Josiane Mello da Silva, Jéssica Leiras Mota Conegundes (2015) · Journal of Ethnopharmacology
Biological Control of Cactaceae in South Africa
Iain D. Paterson, J. H. Hoffmann, Hildegard Klein, C.W. Mathenge (2011) · African Entomology
Response surface methodology for optimization of the mucilage extraction process from Pereskia aculeata Miller
FAUSTO ALVES DE LIMA, Márcia Cavalcante Conceição, Jaime Vilela de Resende, Luciana Affonso Junqueira (2013) · Food Hydrocolloids
Ultrasound-assisted oil-in-water nanoemulsion produced from Pereskia aculeata Miller mucilage
Amanda Maria Teixeira Lago, Isabelle Cristina Oliveira Neves, Natália Leite Oliveira, Diego Alvarenga Botrel (2018) · Ultrasonics Sonochemistry
Development and characterization of biodegradable films based on Pereskia aculeata Miller mucilage
Natália Leite Oliveira, Adrise Aparecida Rodrigues, Isabelle Cristina Oliveira Neves, Amanda Maria Teixeira Lago (2019) · Industrial Crops and Products
Complexes of arabinogalactan of Pereskia aculeata and Co2+, Cu2+, Mn2+, and Ni2+
Ana Lúcia Ramalho Mercê (2001) · Bioresource Technology
Pereskia aculeata Muller (Cactaceae) Leaves: Chemical Composition and Biological Activities
Lucéia Fátima Souza, Lucia Caputo, Ingrid Inchausti De Barros, Florinda Fratianni (2016) · International Journal of Molecular Sciences
Extraction optimization of bioactive compounds from ora-pro-nobis (Pereskia aculeata Miller) leaves and their in vitro antioxidant and antihemolytic activities
Thiago Mendanha Cruz, Jânio Sousa Santos, Mariana Araújo Vieira do Carmo, Jarkko Hellström (2021) · Food Chemistry

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 Pereskia 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 130 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.