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Racinaea insularis; photograph (c) Chris Kirby-Lambert, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Chris Kirby-Lambert, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2023-02-19

Racinaea insularis (Mez) M.A.Spencer & L.B.Sm.

Bromeliaceae · Galápagos

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Racinaea insularis, photograph (c) Zihao Wang, some rights reserved (CC BY)Racinaea insularis, photograph (c) Zihao Wang, some rights reserved (CC BY)Racinaea insularis, photograph (c) Zihao Wang, some rights reserved (CC BY)Racinaea insularis, photograph (c) Melissa Meadows, some rights reserved (CC BY)Racinaea insularis, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedRacinaea insularis, photograph author not stated, no rights reserved 46 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Coldest month, mean nightly low
20.5°C
Sep at the habitat, not a floor; extremes not used (sea cell) CHELSA
Warmest month, mean daily high
26°C
Mar at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,071mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
35–43DLI
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, December to April (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

Racinaea insularis is a species of flowering plant in the family Bromeliaceae. This species is endemic to the Galapagos Islands in Ecuador. It is sometimes referred to by the common names Galapagos Tillandsia or Galapagos Bromeliad.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Racinaea insularis", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a sharp season: 70% of the median year's rain (825 mm of 1,140 mm) falls in December to April. The temperature curve is flat, 3.8 °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, 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

1,140 mm in the median year at the habitat, 825 mm of it December to April. Wettest month January at 224 mm, driest month October at 35 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 818 mm to 2,374 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,071 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,140 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: 35 to 43 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 33, the highest 90th-percentile month 43).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 20.5 °C in September (across the grid cells of the range 19.3 °C to 20.7 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 25.6 °C in March (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: none read. The nearest figure is 20.5 °C, the coldest month's mean nightly low, September, in the median year (CHELSA); a month's mean of its nightly lows is warmer than the nights a floor is read from. The daily extremes were read at a weather cell that is mostly sea and are not used.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 72 to 74% 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. CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. No cold floor is read without a daily extremes series; the coldest month's mean nightly low named in its sentence is not one. 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 Racinaea insularis through the yearWarmest month March, mean daily high 26 °C; coldest month September, mean nightly low 20.5 °C; 1,140 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA. Habitat months, southern hemisphere.15°20°25°30°°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 35–43RH 72–74%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 22 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C24 / 23–2525 / 23–2626 / 24–2625 / 24–2624 / 24–2523 / 23–2522 / 22–2421 / 21–2421 / 21–2422 / 21–2422 / 22–2423 / 22–24
Night °C23 / 19–2423 / 20–2524 / 21–2523 / 21–2423 / 20–2422 / 20–2321 / 19–2221 / 19–2121 / 19–2121 / 19–2121 / 19–2222 / 19–22
Rain mm224 / 143–423203 / 117–454172 / 105–407131 / 95–30963 / 49–11257 / 45–12548 / 38–11436 / 29–7537 / 25–6035 / 25–5639 / 33–6195 / 67–172
DLI38 / 36–3942 / 39–4243 / 42–4340 / 40–4138 / 37–3935 / 34–3635 / 33–3636 / 35–3839 / 37–4041 / 39–4139 / 39–4037 / 36–38
RH %74 / 69–7673 / 68–7572 / 68–7373 / 70–7674 / 68–7773 / 67–7673 / 67–7574 / 67–7674 / 67–7673 / 65–7572 / 65–7573 / 68–76

The daily extremes were read at a NASA POWER cell that is 16% land: neither it nor the next candidates whose coldest month's mean nightly low is within 2 °C of the median across cells sit in a POWER cell that is mostly land, and the rule reads a cold floor only from a cell that is mostly land, so none is read for this species. Nor is the coldest month's mean nightly low taken as one: it is a mean of a month's lows, not its coldest night. What that cell gave over 44 years: absolute minimum 16.5 °C, 1st-percentile night 18.6 °C, 99th-percentile day 27.8 °C.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 22 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (65 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 1818:1811 (-0.925, -89.425). 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 22 distinct grid cells holding 65 of the 66 in-range records (1 further cell with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1818:1811 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells, though its NASA POWER cell is only 16% land and none of the 11 next candidates within 2 °C of the median was mostly land); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -1.00_-89.375, lapse-corrected +78 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 88 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.
NativeGalápagos · 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-0.626, -90.387 · in the densest population, 101 records (100% of those in range)
Kew's description“epiphyte” · “seasonally dry tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 101 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 65 of them in the land cells it reads, of 66 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 18 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 3 km away. 1 record outside the WCVP native range not used. 35 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 101 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Racinaea insularis, photograph 1did not loadRacinaea insularis, photograph 2did not loadRacinaea insularis, photograph 3did not loadRacinaea insularis, photograph 4did not loadRacinaea insularis, photograph 5did not loadRacinaea insularis, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Zihao Wang, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Melissa Meadows, some rights reserved (CC BY); author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0 (2).

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

Gossypium darwinii Gossypium darwinii Darwin's Cotton Photo: CC0, author not statedAlternanthera filifolia Alternanthera filifolia Three-leafed chaff flower Photo: CC BY, Jacob SaucierIpomoea habeliana Ipomoea habeliana Lava Morning Glory Photo: CC BY, Kristof ZyskowskiOpuntia galapageia Opuntia galapageia Galápagos Prickly Pear Photo: CC BY, SlunkyCroton scouleri Croton scouleri Euphorbiaceae Photo: CC BY, Naji LoveAlternanthera echinocephala Alternanthera echinocephala Sea-urchin joyweed Photo: CC BY, Mike Brady

Other Racinaea 8 in the reference

Racinaea crispa Racinaea crispa Bromeliaceae Photo: CC BY, desertnaturalistRacinaea dyeriana Racinaea dyeriana Bromeliaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Claire H.Racinaea fraseri Racinaea fraseri Bromeliaceae Photo: CC BY, Raúl A. Ruiz M.Racinaea hamaleana Racinaea hamaleana Bromeliaceae Photo: CC BY, Esteban PovedaRacinaea multiflora Racinaea multiflora Bromeliaceae Photo: CC BY, Sue Carnahan Racinaea pugiformis Bromeliaceae Racinaea spiculosa Racinaea spiculosa Bromeliaceae Photo: CC BY, Fabrício Mil Homens RiellaRacinaea tetrantha Racinaea tetrantha Bromeliaceae Photo: CC BY, Yuri Sofronov

Names & registers

Also known as Racinaea insularis var. latilamina; Tillandsia insularis; Tillandsia insularis var. insularis; Tillandsia insularis var. latilamina. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Bromeliaceae
Described by
(Mez) M.A.Spencer & L.B.Sm.
Native to
Galápagos
Wild records
101 in range · 18 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 -1.00_-89.375, lapse-corrected +78 m at 6.5 °C/km; read, and set aside: NASA POWER's cell is mostly sea (16% land), so no cold floor is shown
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 2026-10-22none of the photographs on this page is credited to GBIF: those shown are other sources', and GBIF's were the same photographs or were set aside by the photograph rules
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 7 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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