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Rauvolfia vomitoria; photograph (c) Dégboé Etienne Houédoté, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Dégboé Etienne Houédoté, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2021-10-26

Rauvolfia vomitoria Wennberg

Poison devil's-pepper; African serpentwood; African snakeroot; Poison devil-pepper

Apocynaceae · Benin, Burkina +22

Cited as Kew's World Checklist cites it, Rauvolfia vomitoria Wennberg: GBIF's backbone key for this page carries the name with another author, Afzel.

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Rauvolfia vomitoria, photograph (c) Dégboé Etienne Houédoté, some rights reserved (CC BY)Rauvolfia vomitoria, photograph Dieter Albrecht, CC BY-SA, via GBIFRauvolfia vomitoria, photograph Dieter Albrecht, CC BY-SA, via GBIFRauvolfia vomitoria, photograph Dieter Albrecht, CC BY-SA, via GBIFRauvolfia vomitoria, photograph Fabian Eni, CC BY-SA, via GBIFRauvolfia vomitoria, photograph Adeyemi Ajani, CC BY-SA, via GBIF 23 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
15.5°C
Record low 12.2 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
33°C
Feb at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,404mm
10 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
24–35DLI
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, April to July and September to October (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

Rauvolfia vomitoria, the poison devil's-pepper, is a plant species in the genus Rauvolfia. It is native from Senegal east to Sudan and Tanzania, south to Angola; and naturalized in China, Bangladesh, different ranges of Himalayan and Puerto Rico. The plant contains a number of compounds of interest to the pharmaceutical industry and is widely used in traditional medicine.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Rauvolfia vomitoria", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a sharp season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,022 mm of 1,336 mm) falls in April to July and September to October. The temperature curve is flat, 3.0 °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

1,336 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,022 mm of it April to July and September to October. Wettest month June at 213 mm, driest month January at 12 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,108 mm to 2,880 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,404 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,336 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: 24 to 35 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 39).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 15.5 °C, the absolute minimum 12.2 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 38.0 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 21.9 °C in August (across the grid cells of the range 19.7 °C to 23.1 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 32.5 °C in February (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 15.5 °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: 61 to 69% 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 -15 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 Rauvolfia vomitoria through the yearWarmest month February, mean daily high 33 °C; coldest month August, mean nightly low 21.9 °C; 1,336 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.10°15°20°25°30°35°40°38.0° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER12.2° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 24–35RH 61–69%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 175 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 °C32 / 29–3433 / 29–3532 / 29–3531 / 29–3430 / 28–3229 / 27–3028 / 26–2928 / 26–2928 / 27–2929 / 27–3130 / 28–3231 / 28–33
Night °C22 / 19–2423 / 20–2524 / 21–2624 / 22–2624 / 21–2523 / 20–2422 / 19–2322 / 20–2322 / 20–2322 / 20–2423 / 20–2523 / 19–25
Rain mm12 / 7–14934 / 17–16285 / 56–198142 / 109–220178 / 133–292213 / 83–356149 / 30–456110 / 45–386168 / 114–455172 / 116–37357 / 16–27316 / 8–183
DLI34 / 31–3735 / 32–3934 / 31–3833 / 29–3730 / 27–3427 / 23–3025 / 22–3024 / 22–2927 / 24–3129 / 25–3331 / 28–3532 / 29–36
RH %61 / 50–6863 / 53–6864 / 57–6866 / 61–7068 / 64–7268 / 64–7268 / 64–7268 / 65–7369 / 65–7368 / 65–7367 / 61–7164 / 55–69
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 175 grid cells holding the 259 in-range records, 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 1652:3639 (7.375, 1.975). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 12.2 °C, 1st-percentile night 15.5 °C, 99th-percentile day 38.0 °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 175 distinct grid cells holding 259 of the 259 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1652:3639 (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 7.50_1.875, lapse-corrected -15 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 141 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.
NativeBenin, Burkina, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo, Cabinda, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Gulf of Guinea Is., Zaïre, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Angola · introduced: China South-Central, China Southeast, Bangladesh, Puerto Rico · 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 marker6.734, 2.146 · in the densest population, 197 records (29% 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 669 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 259 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 650 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 3 km away. 61 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 410 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.
Other GBIF keysRecords also from GBIF's key 10996554 (Rauvolfia vomitoria Wennberg): Kew's file holds it as Rauvolfia vomitoria Wennberg (accepted); 81 records, from GBIF's search API on the day of the build.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 669 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Rauvolfia vomitoria, photograph 1did not loadRauvolfia vomitoria, photograph 2did not loadRauvolfia vomitoria, photograph 3did not loadRauvolfia vomitoria, photograph 4did not loadRauvolfia vomitoria, photograph 5did not loadRauvolfia vomitoria, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Dégboé Etienne Houédoté, some rights reserved (CC BY); Dieter Albrecht, CC BY-SA, via GBIF (3); Fabian Eni, CC BY-SA, via GBIF; Adeyemi Ajani, CC BY-SA, via GBIF.

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

Celtis mildbraedii Celtis mildbraedii Red-fruited Stinkwood Photo: CC BY-SA, higgyDracaena surculosa Dracaena surculosa Gold dust dracaena Photo: CC0, author not statedCola nitida Cola nitida Kola nut Photo: CC0, author not statedHeterotis rotundifolia Heterotis rotundifolia Pinklady Photo: CC BY, nebrooksPalisota hirsuta Palisota hirsuta Commelinaceae Photo: CC BY, Zac PetersonEuphorbia drupifera Euphorbia drupifera Dodo Photo: CC BY-SA, Frank Vincentz

Other Rauvolfia 9 in the reference

Rauvolfia afra Rauvolfia afra Apocynaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Purves, M. Rauvolfia mombasiana Mozambique quinine-tree Rauvolfia nitida Rauvolfia nitida Glasswood Photo: CC BY-SA, Kurt MillerRauvolfia sandwicensis Rauvolfia sandwicensis Devil's-pepper Photo: CC BY, Brynn FrickeRauvolfia serpentina Rauvolfia serpentina Serpentine wood Photo: CC0, author not statedRauvolfia sumatrana Rauvolfia sumatrana Apocynaceae Photo: CC BY, AmyRauvolfia tetraphylla Rauvolfia tetraphylla Milkbush Photo: CC BY, nasuaRauvolfia verticillata Rauvolfia verticillata Apocynaceae Photo: CC0, 葉子Rauvolfia viridis Rauvolfia viridis Antigua Balsam Photo: CC BY, Alex Doyle

Names & registers

Also known as Rauvolfia congolana; Rauvolfia pleiosiadica; Rauvolfia senegambiae; Rauvolfia stuhlmannii. (GBIF Backbone)

Kew accepts as species of their own Rauvolfia dichotoma: 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
Apocynaceae
Described by
Wennberg
Native to
Benin, Burkina, Ghana +21
Wild records
669 in range · 650 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 2026-10-22GBIF's key 3169770 is Rauvolfia vomitoria Afzel.; the page links Kew's Rauvolfia vomitoria Wennberg, and the name is cited as Kew cites it
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 answeredasked 2026-10-22GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 81 records of GBIF's key 10996554, Rauvolfia vomitoria Wennberg (Kew's file holds it as Rauvolfia vomitoria Wennberg (accepted)): GBIF occurrence search API; 11 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (11 at a botanic garden or arboretum; 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 7.50_1.875, lapse-corrected -15 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 2026-10-22read from the page's key and its other keys: 28 from GBIF's key 10996554
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 111 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…