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Theobroma balaense (H.Preuss) De Wild.

Malvaceae · Colombia, Ecuador

English names not checked: Wikidata's common names were not read for this page.

Photographs not checked iNaturalist and GBIF media were skipped (not asked) when this page was built. Not asked, or not answered, is not "none": nothing here claims there is none. Why the site says it this way.
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Habitat figuresfrom few records
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
21.7°C
Record low 19.9 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
28°C
Feb, Mar, Apr and May at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
3,893mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
23–28DLI
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
Rain spread: 70% of the median year's rain takes 8 months, so no short rainy season. rain rule, CHELSA
Not shifted: the shift rule does not apply to this habitat. The chart is in the habitat's months.

From few records: 5 records in 5 grid cells. The records.

Summary

Theobroma balaense is a species of flowering plant in the family Malvaceae. It native to Colombia and Ecuador. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests; it is fragmented due to colonization, mining, and deforestation.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Theobroma balaense", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Theobroma

Theobroma is a genus of flowering plants in the mallow family, Malvaceae. It was previously classified as a member of Sterculiaceae, which has been incorporated into Malvaceae to make it monophyletic. It contains 41 species of small understory trees native to the tropical forests of Central and South America.

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

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads no short rainy season: 70% of the median year's rain (3,007 mm of 4,015 mm) takes 8 months, January and April to October. Mean temperature moves 0.7 °C between the warmest and coldest month. 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

4,015 mm in the median year at the habitat, 3,007 mm of it January and April to October. Wettest month May at 457 mm, driest month February at 202 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 3,176 mm to 5,300 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 3,893 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 4,015 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: 23 to 28 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 33).

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 19.9 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 34.9 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 22.4 °C in November (across the grid cells of the range 21.4 °C to 23.8 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 28.1 °C in March and April (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: 67 to 70% 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 -933 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

From few records: this habitat climate is read from 5 records in 5 grid cells; a page says so under 12 records or 5 cells, and shows the figures as read.

Habitat months, southern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Theobroma balaense through the yearWarmest months February, March, April and May, mean daily high 28 °C; coldest month November, mean nightly low 22.4 °C; 4,015 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.15°20°25°30°35°40°34.9° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER19.9° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500600mm rainDLI 23–28RH 67–70%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 5 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 / 26–2928 / 27–3028 / 27–3028 / 27–3028 / 27–2927 / 26–2927 / 26–2927 / 26–2927 / 26–2927 / 26–2927 / 26–2927 / 26–29
Night °C23 / 22–2423 / 22–2423 / 22–2423 / 22–2423 / 22–2423 / 22–2423 / 21–2423 / 21–2423 / 21–2423 / 21–2422 / 21–2423 / 22–24
Rain mm346 / 110–420202 / 123–476238 / 196–531377 / 343–550457 / 322–527328 / 194–520324 / 134–522381 / 99–560396 / 144–533398 / 128–571290 / 142–555278 / 171–467
DLI24 / 22–3027 / 24–3328 / 26–3326 / 24–3125 / 22–3023 / 20–3123 / 20–3224 / 21–3324 / 21–3125 / 22–2924 / 21–2724 / 21–27
RH %68 / 67–7067 / 66–7068 / 66–7070 / 68–7169 / 68–7069 / 68–7069 / 67–7068 / 67–7069 / 68–7069 / 68–7069 / 68–7069 / 68–70
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 5 grid cells holding the 5 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 1655:2071 (7.225, -76.425). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 19.9 °C, 1st-percentile night 21.7 °C, 99th-percentile day 34.9 °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 5 distinct grid cells holding 5 of the 5 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1655:2071 (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 7.00_-76.250, lapse-corrected -933 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 210 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.

This species has no GBIF key of its own. Its records are GBIF's under the key of the name Kew's World Checklist holds as this plant: 3668417 (Herrania balaensis Preuss, 55 records). No name was matched to GBIF; the keys are read from Kew's synonymy. How.

NativeColombia, Ecuador · 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-0.35, -79.366 · in the densest population, 27 records (73% 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 37 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 5 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 32 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker in the same place. 2 records outside the WCVP native range not used. Under a dozen records behind the climate. 32 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 3668417 (Herrania balaensis Preuss): Kew's file holds it as Herrania balaensis H.Preuss (synonym under Theobroma balaense (H.Preuss) De Wild.); 55 records, from GBIF's download.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 37 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Not checked. iNaturalist and GBIF media were skipped (not asked) when this page was built. Not a statement that none exist.

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

Rhodospatha moritziana Rhodospatha moritziana Araceae Photo: CC BY, Zac PetersonSpathiphyllum friedrichsthalii Spathiphyllum friedrichsthalii Araceae Photo: CC BY, Alexis López HernándezAnthurium acutangulum Anthurium acutangulum Araceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Lena StruwePentaclethra macroloba Pentaclethra macroloba Fabaceae Photo: CC BY, er-birdsHeliconia curtispatha Heliconia curtispatha Heliconiaceae Photo: CC BY, nuthatchnicoleSobralia macrophylla Sobralia macrophylla Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY, Emily Turteltaub Nelson

Other Theobroma 11 in the reference

Theobroma angustifolium Theobroma angustifolium Theobroma Photo: CC BY, Alexis López Hernández Theobroma asperum Malvaceae Theobroma bicolor Theobroma bicolor Macambo tree Photo: CC0, author not statedTheobroma cacao Theobroma cacao Cacao Photo: CC BY, Ashwin ATheobroma glaucum Theobroma glaucum Malvaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, T.croatTheobroma grandiflorum Theobroma grandiflorum Cupuaçu Photo: CC BY, Srinivasan Kasinathan Theobroma mariae Malvaceae Theobroma purpureum Malvaceae Theobroma simiarum Theobroma simiarum Theobroma Photo: CC BY-SA, Lena StruweTheobroma speciosum Theobroma speciosum Malvaceae Photo: CC0, author not stated Theobroma umbraticum Malvaceae

Names & registers

Also known as Herrania balaensis; Herrania pulcherrima var. pacifica. (WCVP, RBG Kew)

IPNIPOWOWikidataWFOWikipedia

The record

Family
Malvaceae
Described by
(H.Preuss) De Wild.
Native to
Colombia, Ecuador
Wild records
37 in range · 32 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
Kew's names (WCVP) kew.names answeredas of 2026-06-04Kew's entry Theobroma balaense (H.Preuss) De Wild. (plant_name_id 2519810), read from Kew's names file
GBIF species record gbif.species not askedGBIF's backbone holds no one accepted species of this name, and a name it holds only as another species' synonym is not taken for this one, so GBIF's records were not asked
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms not askedGBIF's backbone holds no one accepted species of this name, and a name it holds only as another species' synonym is not taken for this one, so GBIF's records were not asked
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular not askedGBIF's backbone holds no one accepted species of this name, and a name it holds only as another species' synonym is not taken for this one, so GBIF's records were not asked
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21this species has no GBIF key of its own; its records are read under GBIF's keys for the names Kew's file holds as this plant, never by a name matched; GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 55 records of GBIF's key 3668417, Herrania balaensis Preuss (Kew's file holds it as Herrania balaensis H.Preuss (synonym under Theobroma balaense (H.Preuss) De Wild.)): the GBIF download
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 7.00_-76.250, lapse-corrected -933 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22found by Kew's IPNI identifier 252438-2, POWO 252438-2
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist taxon inat.taxon not asked
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild not asked
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media not askedGBIF's backbone holds no one accepted species of this name, and a name it holds only as another species' synonym is not taken for this one, so GBIF's records were not asked
Wikimedia Commons commons nothing to reportasked 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 15 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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