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Tolumnia urophylla; photograph Quentin Groom, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIF CC0Quentin Groom, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIF

Tolumnia urophylla (Lodd. ex Lindl.) Braem

Dancing Lady

Orchidaceae · Leeward Is. AB Ant, Windward Is. · listed by its genus as an orchid

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Tolumnia urophylla, photograph monkeyjodey, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIFTolumnia urophylla, photograph monkeyjodey, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIFTolumnia urophylla, photograph Quentin Groom, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIFTolumnia urophylla, photograph Quentin Groom, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIFTolumnia urophylla, photograph Quentin Groom, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIFTolumnia urophylla, photograph Quentin Groom, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIF 8 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Coldest month, mean nightly low
23.8°C
Feb at the habitat, not a floor; extremes not used (sea cell) CHELSA
Warmest month, mean daily high
28°C
Jul, Aug, Sep and Oct at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,442mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
30–43DLI
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, May and July to December (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

Tolumnia urophylla is a species of orchid native to the Lesser Antilles.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Tolumnia urophylla", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Grouped as an orchid, listed under the genus Tolumnia in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “pseudobulbous epiphyte”.

Seasons

The rain rule reads a sharp season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,068 mm of 1,432 mm) falls in May and July to December. The temperature curve is flat, 2.5 °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

1,432 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,068 mm of it May and July to December. Wettest month October at 194 mm, driest month February at 54 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,157 mm to 2,048 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,442 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,432 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: 30 to 43 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 29, the highest 90th-percentile month 43).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 23.8 °C in February (across the grid cells of the range 22.8 °C to 24.1 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 27.8 °C in August and September (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: none read. The nearest figure is 23.8 °C, the coldest month's mean nightly low, February, 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 that is mostly sea and are not used.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 61 to 64% 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.

Group. Listed under the genus Tolumnia in the archetype table, and Kew describes it as “pseudobulbous epiphyte”. A group is taken only where Kew's description of the species agrees with the table's listing. The table gives no figure and no prose; the cold floor is the habitat's alone.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Tolumnia urophylla through the yearWarmest months July, August, September and October, mean daily high 28 °C; coldest month February, mean nightly low 23.8 °C; 1,432 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.20°25°30°°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250300mm rainDLI 30–43RH 61–64%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 33 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C25 / 25–2625 / 25–2525 / 25–2626 / 25–2627 / 26–2727 / 27–2828 / 27–2828 / 27–2828 / 27–2828 / 27–2827 / 26–2726 / 26–26
Night °C24 / 23–2424 / 23–2424 / 23–2424 / 24–2525 / 25–2526 / 25–2626 / 25–2626 / 25–2626 / 25–2626 / 25–2625 / 24–2625 / 24–25
Rain mm79 / 66–11554 / 48–7857 / 47–7981 / 66–111116 / 92–15593 / 75–169122 / 97–222157 / 109–224177 / 126–255194 / 152–243184 / 155–254118 / 94–162
DLI32 / 31–3336 / 35–3741 / 40–4243 / 43–4342 / 42–4342 / 42–4342 / 41–4241 / 41–4238 / 38–3934 / 34–3531 / 30–3230 / 29–31
RH %61 / 60–6561 / 60–6461 / 60–6562 / 61–6663 / 62–6863 / 62–6764 / 63–6864 / 63–6864 / 63–6964 / 63–6964 / 62–6862 / 61–66

The daily extremes were read at a NASA POWER cell that is 8% land: neither it nor the next candidates whose coldest month's mean nightly low is within 2 °C of the median across cells sit in a POWER cell that is mostly land, and the rule reads a cold floor only from a cell that is mostly land, so none is read for this species. Nor is the coldest month's mean nightly low taken as one: it is a mean of a month's lows, not its coldest night. What that cell gave over 44 years: absolute minimum 21.1 °C, 1st-percentile night 23.3 °C, 99th-percentile day 29.4 °C.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 33 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (49 records in those cells; 1 more cell holds records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cell is 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 1450:2340 (17.475, -62.975). 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 33 distinct grid cells holding 49 of the 50 in-range records (1 further cell with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1450:2340 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells, though its NASA POWER cell is only 8% land and none of the 11 next candidates within 2 °C of the median was mostly land); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 17.50_-63.125, lapse-corrected +108 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 111 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.
NativeLeeward Is. AB Ant, Windward Is. · 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 marker16.304, -61.78 · in the densest population, 52 records (84% of those in range)
Kew's description“pseudobulbous epiphyte” · “wet tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 62 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 49 of them in the land cells it reads, of 50 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 43 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 3 km away. 12 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 of the 62 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Tolumnia urophylla, photograph 1did not loadTolumnia urophylla, photograph 2did not loadTolumnia urophylla, photograph 3did not loadTolumnia urophylla, photograph 4did not loadTolumnia urophylla, photograph 5did not loadTolumnia urophylla, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: monkeyjodey, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIF (2); Quentin Groom, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIF (4).

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

Pisonia subcordata Pisonia subcordata Mappo Photo: CC BY-SA, Kurt MillerPilosocereus curtisii Pilosocereus curtisii Cactaceae Photo: CC BY, Jose Luis Leon de la LuzTetramicra canaliculata Tetramicra canaliculata Serpentine wallflower orchid Photo: CC0, author not statedHymenocallis caribaea Hymenocallis caribaea Caribbean spider-lily Photo: CC BY, fmunoz Guettarda odorata Cucubano de vieques Rauvolfia viridis Rauvolfia viridis Antigua Balsam Photo: CC BY, Alex Doyle

Other Tolumnia 4 in the reference

Tolumnia guianensis Tolumnia guianensis Little Yellow Angel Orchid Photo: CC0, Yolanda M. LeonTolumnia henekenii Tolumnia henekenii Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY, Mario GuzmánTolumnia scandens Tolumnia scandens Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY, Mario GuzmánTolumnia variegata Tolumnia variegata Harlequin dancing-lady orchid Photo: CC BY, Wes Gapp

Names & registers

Also known as Oncidium urophyllum; Oncidium urophyllum f. flavum. (GBIF Backbone)

Registers not checked Wikidata did not answer when this page was built, so the links it gives (POWO, IPNI, World Flora Online, Wikipedia) were not checked; any shown here are kept from an earlier build. Not asked, or not answered, is not "none": nothing here claims there is none. Why the site says it this way.
GBIFWikipedia

The record

Family
Orchidaceae
Described by
(Lodd. ex Lindl.) Braem
Native to
Leeward Is. AB Ant, Windward Is.
Wild records
62 in range · 43 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; 3 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (1 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 2 at a zoo; 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 17.50_-63.125, lapse-corrected +108 m at 6.5 °C/km; read, and set aside: NASA POWER's cell is mostly sea (8% land), so no cold floor is shown
Wikidata wikidata failedasked 2026-10-22query.wikidata.org 502 (batched: Wikidata's query service, 100 GBIF keys)
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 answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikimedia Commons commons 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 11 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

Opening your plants…