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Phytolacca rivinoides; photograph (c) portioid, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) portioid, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-04-20

Phytolacca rivinoides Kunth & C.D.Bouché

Venezuelan pokeweed; Purple Heart

Phytolaccaceae · Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast +30

Cited as Kew's World Checklist cites it, Phytolacca rivinoides Kunth & C.D.Bouché: GBIF's backbone key for this page carries the name with another author, Kunth & Bouché.

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Phytolacca rivinoides, photograph (c) Cen_Bamper, some rights reserved (CC BY)Phytolacca rivinoides, photograph (c) Cen_Bamper, some rights reserved (CC BY)Phytolacca rivinoides, photograph (c) Cen_Bamper, some rights reserved (CC BY)Phytolacca rivinoides, photograph (c) keesgroenendijk, some rights reserved (CC BY)Phytolacca rivinoides, photograph (c) keesgroenendijk, some rights reserved (CC BY)Phytolacca rivinoides, photograph (c) keesgroenendijk, some rights reserved (CC BY) 68 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
16.2°C
Record low 13.2 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
26°C
Apr and May at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
2,853mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
27–35DLI
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
A sharp rainy season, May to November (the habitat's months, not shifted), in a year of even temperature. rain rule, CHELSA
Not shifted: the shift rule does not apply to this habitat. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Phytolacca rivinoides, also known by its common name Venezuelan pokeweed, is a species of shrub in the family Phytolaccaceae.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Phytolacca rivinoides", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Phytolacca

Phytolacca is a genus of perennial plants native to North America, South America and East Asia. Some members of the genus are known as pokeweeds or similar names such as pokebush, pokeberry, pokeroot or poke sallet. Other names for species of Phytolacca include inkberry and ombú. More on Wikipedia ›

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

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a sharp season: 70% of the median year's rain (2,018 mm of 2,774 mm) falls in May to November. The temperature curve is flat, 1.8 °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, northern hemisphere. The temperature curve moves under 4 °C between the warmest and coldest month, where the shift rule does not apply, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

Rain

2,774 mm in the median year at the habitat, 2,018 mm of it May to November. Wettest month September at 317 mm, driest month January at 122 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,623 mm to 4,652 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 2,853 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 2,774 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: 27 to 35 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 22, 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 16.2 °C, the absolute minimum 13.2 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 27.8 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 17.0 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 9.8 °C to 22.4 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 25.9 °C in April (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 16.2 °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: 66 to 70% 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 +566 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.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Phytolacca rivinoides through the yearWarmest months April and May, mean daily high 26 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 17.0 °C; 2,774 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.5°10°15°20°25°30°35°27.8° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER13.2° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500600mm rainDLI 27–35RH 66–70%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 616 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 °C24 / 18–2925 / 19–2925 / 20–3026 / 20–2926 / 20–2925 / 20–2925 / 19–2925 / 20–2925 / 20–2925 / 19–2924 / 19–2824 / 19–29
Night °C17 / 10–2217 / 10–2217 / 11–2318 / 12–2319 / 12–2319 / 13–2318 / 12–2318 / 12–2318 / 12–2318 / 12–2318 / 11–2317 / 10–22
Rain mm122 / 39–380125 / 31–355141 / 34–377190 / 59–471289 / 103–529302 / 125–500290 / 100–482281 / 85–501317 / 111–547293 / 141–533246 / 76–442178 / 56–377
DLI30 / 23–3432 / 26–3635 / 27–4035 / 25–4230 / 23–4129 / 22–3831 / 23–3932 / 25–3831 / 25–3729 / 23–3527 / 22–3328 / 22–32
RH %68 / 60–7467 / 60–7366 / 59–7267 / 60–7368 / 63–7469 / 65–7669 / 63–7569 / 63–7570 / 64–7570 / 65–7669 / 64–7669 / 63–75
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 616 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (828 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 1436:2270 (18.175, -66.475). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 13.2 °C, 1st-percentile night 16.2 °C, 99th-percentile day 27.8 °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 616 distinct grid cells holding 828 of the 829 in-range records (1 further cell with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1436:2270 (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 18.00_-66.250, lapse-corrected +566 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 787 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 Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Belize, Costa Rica, C. American Pacific Is., Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Puerto Rico, Trinidad-Tobago, Windward Is., French Guiana, Guyana, Surinam, Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil West-Central, Brazil Northeast, Brazil North, Argentina Northwest · 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 marker10.1, -83.907 · in the densest population, 286 records (17% of those in range)
Kew's description“perennial or shrub” · “wet tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 1636 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 828 of them in the land cells it reads, of 829 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 1049 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 28 km away. 7 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 807 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 1636 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Phytolacca rivinoides, photograph 1did not loadPhytolacca rivinoides, photograph 2did not loadPhytolacca rivinoides, photograph 3did not loadPhytolacca rivinoides, photograph 4did not loadPhytolacca rivinoides, photograph 5did not loadPhytolacca rivinoides, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Cen_Bamper, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) keesgroenendijk, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3).

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

Aiouea montana Aiouea montana Laurel avispillo Photo: CC BY, Nicolás Baresch UribeBegonia glabra Begonia glabra Begoniaceae Photo: CC BY, er-birdsDiplazium striatum Diplazium striatum Striped twinsorus fern Photo: CC BY-SA, Krzysztof Ziarnek, KenraizSolanum pseudolulo Solanum pseudolulo Solanaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedBrassia arcuigera Brassia arcuigera Orchidaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedBunchosia argentea Bunchosia argentea Peanut Butter Fruit Photo: CC0, author not stated

Other Phytolacca 12 in the reference

Phytolacca acinosa Phytolacca acinosa Indian pokeweed Photo: CC0, author not statedPhytolacca americana Phytolacca americana American pokeweed Photo: CC BY, Sandy WolkenbergPhytolacca bogotensis Phytolacca bogotensis Southern pokeweed Photo: CC BY-SA, Noemi GuerreroPhytolacca dioica Phytolacca dioica Belhambra Photo: CC BY-SA, Antoinette Eyssell KnoxPhytolacca heterotepala Phytolacca heterotepala Mexican pokeweed Photo: CC BY, Mary JantschPhytolacca icosandra Phytolacca icosandra Tropical pokeweed Photo: CC BY, Mark ValenPhytolacca octandra Phytolacca octandra Phytolaccaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Mark MarathonPhytolacca polyandra Phytolacca polyandra Chinese Pokeweed Photo: CC BY, Mary E. Macaulay, P.Eng.Phytolacca rugosa Phytolacca rugosa Phytolaccaceae Photo: CC BY, lazarusPhytolacca tetramera Phytolacca tetramera Phytolaccaceae Photo: CC0, author not statedPhytolacca thyrsiflora Phytolacca thyrsiflora Brazilian Pokeweed Photo: CC BY, Paulo MascarettiPhytolacca weberbaueri Phytolacca weberbaueri Phytolaccaceae Photo: CC BY, Dick Culbert from Gibsons, B.C., Canada

Names & registers

Also known as Phytolacca icosandra var. fraseri; Phytolacca macrostachya; Phytolacca polystyla. (GBIF Backbone)

Under another author Phytolacca bogotensis Miq. is an older name of this species, not Phytolacca bogotensis, a species of the reference; Phytolacca icosandra Griseb., 1859 and Phytolacca icosandra Wright is an older name of this species, not Phytolacca icosandra, a species of the reference. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Phytolaccaceae
Described by
Kunth & C.D.Bouché
Native to
Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf +29
Wild records
1636 in range · 1049 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 2026-10-22GBIF's key 3084014 is Phytolacca rivinoides Kunth & Bouché; the page links Kew's Phytolacca rivinoides Kunth & C.D.Bouché, and the name is cited as Kew cites it
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; 19 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (16 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 3 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 18.00_-66.250, lapse-corrected +566 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 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 138 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

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