Species
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Pseudobombax grandiflorum (Cav.) A.Robyns

Brazilian shaving-brush tree, Brazilian shaving-brush-tree

Climate known 24 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.

About the genus · Pseudobombax

Pseudobombax is a genus of flowering plants in the subfamily Bombacoideae of the family Malvaceae.

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

Family
Malvaceae
Described by
(Cav.) A.Robyns
Native to
Brazil West-Central, Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast +1
Wild records
372 in range· 285 open

At a glance

Warmest month
28°C
Feb, mean day; nights 22 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1401mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jan 211 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 the genus Pseudobombax, which is reliably 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 1401 mm a year, wettest January at 211 mm, driest August at 40 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 23 to 38 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 12.8 °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 Bombax album (Lodd.) Bakh.; Bombax cyathophorum (Casar.) K.Schum.; Bombax decaphyllum (A.St.-Hil. & Naudin) Decne.; Bombax grandiflorum Cav.; Carolinea alba G.Lodd. and 6 more.

Cultivation

Grouped as a cactus or succulent by the genus Pseudobombax, which is reliably 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 (1007 mm of 1401 mm) falls in October to March, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 24.5 °C against a yearly mean of 23.1 °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 1401 mm a year, wettest January at 211 mm, driest August at 40 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1401 mm a year at the habitat, 1007 mm of it October to March. Wettest month January at 211 mm, driest August at 40 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1006 mm to 2016 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 12.8 °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 12.8 °C, the absolute minimum 9.7 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 33.1 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 16.1 °C in July (across the envelope cells 10.9 °C to 19.9 °C), warmest day 28.3 °C in February (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 12.8 °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: 62 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 24 °C in Jul to 28 °C in Feb; mean night from 16 °C in Jul to 22 °C in Feb. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest night. 1401 mm of rain a year, most in Jan. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 290 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 9.7 °C and the 99th-percentile day 33.1 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°15°20°25°30°35°33.1° 99th-percentile day (undated)9.7° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 23–38RH 62–65 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 290 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 / 26–3028 / 26–3128 / 25–3027 / 24–2925 / 21–2724 / 20–2624 / 19–2624 / 21–2725 / 21–2826 / 23–3027 / 24–2927 / 25–29
Night °C22 / 18–2422 / 18–2422 / 18–2420 / 16–2318 / 13–2217 / 12–2116 / 11–2017 / 12–2018 / 13–2119 / 15–2220 / 16–2321 / 18–23
Rain mm211 / 100–319155 / 76–240164 / 108–232101 / 66–17773 / 32–16151 / 16–14749 / 12–15340 / 17–12080 / 38–144120 / 77–162164 / 110–222193 / 121–274
DLI38 / 34–4138 / 34–4134 / 31–3630 / 25–3225 / 20–2823 / 18–2624 / 19–2728 / 23–3231 / 26–3635 / 30–3836 / 33–3937 / 34–39
RH %65 / 62–6965 / 61–6965 / 62–6965 / 60–6864 / 59–6763 / 58–6663 / 56–6662 / 54–6663 / 55–6664 / 58–6864 / 60–6865 / 62–69

Each figure is the median across the 290 grid cells holding the 363 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 2260:2707 (-23.025, -44.625). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 9.7 °C, 1st-percentile night 12.8 °C, 99th-percentile day 33.1 °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 290 distinct grid cells holding the 363 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2260:2707 (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 -23.00_-44.375, lapse-corrected -124 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 314 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 West-Central, Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast, Brazil South
Kew's description“tree” · “seasonally dry tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-22.917, -46.883 · in the densest population, 162 records (44% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 372 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 285 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 133 km away. 5 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 2° block of the 372 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Pseudobombax grandiflorumPseudobombax grandiflorumPseudobombax grandiflorumPseudobombax grandiflorumPseudobombax grandiflorumPseudobombax grandiflorumPseudobombax grandiflorumPseudobombax grandiflorum

Photographs: Diogo Luiz, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF (5); caio fioravante, CC BY-SA, via GBIF; sergio damy, CC BY-SA, via GBIF; Joao Yajima, CC BY-SA, via GBIF.

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

Florística e fitossociologia de remanescentes de floresta estacional decidual em Piracicaba, São Paulo, Brasil
Natália Macedo Ivanauskas, Ricardo Ribeiro Rodrigues (2000) · Revista Brasileira de Botânica
Fluorescence imaging of light acclimation of brazilian atlantic forest tree species
Luiz dos Anjos, Marco Antônio Oliva, Kacilda Naomi Kuki (2012) · Photosynthetica
Population dynamics of the gall inducerEriogallococcus isaias(Hemiptera: Coccoidea: Eriococcidae) onPseudobombax grandiflorum(Malvaceae)
Thiago Alves Magalhães, Dênis Coelho de Oliveira, Rosy Mary dos Santos Isaías (2014) · Journal of Natural History
Observação da visita de morcegos (Chiroptera) às flores de Pseudobombax grandiflorum (Cav.) A. Robyns
Shirley S. Pereira da Silva, Adriano Lúcio Peracchi (1995) · Revista Brasileira de Zoologia
Does Pseudobombax have prickles? Assessing the enigmatic species Pseudobombax endecaphyllum ( Malvaceae : Bombacoideae )
Jefferson Carvalho-Sobrinho, Luciano Paganucci de Queiroz, Laurence J. Dorr (2013) · Taxon
GERMINAÇÃO DE SEMENTES DE EMBIRUÇU (Pseudobombax grandiflorum (Cav.) A. Robyns) EM DIFERENTES ESTÁDIOS DE MATURAÇÃO E SUBSTRATOS
José Carlos Lopes, Miele Tallon Matheus, Nathale Bicalho Corrêa, Danilo Paulúcio da Silva (2008) · FLORESTA
Two new gall-inducing genera and species of Eriococcidae (Hemiptera) on Malvaceae and Anacardiaceae from the Neotropics
Chris Hodgson, Thiago Alves Magalhães, Douglass R. Miller (2011) · Lundiana International Journal of Biodiversity
EFFECT OF MYCORRHIZAL INOCULATION AND SUBSTRATE COMPOSITION ON SEEDLING GROWTH OF TWO ATLANTIC FOREST TREE SPECIES
Joel Quintino de Oliveira, Ana Caroline Rodrigues da Silva, Paulo Victor Moreira da Silveira, Ederson C Jesus (2019) · FLORESTA

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 Pseudobombax 27 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 nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: not asked: 18 wild photographs already from the GBIF download
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: filled 2026-09-20
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 75 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.