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Pterocarpus officinalis; photograph (c) Kurt Miller, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) CC BY-SA(c) Kurt Miller, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) · observed growing wild · 2026-06-02

Pterocarpus officinalis Jacq.

Dragonsblood tree; Bloodwood; Dragon Blood Tree

Fabaceae · Mexico Gulf, Mexico Southwest +23

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Pterocarpus officinalis, photograph (c) keesgroenendijk, some rights reserved (CC BY)Pterocarpus officinalis, photograph (c) keesgroenendijk, some rights reserved (CC BY)Pterocarpus officinalis, photograph (c) Kurt Miller, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)Pterocarpus officinalis, photograph (c) Cricket Raspet, some rights reserved (CC BY)Pterocarpus officinalis, photograph (c) Cricket Raspet, some rights reserved (CC BY)Pterocarpus officinalis, photograph (c) ritirene, some rights reserved (CC BY) 46 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
21.7°C
Record low 19.8 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
28°C
Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep and Oct at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
2,808mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
29–36DLI
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

Pterocarpus officinalis, the dragonsblood tree, is a species of flowering plant in the family Fabaceae, native to southern Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, and northern South America. It is typically found in coastal freshwater or slightly brackish habitats, in association with mangroves that occupy the more saline areas. Its timber is commercially traded.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Pterocarpus officinalis", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Pterocarpus

Pterocarpus is a pantropical tree genus in the Fabaceae family. It belongs to the subfamily Faboideae, and was recently assigned to the informal monophyletic Pterocarpus clade within the Dalbergieae. Most species of Pterocarpus yield valuable timber traded as padauk, usually pronounced or ; other common names are Mukwa (Africa) or Narra (Asia).

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

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a sharp season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,873 mm of 2,553 mm) falls in May to November. The temperature curve is flat, 0.9 °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 habitat lies within 10° of the equator, where the shift rule does not apply, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

Rain

2,553 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,873 mm of it May to November. Wettest month May at 344 mm, driest month January at 88 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,590 mm to 5,161 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 2,808 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 2,553 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: 29 to 36 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 43).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 21.7 °C, the absolute minimum 19.8 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 34.5 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 22.9 °C in January and February (across the grid cells of the range 19.2 °C to 24.5 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 28.0 °C in August and September (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 21.7 °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 68% 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 -14 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 Pterocarpus officinalis through the yearWarmest months April, May, June, July, August, September and October, mean daily high 28 °C; coldest months January and February, mean nightly low 22.9 °C; 2,553 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.15°20°25°30°35°40°34.5° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER19.8° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500600mm rainDLI 29–36RH 64–68%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 33 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 °C27 / 25–3127 / 25–3227 / 26–3228 / 26–3028 / 27–3028 / 27–3028 / 27–3128 / 27–3128 / 26–3128 / 26–3027 / 26–3027 / 26–30
Night °C23 / 19–2523 / 20–2523 / 20–2523 / 20–2524 / 20–2524 / 20–2623 / 20–2624 / 20–2624 / 20–2624 / 20–2523 / 20–2523 / 20–24
Rain mm88 / 17–40297 / 29–326121 / 62–322218 / 99–448344 / 152–575267 / 146–532246 / 135–525235 / 153–541271 / 156–536279 / 136–596231 / 130–508156 / 76–459
DLI30 / 23–3534 / 25–3736 / 27–4134 / 26–4332 / 24–4232 / 22–4234 / 22–4236 / 23–4136 / 22–3931 / 23–3529 / 22–3229 / 22–32
RH %65 / 59–6964 / 59–6964 / 59–6967 / 62–7068 / 63–7267 / 63–7267 / 63–7067 / 63–7167 / 64–7268 / 64–7268 / 65–7267 / 60–69
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 33 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (85 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 1689:2522 (5.525, -53.875). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 19.8 °C, 1st-percentile night 21.7 °C, 99th-percentile day 34.5 °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 33 distinct grid cells holding 85 of the 87 in-range records (1 further cell with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1689:2522 (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 5.50_-53.750, lapse-corrected -14 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 27 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 Gulf, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Belize, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Puerto Rico, Trinidad-Tobago, Windward Is., French Guiana, Guyana, Surinam, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Brazil Northeast, Brazil North · 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 marker7.093, -75.673 · in the densest population, 52 records (43% of those in range)
Kew's description“tree” · “wet tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 121 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 85 of them in the land cells it reads, of 87 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 93 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker in the same place. 1 record outside the WCVP native range not used. 34 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 121 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Pterocarpus officinalis, photograph 1did not loadPterocarpus officinalis, photograph 2did not loadPterocarpus officinalis, photograph 3did not loadPterocarpus officinalis, photograph 4did not loadPterocarpus officinalis, photograph 5did not loadPterocarpus officinalis, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) keesgroenendijk, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Kurt Miller, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA); (c) Cricket Raspet, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) ritirene, some rights reserved (CC BY).

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

Entada gigas Entada gigas Nicker bean Photo: CC BY, Nathaniel IsabellaOxalis barrelieri Oxalis barrelieri Barrelier's woodsorrel Photo: CC BY, Guillaume DelaitreDischidia bengalensis Dischidia bengalensis Apocynaceae Photo: CC BY, Samuel LeeIpomoea setifera Ipomoea setifera Bejuco de puerco Photo: CC BY, Silvia TenPalicourea croceoides Palicourea croceoides Yellow cedar Photo: CC BY, Matteo BellucciHeliconia mariae Heliconia mariae Beef steak Photo: CC BY, River Ahlquist

Other Pterocarpus 10 in the reference

Pterocarpus angolensis Pterocarpus angolensis Bloodwood Tree Photo: CC BY, Timothy WhiteheadPterocarpus dalbergioides Pterocarpus dalbergioides East Indian mahogany Photo: CC BY, P JeganathanPterocarpus indicus Pterocarpus indicus Amboyna wood Photo: CC BY, 謝麗霦Pterocarpus macrocarpus Pterocarpus macrocarpus Burma padauk Photo: CC BY, Utain PummarinPterocarpus marsupium Pterocarpus marsupium Malabar kino Photo: CC BY, rajesh rockyPterocarpus rohrii Pterocarpus rohrii Fabaceae Photo: CC BY, Alexis López HernándezPterocarpus rotundifolius Pterocarpus rotundifolius Round-leaved Bloodwood Photo: CC BY, Shedron MukhumoPterocarpus santalinoides Pterocarpus santalinoides Fabaceae Photo: CC BY, Sunday Berlioz KAKPOPterocarpus santalinus Pterocarpus santalinus Red sandalwood Photo: CC0, author not statedPterocarpus vidalianus Pterocarpus vidalianus Fabaceae Photo: CC BY, M108t

Names & registers

Also known as Draco dracunculus; Geoffraea violacea; Geoffroya violacea; Lingoum officinale; Moutouchi crispata and 10 more. (GBIF Backbone)

Kew accepts as species of their own Pterocarpus gilletii: 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)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Fabaceae
Described by
Jacq.
Native to
Mexico Gulf, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast +22
Wild records
121 in range · 93 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
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 5.50_-53.750, lapse-corrected -14 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 37 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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