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Psychotria punctata; photograph korosianwilliam, CC BY-SA, via GBIF CC BY-SAkorosianwilliam, CC BY-SA, via GBIF

Psychotria punctata Vatke

Dotted wild coffee

Rubiaceae · Gabon, Rwanda +11

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Psychotria punctata, photograph (c) Brandon Corder, some rights reserved (CC BY)Psychotria punctata, photograph (c) Brandon Corder, some rights reserved (CC BY)Psychotria punctata, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedPsychotria punctata, photograph korosianwilliam, CC BY-SA, via GBIFPsychotria punctata, photograph Susan Brown, CC BY-SA, via GBIFPsychotria punctata, photograph Hannah Mungai, CC BY-SA, via GBIF 26 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
14.8°C
Record low 11.9 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
29°C
Feb and Mar at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,056mm
11 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
31–42DLI
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 March to May and October to December (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.

Summary

Psychotria punctata, the dotted wild coffee, is a species of plants in the family Rubiaceae.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Psychotria punctata", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Psychotria

Psychotria is a large genus of flowering plants in the coffee family Rubiaceae, with over 1,600 species. The genus has a pantropical distribution and members of the genus are small understorey trees in tropical forests. Some species are endangered or facing extinction due to deforestation, especially species of central Africa and the Pacific.

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

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (662 mm of 862 mm) falls in March to May and October to December, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 24.4 °C against a yearly mean of 23.8 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern 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

862 mm in the median year at the habitat, 662 mm of it March to May and October to December. Wettest month April at 159 mm, driest month July at 21 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 634 mm to 1,465 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,056 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 862 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, southern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 31 to 42 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 28, the highest 90th-percentile month 44).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 14.8 °C, the absolute minimum 11.9 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 38.2 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 17.4 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range 11.1 °C to 23.1 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 28.9 °C in February (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 14.8 °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: 60 to 64% 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 -258 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, southern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Psychotria punctata through the yearWarmest months February and March, mean daily high 29 °C; coldest month July, mean nightly low 17.4 °C; 862 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, southern hemisphere.10°15°20°25°30°35°40°38.2° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER11.9° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250300mm rainDLI 31–42RH 60–64%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 133 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 °C28 / 24–3229 / 25–3329 / 25–3228 / 24–3027 / 23–2926 / 22–2825 / 21–2726 / 22–2827 / 24–3028 / 24–3128 / 23–3028 / 24–31
Night °C20 / 14–2621 / 14–2621 / 15–2621 / 15–2520 / 14–2518 / 12–2417 / 11–2318 / 11–2318 / 12–2320 / 14–2420 / 15–2520 / 14–26
Rain mm54 / 21–28538 / 11–240112 / 51–240159 / 84–284102 / 29–25333 / 4–12221 / 3–8527 / 3–7527 / 4–5879 / 30–140106 / 63–175104 / 47–202
DLI40 / 35–4142 / 37–4339 / 36–4235 / 30–3832 / 28–3831 / 28–3631 / 28–3535 / 30–3839 / 35–4339 / 36–4438 / 33–4338 / 35–40
RH %62 / 54–6661 / 52–6662 / 54–6664 / 58–6863 / 56–6760 / 54–6460 / 52–6460 / 52–6460 / 50–6461 / 52–6563 / 55–6763 / 58–66
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 133 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (164 records in those cells; 2 more cells hold records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cells are 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 1896:4364 (-4.825, 38.225). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 11.9 °C, 1st-percentile night 14.8 °C, 99th-percentile day 38.2 °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 133 distinct grid cells holding 164 of the 166 in-range records (2 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1896:4364 (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 -5.00_38.125, lapse-corrected -258 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 451 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.
NativeGabon, Rwanda, Zaïre, Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Comoros · introduced: Florida · 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 marker-5.383, 38.967 · in the densest population, 122 records (26% of those in range)
Kew's description“shrub or tree” · “seasonally dry tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 471 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 164 of them in the land cells it reads, of 166 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 448 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 6 km away. 45 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 305 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 471 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Psychotria punctata, photograph 1did not loadPsychotria punctata, photograph 2did not loadPsychotria punctata, photograph 3did not loadPsychotria punctata, photograph 4did not loadPsychotria punctata, photograph 5did not loadPsychotria punctata, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Brandon Corder, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0; korosianwilliam, CC BY-SA, via GBIF; Susan Brown, CC BY-SA, via GBIF; Hannah Mungai, CC BY-SA, via GBIF.

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

Drimiopsis botryoides Drimiopsis botryoides Asparagaceae Photo: CC BY, scott.zona Vangueria randii Rubiaceae Nanuza plicata Nanuza plicata Velloziaceae Photo: CC0, Taize SantosMelocactus oreas Melocactus oreas Cactaceae Photo: CC BY, Anilton JuniorBegonia ulmifolia Begonia ulmifolia Elm-leaf begonia Photo: CC BY, Matteo BellucciPilosocereus pentaedrophorus Pilosocereus pentaedrophorus Cactaceae Photo: CC BY, Celso Henrique Varela Rios

Other Psychotria 21 in the reference

Psychotria alba Rubiaceae Psychotria asiatica Psychotria asiatica Rubiaceae Photo: CC BY, Zheng-An WangPsychotria calva Psychotria calva Rubiaceae Photo: CC BY, Sunday Berlioz KAKPOPsychotria capensis Psychotria capensis Bird-Berry Photo: CC BY, Ronald OlivierPsychotria carthagenensis Psychotria carthagenensis Amyruca Photo: CC BY, Rocío Esmeralda PosePsychotria daphnoides Psychotria daphnoides Smooth Psychotria Photo: CC BY-SA, Greg Tasney Psychotria kirkii Rubiaceae Psychotria ligustrifolia Psychotria ligustrifolia Smooth wild coffee Photo: CC BY, Tom FieldPsychotria loniceroides Psychotria loniceroides Rubiaceae Photo: CC BY, Andrew Thornhill Psychotria maingayi Rubiaceae Psychotria micrantha Psychotria micrantha Rubiaceae Photo: CC BY, Andres HernandezPsychotria nervosa Psychotria nervosa Bastard Cankerberry Photo: CC0, author not stated all 22 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Apomuria punctata; Psychotria melanosticta; Uragoga punctata. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Rubiaceae
Described by
Vatke
Native to
Gabon, Rwanda, Zaïre +10
Wild records
471 in range · 448 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; 12 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (10 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 2 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 -5.00_38.125, lapse-corrected -258 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 39 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…