Theobroma purpureum Pittier
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.At a glance
- Jan
- Feb
- Mar
- Apr
- May, shaded
- Jun, shaded
- Jul, shaded
- Aug, shaded
- Sep, shaded
- Oct, shaded
- Nov, shaded
- Dec
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 a sharp season: 70% of the median year's rain (2,619 mm of 3,456 mm) falls in May to November. The temperature curve is flat, 1.2 °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 temperature curve moves under 4 °C between the warmest and coldest month, where the shift rule does not apply, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.
Rain
3,456 mm in the median year at the habitat, 2,619 mm of it May to November. Wettest month November at 403 mm, driest month January at 116 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 2,610 mm to 4,957 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 3,639 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 3,456 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: 25 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 23, the highest 90th-percentile month 39).
Warmth and air
Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 21.9 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 18.4 °C to 23.8 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 28.6 °C in April (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: none read. The nearest figure is 21.9 °C, the coldest month's mean nightly low, January, 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 whose ground is too far above or below the typical spot to correct for, and are not used.
Relative humidity at the habitat: 65 to 72% 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, northern hemisphere
Mean daily high from 27 °C in Jan, Nov and Dec to 29 °C in Apr and May; mean nightly low from 22 °C in Jan, Feb, Oct, Nov and Dec to 23 °C in Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug and Sep. The cold quarter, Nov to Jan, is the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low, centred on the 5 months in a row that tie for it. 3,456 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added), the wettest month Nov. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 57 habitat cells. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.
Figures by month
| Figure | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day °C | 27 / 26–30 | 28 / 26–30 | 28 / 27–30 | 29 / 26–30 | 29 / 26–29 | 28 / 26–29 | 28 / 26–30 | 28 / 26–30 | 28 / 26–29 | 28 / 26–29 | 27 / 25–28 | 27 / 26–29 |
| Night °C | 22 / 18–24 | 22 / 19–24 | 23 / 19–24 | 23 / 19–25 | 23 / 20–25 | 23 / 19–25 | 23 / 19–24 | 23 / 19–24 | 23 / 19–24 | 22 / 19–24 | 22 / 19–24 | 22 / 19–24 |
| Rain mm | 116 / 47–356 | 130 / 24–250 | 156 / 34–250 | 217 / 100–406 | 355 / 300–550 | 365 / 218–550 | 394 / 205–583 | 374 / 246–567 | 334 / 219–560 | 394 / 270–591 | 403 / 233–542 | 218 / 135–492 |
| DLI | 31 / 28–34 | 33 / 31–37 | 36 / 32–39 | 35 / 28–37 | 30 / 26–32 | 28 / 24–31 | 28 / 25–32 | 29 / 26–33 | 30 / 26–34 | 27 / 24–33 | 25 / 23–30 | 27 / 25–31 |
| RH % | 66 / 62–70 | 65 / 60–69 | 65 / 61–70 | 66 / 64–72 | 70 / 66–73 | 71 / 67–74 | 71 / 66–73 | 71 / 66–73 | 71 / 67–73 | 72 / 67–74 | 71 / 67–74 | 69 / 65–72 |
The daily extremes were not used: the record low, 22.6 °C, is warmer than the coldest month's mean nightly low across the range, 21.9 °C, which no night series of the habitat can give. So no cold floor is read for this species, and the coldest month's mean nightly low is not taken as one. What that cell gave, so corrected, over 44 years: absolute minimum 22.6 °C, 1st-percentile night 23.6 °C.
How this section is made
Natural habitat
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: 3668083 (Herrania purpurea (Pittier) R.E.Schult., 388 records). No name was matched to GBIF; the keys are read from Kew's synonymy. How.
How this section is made
Photographs
Related
Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.
Anthurium ochranthum Araceae Photo: CC BY, Aidan
Grias cauliflora Anchovy-pear Photo: CC BY, M. Whitson
Goeppertia inocephala Marantaceae Photo: CC BY, River Ahlquist
Dipteryx oleifera Fabaceae Photo: CC BY, My-Lan Le
Chrysothemis pulchella Squarestem Photo: CC BY, Gijs Romijn
Costus guanaiensis Costaceae Photo: CC BY, Marcio Santos FerreiraOther Theobroma 11 in the reference
Theobroma angustifolium Theobroma Photo: CC BY, Alexis López Hernández Theobroma asperum Malvaceae Theobroma balaense Malvaceae 
Theobroma bicolor Macambo tree Photo: CC0, author not stated
Theobroma cacao Cacao Photo: CC BY, Ashwin A
Theobroma glaucum Malvaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, T.croat
Theobroma grandiflorum Cupuaçu Photo: CC BY, Srinivasan Kasinathan Theobroma mariae Malvaceae 
Theobroma simiarum Theobroma Photo: CC BY-SA, Lena Struwe
Theobroma speciosum Malvaceae Photo: CC0, author not stated Theobroma umbraticum Malvaceae Names & registers
Also known as Herrania purpurea. (WCVP, RBG Kew)
The record
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.names answeredas of 2026-06-04Kew's entry Theobroma purpureum Pittier (plant_name_id 2520250), read from Kew's names filegbif.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 askedgbif.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 askedgbif.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 askedwcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04gbif.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; 388 records of GBIF's key 3668083, Herrania purpurea (Pittier) R.E.Schult. (Kew's file holds it as Herrania purpurea (Pittier) R.E.Schult. (synonym under Theobroma purpureum Pittier)): the GBIF download; 8 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (7 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 1 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)climate answeredasked 2026-10-22climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 9.50_-82.500, lapse-corrected -304 m at 6.5 °C/km; read, and set aside: the record low, 22.6 °C, is warmer than the coldest month's mean nightly low across the range, 21.9 °C, which no night series of the habitat can give, so no cold floor is shownwikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22found by Kew's IPNI identifier 252468-2, POWO 252468-2wikipedia nothing to reportasked 2026-10-22inat.taxon not askedinat.photos.wild not askedinat.photos.cultivated not askedgbif.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 askedcommons nothing to reportasked 2026-10-22openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshotEvery 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 17 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.