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Tropaeolum sessilifolium; photograph (c) Nicolás Lavandero, some rights reserved (CC BY) CC BY(c) Nicolás Lavandero, some rights reserved (CC BY) · observed growing wild · 2020-11-27

Tropaeolum sessilifolium Poepp. & Endl.

Tropaeolaceae · Chile Central

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Tropaeolum sessilifolium, photograph (c) Nicolás Lavandero, some rights reserved (CC BY)Tropaeolum sessilifolium, photograph (c) Nicolás Lavandero, some rights reserved (CC BY)Tropaeolum sessilifolium, photograph (c) Cody Hinchliff, some rights reserved (CC BY)Tropaeolum sessilifolium, photograph (c) Cody Hinchliff, some rights reserved (CC BY)Tropaeolum sessilifolium, photograph (c) Cody Hinchliff, some rights reserved (CC BY)Tropaeolum sessilifolium, photograph (c) Cody Hinchliff, some rights reserved (CC BY) 37 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Coldest month, mean nightly low
-5.0°C
Jul at the habitat, not a floor; extremes not used (the weather cell's ground is too far off) CHELSA
Warmest month, mean daily high
18°C
Jan and Feb at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
839mm
7 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
18–57DLI
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 winters: the rain comes November to February (May to August at the habitat), with nights below freezing; no growing season read. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

About the genus · Tropaeolum

Tropaeolum, commonly known as nasturtium, is a genus of roughly 80 species of annual and perennial herbaceous flowering plants. It was named by Carl Linnaeus in his book Species Plantarum and is the only genus in the family Tropaeolaceae. The nasturtiums received their common name because they produce an oil similar to that of watercress.

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

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a rainy season and no growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (636 mm of 845 mm) falls in May to August, the cooler part of the year, but the mean nightly low is below freezing in June, July, August and September, so the rule reads no growing season from it. Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: November to February.

Rain

845 mm in the median year at the habitat, 636 mm of it May to August. Wettest month July at 194 mm, driest month January at 10 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 561 mm to 1,257 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 839 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 845 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: 18 to 57 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 16, the highest 90th-percentile month 59).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low -5.0 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range -10.3 °C to -1.3 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 18.1 °C in January (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: none read. The nearest figure is -5.0 °C, the coldest month's mean nightly low, July, 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.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 46 to 53% 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, southern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Tropaeolum sessilifolium through the yearWarmest months January and February, mean daily high 18 °C; coldest month July, mean nightly low -5.0 °C; 845 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA. Habitat months, southern hemisphere.-20°-10°0°10°20°30°frost°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250300mm rainDLI 18–57RH 46–53%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 20 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 °C18 / 13–2218 / 13–2117 / 12–2014 / 7–178 / 1–135 / -3–103 / -4–85 / -2–97 / 0–1110 / 3–1413 / 6–1817 / 10–20
Night °C8 / 3–119 / 3–117 / 2–103 / -3–6-1 / -7–2-4 / -10–0-5 / -10–-1-4 / -10–0-3 / -9–00 / -7–33 / -4–66 / 0–9
Rain mm10 / 5–1712 / 6–1923 / 14–3243 / 28–70129 / 93–189179 / 120–276194 / 129–269134 / 93–19658 / 39–9130 / 21–4220 / 13–3613 / 6–21
DLI57 / 56–5851 / 49–5342 / 40–4531 / 29–3622 / 19–2718 / 16–2321 / 18–2527 / 24–3237 / 33–4246 / 44–5154 / 52–5757 / 57–59
RH %53 / 50–5553 / 49–5552 / 49–5450 / 47–5249 / 46–5348 / 45–5346 / 44–5247 / 44–5250 / 48–5553 / 51–5753 / 51–5753 / 50–56

The daily extremes were not used: the correction for elevation, -1057 m, is beyond the 1,000 m either way that a lapse rate is applied over, so the weather cell's ground is other terrain than the typical spot's. 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 -16.7 °C, 1st-percentile night -10.5 °C.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 20 grid cells holding the 51 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 2472:2194 (-33.625, -70.275). 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 20 distinct grid cells holding 51 of the 51 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2472:2194 (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 -33.50_-70.000, lapse-corrected -1057 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 2176 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.
NativeChile Central · 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-33.355, -70.314 · in the densest population, 60 records (95% of those in range)
Kew's description“tuberous geophyte” · “temperate” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 63 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 51 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 17 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 1 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 63 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Tropaeolum sessilifolium, photograph 1did not loadTropaeolum sessilifolium, photograph 2did not loadTropaeolum sessilifolium, photograph 3did not loadTropaeolum sessilifolium, photograph 4did not loadTropaeolum sessilifolium, photograph 5did not loadTropaeolum sessilifolium, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Nicolás Lavandero, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Cody Hinchliff, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4).

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

Alstroemeria pallida Alstroemeria pallida Alstroemeriaceae Photo: CC BY, Víctor Sarabia SánchezKageneckia angustifolia Kageneckia angustifolia Rosaceae Photo: CC BY, Adrien JaillouxSchizanthus hookeri Schizanthus hookeri Mariposita Photo: CC BY-SA, Grzegorz GrzejszczakAcaena sericea Acaena sericea Rosaceae Photo: CC BY, Nicolás LavanderoLathyrus subandinus Lathyrus subandinus Fabaceae Photo: CC BY, Jorge Herreros de LartundoAcaena splendens Acaena splendens Rosaceae Photo: CC0, author not stated

Other Tropaeolum 16 in the reference

Tropaeolum austropurpureum Tropaeolum austropurpureum Tropaeolaceae Photo: CC BY, Nicolás LavanderoTropaeolum azureum Tropaeolum azureum Blue nasturtium Photo: CC BY, Constanza Vargas VillegasTropaeolum brachyceras Tropaeolum brachyceras Tropaeolaceae Photo: CC BY, Max AlejandroTropaeolum ciliatum Tropaeolum ciliatum Yellow flame flower Photo: CC BY, Álvaro Ibaceta R.Tropaeolum hookerianum Tropaeolum hookerianum Tropaeolaceae Photo: CC BY, Víctor Sarabia SánchezTropaeolum majus Tropaeolum majus Indian cress Photo: CC BY, Antonio W. SalasTropaeolum minus Tropaeolum minus Dwarf nasturtium Photo: CC BY, Luis Fer JPTropaeolum peltophorum Tropaeolum peltophorum Shield nasturtium Photo: CC0, Eric Haavind-BermanTropaeolum pendulum Tropaeolum pendulum Tropaeolaceae Photo: CC BY, Daniel MesaTropaeolum pentaphyllum Tropaeolum pentaphyllum Ladies' Legs Photo: CC BY, Felipe HortonTropaeolum peregrinum Tropaeolum peregrinum Canary-creeper Photo: CC BY-SA, Noemi GuerreroTropaeolum polyphyllum Tropaeolum polyphyllum Wreath nasturtium Photo: CC BY, Víctor Sarabia Sánchez all 17 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Trophaeum sessilifolium. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataiNaturalist

The record

Family
Tropaeolaceae
Described by
Poepp. & Endl.
Native to
Chile Central
Wild records
63 in range · 17 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
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -33.50_-70.000, lapse-corrected -1057 m at 6.5 °C/km; read, and set aside: the correction for elevation, -1057 m, is beyond the 1,000 m either way that a lapse rate is applied over, so the weather cell's ground is other terrain than the typical spot's, so no cold floor is shown
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22IPNI and POWO linked by Kew's number for Tropaeolum sessilifolium Poepp. & Endl. (the item's: IPNI 377421-1, POWO 307703-2)
Wikipedia wikipedia nothing to reportasked 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 2026-10-22none 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 rules
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 6 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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