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Philodendron sagittifolium; photograph (c) Thomas Mesaglio, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Thomas Mesaglio, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2024-05-15

Philodendron sagittifolium Liebm.

Araceae · Mexico Central, Mexico Gulf +10 · listed by its genus as a tropical foliage plant

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Philodendron sagittifolium, photograph (c) ashleyrsteel, some rights reserved (CC BY)Philodendron sagittifolium, photograph (c) ashleyrsteel, some rights reserved (CC BY)Philodendron sagittifolium, photograph (c) ashleyrsteel, some rights reserved (CC BY)Philodendron sagittifolium, photograph (c) Richard Littauer, some rights reserved (CC BY)Philodendron sagittifolium, photograph (c) Thomas Mesaglio, some rights reserved (CC BY)Philodendron sagittifolium, photograph (c) Thomas Mesaglio, some rights reserved (CC BY) 33 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
11.2°C
Record low 4.8 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
28°C
Apr and May at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
2,669mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
25–38DLI
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
Wet summers: the rain comes June to November (the habitat's months, not shifted), read as a summer growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Not shifted: the shift rule does not apply to this habitat. The chart is in the habitat's months.

About the genus · Philodendron

Philodendron is a large genus of flowering plants in the family Araceae. As of September 2025, the Plants of the World Online accepted 625 species; other sources accept different numbers. Regardless of number of species, the genus is the second-largest member of the family Araceae, after genus Anthurium. More on Wikipedia ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Philodendron", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Grouped as a tropical foliage plant, listed under the genus Philodendron in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “epiphyte”, “wet tropical”.

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,960 mm of 2,579 mm) falls in June to November, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 23.3 °C against a yearly mean of 22.5 °C). 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

2,579 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,960 mm of it June to November. Wettest month September at 402 mm, driest month March at 65 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,630 mm to 4,999 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 2,669 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 2,579 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: 25 to 38 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 21, the highest 90th-percentile month 42).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 11.2 °C, the absolute minimum 4.8 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 35.5 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 15.9 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 11.6 °C to 23.1 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 27.7 °C in April (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 11.2 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 64 to 71% 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. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected +351 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Group. Listed under the genus Philodendron in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “epiphyte”, “wet tropical”. A group is taken only where Kew's description of the species agrees with the table's listing. The table gives no figure and no prose; the cold floor is the habitat's alone.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Philodendron sagittifolium through the yearWarmest months April and May, mean daily high 28 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 15.9 °C; 2,579 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.0°10°20°30°40°35.5° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER4.8° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0200400600800mm rainDLI 25–38RH 64–71%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 126 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C23 / 20–2725 / 22–2827 / 23–2928 / 24–3128 / 24–3127 / 23–3027 / 23–2927 / 23–2926 / 23–2926 / 22–2724 / 21–2724 / 21–27
Night °C16 / 12–2317 / 12–2318 / 13–2419 / 15–2420 / 16–2421 / 16–2420 / 15–2420 / 16–2420 / 16–2419 / 15–2418 / 13–2317 / 12–23
Rain mm87 / 37–16180 / 27–12265 / 27–16590 / 40–306149 / 93–557331 / 234–533339 / 222–530343 / 224–619402 / 264–632330 / 154–761215 / 66–537148 / 48–246
DLI26 / 22–3431 / 26–3737 / 31–4038 / 33–4238 / 26–4234 / 24–3834 / 25–4034 / 25–3930 / 25–3428 / 23–3125 / 23–2925 / 21–30
RH %68 / 64–7166 / 63–6964 / 60–6865 / 60–7066 / 61–7269 / 65–7470 / 63–7470 / 63–7471 / 66–7570 / 66–7569 / 66–7469 / 65–72
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 126 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (172 records in those cells; 1 more cell holds records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cell is left out), 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 1472:1816 (16.375, -89.175). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 4.8 °C, 1st-percentile night 11.2 °C, 99th-percentile day 35.5 °C. 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 126 distinct grid cells holding 172 of the 173 in-range records (1 further cell with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1472:1816 (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 16.50_-89.375, lapse-corrected +351 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 759 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.
NativeMexico Central, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Belize, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Venezuela, Colombia · introduced: Hawaii · 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 marker8.714, -83.528 · in the densest population, 193 records (30% of those in range)
Kew's description“epiphyte” · “wet tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 645 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 172 of them in the land cells it reads, of 173 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 556 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 13 km away. 16 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 472 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 645 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Philodendron sagittifolium, photograph 1did not loadPhilodendron sagittifolium, photograph 2did not loadPhilodendron sagittifolium, photograph 3did not loadPhilodendron sagittifolium, photograph 4did not loadPhilodendron sagittifolium, photograph 5did not loadPhilodendron sagittifolium, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) ashleyrsteel, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Richard Littauer, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Thomas Mesaglio, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2).

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

Psychotria trichotoma Psychotria trichotoma Rubiaceae Photo: CC BY, Neptalí Ramírez Marcial Asplundia labela Cyclanthaceae Solanum schlechtendalianum Solanum schlechtendalianum Solanaceae Photo: CC BY, J. L. Gómez-Hechavarría Hoffmannia bullata Rubiaceae Tripogandra serrulata Commelinaceae Siparuna thecaphora Siparuna thecaphora Siparunaceae Photo: CC BY, José Javier Barrios Flores

Other Philodendron 93 in the reference

Philodendron angustisectum Philodendron angustisectum Araceae Photo: CC BY, Daniel MesaPhilodendron anisotomum Philodendron anisotomum Araceae Photo: CC BY-SA, YuPhilodendron appendiculatum Philodendron appendiculatum Araceae Photo: CC BY-SA, UNA EcoturismoPhilodendron atabapoense Philodendron atabapoense Araceae Photo: CC0, author not statedPhilodendron auriculatum Philodendron auriculatum Araceae Photo: CC BY, Fabrício Mil Homens RiellaPhilodendron barrosoanum Philodendron barrosoanum Araceae Photo: CC0, author not statedPhilodendron billietiae Philodendron billietiae Araceae Photo: CC BY, fmunozPhilodendron bipennifolium Philodendron bipennifolium Fiddle-leaf philodendron Photo: CC0, author not statedPhilodendron bipinnatifidum Philodendron bipinnatifidum Araceae Photo: CC BY, Paulo C. O. CunhaPhilodendron brandtianum Philodendron brandtianum Silver Leaf Philodendron Photo: CC BY, Yuri Sofronov Philodendron brasiliense Araceae Philodendron burle-marxii Philodendron burle-marxii Araceae Photo: CC BY-SA, David J. Stang all 94 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Philodendron daemonum; Philodendron ghiesbrechtii; Philodendron ilsemanii; Philodendron sanguineum; Philodendron tanyphyllum and 1 more. (GBIF Backbone)

Kew accepts as species of their own Philodendron lancigerum: older names in GBIF's record of this species that Kew's World Checklist accepts as other species. (WCVP, RBG Kew, file of 2026-06-04)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataiNaturalist

The record

Family
Araceae
Described by
Liebm.
Native to
Mexico Central, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Southwest +9
Wild records
645 in range · 556 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; 23 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (16 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 2 at a herbarium, 5 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 16.50_-89.375, lapse-corrected +351 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia nothing to reportasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 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 52 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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