50 photographs › At a glance
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Summary
Theobroma speciosum is an evergreen tree species of flowering plant in the mallow family native to northern South America. It is the 35th most abundant species of tree in the Amazon rainforest.
Quoted from Wikipedia, "Theobroma speciosum", 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 a sharp season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,557 mm of 2,045 mm) falls in November to April. The temperature curve is flat, 1.3 °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
2,045 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,557 mm of it November to April. Wettest month March at 313 mm, driest month July at 38 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,728 mm to 2,621 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 2,158 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 2,045 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: 27 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
Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 16.8 °C, the absolute minimum 13.7 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 34.7 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 20.7 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range 19.6 °C to 23.7 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 31.2 °C in September (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 16.8 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).
Relative humidity at the habitat: 60 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 -114 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, southern hemisphere
Mean daily high from 28 °C in May to 31 °C in Aug, Sep and Oct; mean nightly low from 21 °C in Jun and Jul to 23 °C in Jan, Feb, Mar, Sep, Oct, Nov and Dec. The cold quarter, May to Jul, is the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low, centred on the 2 months in a row that tie for it. 2,045 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added), the wettest month Mar. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 119 habitat cells. Over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER) the absolute minimum was 13.7 °C and the 99th-percentile day 34.7 °C; neither is dated to a month. 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 | 29 / 28–30 | 29 / 28–30 | 29 / 28–30 | 29 / 28–29 | 28 / 27–30 | 29 / 27–31 | 29 / 27–32 | 31 / 28–33 | 31 / 28–33 | 31 / 29–32 | 30 / 28–31 | 29 / 28–30 |
| Night °C | 23 / 22–24 | 23 / 22–24 | 23 / 22–24 | 22 / 22–24 | 22 / 21–24 | 21 / 20–24 | 21 / 20–24 | 22 / 20–24 | 23 / 21–25 | 23 / 22–25 | 23 / 22–25 | 23 / 22–25 |
| Rain mm | 281 / 206–362 | 290 / 233–354 | 313 / 246–397 | 224 / 176–363 | 112 / 71–324 | 50 / 14–238 | 38 / 8–193 | 42 / 21–127 | 89 / 30–149 | 157 / 51–218 | 205 / 76–256 | 244 / 144–326 |
| DLI | 30 / 27–32 | 30 / 27–31 | 29 / 27–30 | 28 / 26–30 | 27 / 25–30 | 29 / 23–31 | 31 / 25–33 | 34 / 30–37 | 35 / 33–39 | 36 / 33–39 | 33 / 31–37 | 31 / 29–33 |
| RH % | 70 / 66–72 | 70 / 66–72 | 70 / 67–72 | 70 / 68–72 | 68 / 65–71 | 66 / 57–70 | 62 / 52–68 | 60 / 52–67 | 62 / 58–67 | 66 / 59–69 | 68 / 61–71 | 69 / 64–71 |
How this section is made
Natural habitat
How this section is made
Photographs
Photographs: author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0 (3); (c) Diogo Luiz, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3).
Related
Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.
Lecointea peruviana Fabaceae Photo: CC BY, Vincent A. Vos Goeppertia pavonii Marantaceae 
Spachea lactescens Malpighiaceae Photo: CC BY, M108t Costus acreanus Costaceae 
Ceiba lupuna Malvaceae Photo: CC BY, Jhon A. Yuca-Palomino
Cecropia concolor Urticaceae Photo: CC BY, Diogo LuizOther 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 purpureum Malvaceae 
Theobroma simiarum Theobroma Photo: CC BY-SA, Lena Struwe Theobroma umbraticum Malvaceae Names & registers
Also known as Sapokaia brasiliensis; Theobroma guianensis; Theobroma quinquenervium; Theobroma speciosum var. coriaceum; Theobroma speciosum var. quinquenervium and 1 more. (GBIF Backbone)
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
gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 7 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (2 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 1 at a herbarium, 4 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)climate answeredasked 2026-10-22climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -2.50_-77.500, lapse-corrected -114 m at 6.5 °C/kmwikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22found by its label; its IPNI identifier 825614-1 is Kew's for Theobroma speciosum Willd. ex Spreng.wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22inat.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 2026-10-22inat.photos.cultivated not askedgbif.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 rulesopenalex 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 56 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.