Species
+

Pereskia grandifolia Haw.

Guamacho morado, Hortensia trepadora, Ora pro nobis, Quiabento

Climate known 84 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 grandifolia is a species of cactus native to eastern and southern Brazil. Like all species in the genus Pereskia and unlike most cacti, it has persistent leaves. It was first described in 1819. It is grown as an ornamental plant and has naturalized outside its native range.

Text from Wikipedia, “Pereskia grandifolia”, 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
Haw.
Native to
Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast, Brazil South
Wild records
246 in range· 169 open

At a glance

Warmest month
29°C
Feb, mean day; nights 21 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1296mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Dec 187 mm (CHELSA)
Light
23–38DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
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 September in the northern hemisphere (October to March at the habitat, southern). Habitat rain 1296 mm a year, wettest December at 187 mm, driest August at 37 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 23 to 38 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 8.9 °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 grandifolius (Haw.) Britton & Rose; Cactus grandifolius Link; Cactus rosa Vell.; Opuntia rosea (A.Dietr.) K.Schum.; Peireskia grandifolia Haw. and 11 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 September in the northern hemisphere (October to March 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 (935 mm of 1296 mm) falls in October to March, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 24.2 °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 September.

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 1296 mm a year, wettest December at 187 mm, driest August at 37 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1296 mm a year at the habitat, 935 mm of it October to March. Wettest month December at 187 mm, driest August at 37 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 794 mm to 1855 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 38 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 23 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 18, the highest 90th-percentile month 41).

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 8.9 °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 8.9 °C, the absolute minimum 2.0 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 38.0 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 15.1 °C in July (across the envelope cells 10.9 °C to 19.5 °C), warmest day 28.7 °C in February (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 8.9 °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 24 °C in Jul to 29 °C in Feb; mean night from 15 °C in Jul to 21 °C in Feb. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest night. 1296 mm of rain a year, most in Dec. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 205 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 2.0 °C and the 99th-percentile day 38.0 °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°38.0° 99th-percentile day (undated)2.0° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 23–38RH 61–64 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 205 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 / 26–3129 / 27–3128 / 26–3027 / 24–2925 / 21–2924 / 20–2824 / 19–2825 / 21–2926 / 22–3127 / 24–3128 / 25–3128 / 25–31
Night °C21 / 18–2321 / 19–2420 / 18–2319 / 16–2217 / 14–2116 / 12–2015 / 11–2016 / 12–2017 / 13–2119 / 15–2220 / 17–2220 / 18–23
Rain mm185 / 87–306148 / 71–226155 / 106–22592 / 52–17171 / 16–15150 / 6–14444 / 3–13037 / 4–10267 / 13–144108 / 35–168152 / 59–207187 / 80–277
DLI38 / 34–4138 / 35–4134 / 31–3730 / 25–3425 / 20–3123 / 18–3024 / 19–3128 / 24–3632 / 27–4036 / 32–4137 / 33–4037 / 34–41
RH %64 / 59–6763 / 58–6863 / 60–6964 / 59–6863 / 57–6763 / 55–6662 / 53–6661 / 51–6561 / 52–6561 / 53–6762 / 57–6763 / 58–68

Each figure is the median across the 205 grid cells holding the 237 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 2211:2628 (-20.575, -48.575). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 2.0 °C, 1st-percentile night 8.9 °C, 99th-percentile day 38.0 °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 205 distinct grid cells holding the 237 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2211:2628 (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 -20.50_-48.750, lapse-corrected +32 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 545 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.
NativeBrazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast, Brazil South· introduced: Mauritius, Réunion, Assam, Bangladesh, India, Vietnam, Florida, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Puerto Rico, Southwest Caribbean, Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuelan Antilles
Kew's description“succulent shrub or tree” · “seasonally dry tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-23.562, -46.647 · in the densest population, 161 records (65% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 246 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 169 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 191 km away. 178 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 9 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 246 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Pereskia grandifoliaPereskia grandifoliaPereskia grandifoliaPereskia grandifoliaPereskia grandifoliaPereskia grandifoliaPereskia grandifoliaPereskia grandifolia

Photographs: no rights reserved · CC0 (2); (c) Eduardo Chacón Madrigal, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4); (c) Luan Mazzeo, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Rafael Rosa, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA).

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

Antimicrobial Activity of Some Medicinal Plants from Malaysia
Koshy Philip, Sri Nurestri Abd Malek, Wirakarnain Sani, Sim Kae Shin (2009) · American Journal of Applied Sciences
Phenolic content and antioxidant activity of Pereskia grandifolia Haw. (Cactaceae) extracts
AM Sri Nurestri, AW Norhanom, Kae Shin Sim (2010) · Pharmacognosy Magazine
Carbon Metabolism in Two Species of Pereskia (Cactaceae)
Lisa Rayder, Irwin P. Ting (1981) · PLANT PHYSIOLOGY
Utilização de cactáceas do gênero Pereskia na alimentação humana em um município de Minas Gerais
Martha Elisa Ferreira de Almeida, Angelita Duarte Corrêa (2012) · Ciência Rural
Involvement of arginine-vasopressin in the diuretic and hypotensive effects of Pereskia grandifolia Haw. (Cactaceae)
Caroline Calixto Kazama, Denise Thiemi Uchida, Karina Natally Canzi, Priscila de Souza (2012) · Journal of Ethnopharmacology
Acute oral toxicity ofPereskia bleoandPereskia grandifoliain mice
AM Sri Nurestri, SK Sinniah, KH Kim, AW Norhanom (2010) · Pharmacognosy Magazine
Leaf and Stem CO2 Uptake in the Three Subfamilies of the Cactaceae
Park S. Nobel, Terry L. Hartsock (1986) · PLANT PHYSIOLOGY
Agronomic Cultivation, Chemical Composition, Functional Activities and Applications of Pereskia Species – A Mini Review
Vinícius Borges Vieira Maciel, Cristiana Maria Pedroso Yoshida, Francisco M. Goycoolea (2018) · Current Medicinal Chemistry
A new saponin of oleanolic acid from Pereskia grandifolia
Niranjan P. Sahu, Nilima Banerji, R N Chakravarti (1974) · Phytochemistry
Nutritional assay Pereskia spp.: unconventional vegetable
Melissa Guimarães Silveira, CAMILA T.R. PICININ, Marcelo Ângelo Cirillo, Juliana Mesquita Freire (2020) · Anais da Academia Brasileira de Ciências
Temperature requirements for seed germination of Pereskia aculeata and Pereskia grandifolia
Lucéia Fátima Souza, Bruno Frosi Gasparetto, Rodrigo Ramos Lopes, Ingrid Bergman Inchausti de Barros (2016) · Journal of Thermal Biology
Carotenoid composition of berries and leaves from a Cactaceae – Pereskia sp.
T.S. Agostini-Costa, G.K.A. Pêssoa, Diego Barbosa da Silva, I. S. Gomes (2014) · Journal of Functional Foods

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