Species
+

Pilea cadierei Gagnep. & Guillaumin

Aluminio (Dominican Republic), Aluminium Plant, Watermelon pilea, hua ye leng shui hua

Climate known 49 photographs Tropical foliage plant
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

Pilea cadierei is a species of flowering plant in the nettle family, Urticaceae. The species is endemic to the southern Chinese provinces of Guizhou and Yunnan, as well as Vietnam. The specific epithet cadierei refers to the 20th-century botanist R.P. Cadière. P. cadierei has earned the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit for its hardiness and reliability as a houseplant. More on Wikipedia ›

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

About the genus · Pilea

Pilea, with 600–715 species, is the largest genus of flowering plants in the nettle family Urticaceae.

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

Family
Urticaceae
Described by
Gagnep. & Guillaumin
Native to
China South-Central, Vietnam
Wild records
66 in range· 11 open

At a glance

Warmest month
31°C
Jul, mean day; nights 25 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1583mm/yr
11 wet months · peak Jun 259 mm (CHELSA)
Light
15–32DLI
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 tropical foliage plant by the genus Pilea, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a summer growing season, April to August in the northern hemisphere (April to August at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 1583 mm a year, wettest June at 259 mm, driest January at 23 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 15 to 32 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 12 °C (archetype minimum for a tropical foliage plant, above the -1.3 °C habitat night).
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.

Cultivation

Grouped as a tropical foliage plant by the genus Pilea, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). The table supplies one figure for this group, a conventional minimum for the cold floor, and no prose.

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

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 (1143 mm of 1583 mm) falls in April to August, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 25.6 °C against a yearly mean of 19.9 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: October to February.

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 1583 mm a year, wettest June at 259 mm, driest January at 23 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1583 mm a year at the habitat, 1143 mm of it April to August. Wettest month June at 259 mm, driest January at 23 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1012 mm to 2245 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern 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: 15 to 32 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 15 to 32 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 10, the highest 90th-percentile month 36).

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 12 °C (archetype minimum for a tropical foliage plant, above the -1.3 °C habitat night).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -1.3 °C, the absolute minimum -10.9 °C, about 8 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 33.9 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 5.7 °C in January (across the envelope cells 2.1 °C to 13.2 °C), warmest day 30.5 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 12 °C. The habitat figure, the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER), is -1.3 °C; the archetype table's conventional minimum for a tropical foliage plant (grouped by the genus Pilea, which is reliably one kind of plant) is 12 °C, which is higher, and the floor rule takes the higher.

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, and the archetype table's group minimum where that is higher. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 59 to 65% 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 13 °C in Jan to 31 °C in Jul; mean night from 6 °C in Jan to 25 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1583 mm of rain a year, most in Jun. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 39 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -10.9 °C and the 99th-percentile day 33.9 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-20°-10°10°20°30°40°frost33.9° 99th-percentile day (undated)-10.9° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 15–32RH 59–65 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 39 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 °C13 / 9–1914 / 11–2018 / 16–2324 / 22–2627 / 25–2929 / 28–3131 / 29–3230 / 29–3228 / 25–3026 / 20–2820 / 16–2415 / 11–20
Night °C6 / 2–138 / 4–1511 / 7–1716 / 13–2120 / 17–2423 / 20–2625 / 22–2725 / 22–2722 / 18–2517 / 14–2312 / 9–187 / 4–14
Rain mm23 / 10–6548 / 13–9275 / 25–129147 / 52–218233 / 91–331259 / 130–448255 / 187–360249 / 138–404134 / 96–30281 / 40–10249 / 16–7330 / 7–42
DLI15 / 11–2217 / 13–2221 / 17–2627 / 22–3030 / 26–3229 / 28–3332 / 30–3631 / 28–3328 / 20–3224 / 14–3120 / 12–2617 / 10–23
RH %61 / 57–6261 / 60–6663 / 59–6863 / 57–7063 / 56–6965 / 59–7064 / 62–6864 / 61–6863 / 61–6661 / 57–6560 / 56–6359 / 55–63

Each figure is the median across the 39 grid cells holding the 61 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 1295:5805 (25.225, 110.275). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -10.9 °C, 1st-percentile night -1.3 °C, 99th-percentile day 33.9 °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 39 distinct grid cells holding the 61 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1295:5805 (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 25.00_110.000, lapse-corrected -182 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 173 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.
NativeChina South-Central, Vietnam· introduced: Bangladesh, Fiji, Marianas, Hawaii, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Southeast, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuelan Antilles, Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast, Brazil South
Kew's description“subshrub” · “subtropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker23.018, 113.229 · in the densest population, 33 records (50% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 66 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 11 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 1076 km away. 1175 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 5 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 of the 66 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Pilea cadiereiPilea cadiereiPilea cadiereiPilea cadiereiPilea cadiereiPilea cadiereiPilea cadiereiPilea cadierei

Photographs: (c) Rony Ristow, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Clarice Dorocinski, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Brooke Smith, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); no rights reserved · CC0 (3).

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

Microtubules in Cell Morphogenesis and Intercellular Space Formation in Zea mays Leaf Mesophyll and Pilea cadierei Epithem
P. Apostolakos, B. Galatis, Emmanuel Panteris (1991) · Journal of Plant Physiology
Effects of iron plaque on phosphorus uptake by Pilea cadierei cultured in constructed wetland
Lufang Yang, Yuanwei Li, Xinyao Yang, Hong Xiao (2011) · Procedia Environmental Sciences
Cystolith Development and Structure in Pilea cadierei (Urticaceae)
WENDY M. WATT, Clare Katrina Morrell, David L. Smith, Martin Steer (1987) · Annals of Botany
Ultrastructural and Cytochemical Studies of ‘Air Blisters’ in Pilea cadierei Gagnep. and Guillaumin
Kevin C. Vaughn, Brian D. Downs, Kenneth G. Wilson (1980) · Annals of Botany
Chilling Injury in Scindapsus pictus, Aphelandra squarrosa and Maranta leuconeura1
Edward L. McWilliams, Curtis W. Smith (1978) · HortScience
Urticaceae Juss. do Parque Estadual das Fontes do Ipiranga, São Paulo, SP, Brasil
Sérgio Romaniuc Neto, André Luiz Gaglioti, Bárbara Melissa de Oliveira Guido (2009) · Hoehnea
Influence of Photoperiod and Light Quality on Lateral Branching and Flowering of Selected Vegetatively-propagated Plants1
Will Healy, Royal D. Heins, Harold F. Wilkins (1980) · Journal of the American Society for Horticultural Science
Foliar Uptake of Nutrients by Selected Ornamental Plants1
Ellen T. Paparozzi, H. B. Tukey (1979) · Journal of the American Society for Horticultural Science
Development of Air Blisters in Pilea cadierei Gagnep. and Guillaumin
Kevin C. Vaughn, Kenneth G. Wilson (1981) · Annals of Botany

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 Pilea 3 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 48 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.