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Tabernaemontana alba; photograph (c) Erick Vélez Sánchez, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Erick Vélez Sánchez, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2026-07-07

Tabernaemontana alba Mill.

White milkwood

Apocynaceae · Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast +12

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Tabernaemontana alba, photograph (c) Erick Vélez Sánchez, some rights reserved (CC BY)Tabernaemontana alba, photograph (c) Erick Vélez Sánchez, some rights reserved (CC BY)Tabernaemontana alba, photograph (c) Erick Vélez Sánchez, some rights reserved (CC BY)Tabernaemontana alba, photograph (c) Erick Vélez Sánchez, some rights reserved (CC BY)Tabernaemontana alba, photograph (c) Erick Vélez Sánchez, some rights reserved (CC BY)Tabernaemontana alba, photograph (c) Erick Vélez Sánchez, some rights reserved (CC BY) 78 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
13.9°C
Record low 5.4 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
31°C
Apr and May at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,859mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
23–40DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  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 June to October, read as a summer growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Tabernaemontana alba, the white milkwood, is a species of plant in the family Apocynaceae. It is native to Central America, Mexico, Cuba, and Colombia.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Tabernaemontana alba", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Tabernaemontana

Tabernaemontana is a genus of flowering plants in the family Apocynaceae. It has a pan-tropical distribution, found in Asia, Africa, Australia, North America, South America, and islands of the Indian and Pacific Oceans. These plants are evergreen shrubs and small trees growing to 1–15 m tall. More on Wikipedia ›

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

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,308 mm of 1,802 mm) falls in June to October, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 26.6 °C against a yearly mean of 24.9 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December to April.

Rain

1,802 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,308 mm of it June to October. Wettest month September at 324 mm, driest month March at 40 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,218 mm to 2,971 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,859 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,802 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: 23 to 40 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 20, 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 13.9 °C, the absolute minimum 5.4 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 43.5 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 18.1 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 13.0 °C to 20.1 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 31.3 °C in May (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 13.9 °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 67% 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 -412 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 Tabernaemontana alba through the yearWarmest months April and May, mean daily high 31 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 18.1 °C; 1,802 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.0°10°20°30°40°50°43.5° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER5.4° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500600mm rainDLI 23–40RH 60–67%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 505 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 °C25 / 21–2726 / 23–2929 / 25–3231 / 27–3431 / 28–3430 / 27–3329 / 26–3230 / 26–3229 / 25–3128 / 24–2927 / 23–2825 / 22–27
Night °C18 / 13–2019 / 14–2120 / 15–2222 / 17–2424 / 19–2524 / 19–2523 / 19–2523 / 19–2523 / 19–2522 / 17–2420 / 15–2219 / 14–21
Rain mm63 / 26–13853 / 20–10540 / 16–7250 / 23–90103 / 62–155243 / 166–372254 / 166–422267 / 162–455324 / 212–514220 / 117–376112 / 40–25673 / 26–205
DLI24 / 21–2729 / 25–3235 / 31–3840 / 35–4340 / 38–4337 / 34–3937 / 33–4036 / 33–3932 / 29–3429 / 27–3126 / 23–2823 / 20–26
RH %65 / 60–6964 / 59–6761 / 57–6560 / 55–6662 / 57–6665 / 62–6966 / 62–7066 / 62–7067 / 64–7166 / 62–7065 / 61–6965 / 60–69
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 505 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (704 records in those cells; 5 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 1440:1676 (17.975, -96.175). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 5.4 °C, 1st-percentile night 13.9 °C, 99th-percentile day 43.5 °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 505 distinct grid cells holding 704 of the 709 in-range records (5 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1440:1676 (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 18.00_-96.250, lapse-corrected -412 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 39 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 Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Belize, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Cuba, Southwest Caribbean, Colombia · 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 marker18.605, -95.544 · in the densest population, 1009 records (76% of those in range)
Kew's description“shrub or tree” · “wet tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 1321 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 704 of them in the land cells it reads, of 709 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 1137 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 17 km away. 6 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 612 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 inside the densest 4° block of the 1321 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Tabernaemontana alba, photograph 1did not loadTabernaemontana alba, photograph 2did not loadTabernaemontana alba, photograph 3did not loadTabernaemontana alba, photograph 4did not loadTabernaemontana alba, photograph 5did not loadTabernaemontana alba, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Erick Vélez Sánchez, some rights reserved (CC BY) (6).

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

Passiflora serratifolia Passiflora serratifolia Passifloraceae Photo: CC BY, Rosalinda MelendrezPassiflora sexocellata Passiflora sexocellata Passifloraceae Photo: CC BY, Alexis López HernándezPimenta dioica Pimenta dioica Allspice Photo: CC0, author not statedZamia loddigesii Zamia loddigesii Zamiaceae Photo: CC BY, Douglas Caro LopezAdelia barbinervis Adelia barbinervis Euphorbiaceae Photo: CC BY, Alexis López HernándezTillandsia streptophylla Tillandsia streptophylla Silvery Wild Pine Photo: CC BY, Alexis López Hernández

Other Tabernaemontana 21 in the reference

Tabernaemontana africana Tabernaemontana africana Apocynaceae Photo: CC BY, pbsgTabernaemontana alternifolia Tabernaemontana alternifolia Alternate-leaved crape jasmine Photo: CC BY, Ashwin ATabernaemontana amygdalifolia Tabernaemontana amygdalifolia Apocynaceae Photo: CC BY, Carlos Domínguez-Rodríguez Tabernaemontana aurantiaca Apocynaceae Tabernaemontana catharinensis Tabernaemontana catharinensis Pinwheel-flower Photo: CC BY, JGTabernaemontana corymbosa Tabernaemontana corymbosa Apocynaceae Photo: CC BY, Greg III EsperaTabernaemontana crassa Tabernaemontana crassa Adam's-apple-flower Photo: CC BY-SA, Saint Fédriche NDZAI Tabernaemontana cymosa Apocynaceae Tabernaemontana dichotoma Tabernaemontana dichotoma Apocynaceae Photo: CC BY, Ewen CameronTabernaemontana divaricata Tabernaemontana divaricata Pinwheelflower Photo: CC BY, Sabarni SarkerTabernaemontana donnell-smithii Tabernaemontana donnell-smithii Horse balls Photo: CC BY-SA, Jalil R.Tabernaemontana elegans Tabernaemontana elegans Low-veld toadtree Photo: CC BY, jk6000 all 22 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Tabernaemontana amblyblasta; Tabernaemontana amblyocarpa; Tabernaemontana berteroi var. parviflora; Tabernaemontana chrysocarpa; Tabernaemontana martensii and 4 more. (GBIF Backbone)

Under another author Tabernaemontana cymosa Sessé & Moc. is an older name of this species, not Tabernaemontana cymosa, a species of the reference. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Apocynaceae
Described by
Mill.
Native to
Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf +11
Wild records
1321 in range · 1137 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; 1 record within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (1 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 18.00_-96.250, lapse-corrected -412 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 82 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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