53 photographs › At a glance
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Summary
Varronia polycephala, synonym Cordia polycephala, is a native plant of the Americas that is commonly found in open distributed areas. The flowers are sessile and the inflorescences are simple or branched. Fruits are usually bright red and 3-4 millimeters in diameter, covered by an enlarged calyx.
Quoted from Wikipedia, "Varronia polycephala", CC BY-SA 4.0.
Cultivation
Seasons
The rain rule reads no short rainy season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,440 mm of 1,888 mm) takes 8 months, April to May and July to December. Mean temperature moves 1.7 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, southern 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
1,888 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,440 mm of it April to May and July to December. Wettest month October at 226 mm, driest month February at 96 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,257 mm to 2,648 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,910 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,888 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: 29 to 38 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 25, the highest 90th-percentile month 43).
Warmth and air
Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 20.9 °C in January, February and December (across the grid cells of the range 15.7 °C to 23.6 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 28.3 °C in August (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: none read. The nearest figure is 20.9 °C, the coldest month's mean nightly low, January, February and December, 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: 64 to 67% 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
Mean daily high from 26 °C in Jan to 28 °C in Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep and Oct; mean nightly low from 21 °C in Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, Jul, Nov and Dec to 22 °C in May, Jun, Aug, Sep and Oct. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low, around the first of the 7 months that tie for it. 1,888 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added), the wettest month Oct. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 133 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 | 26 / 23–31 | 27 / 23–32 | 27 / 24–31 | 27 / 24–30 | 27 / 23–30 | 28 / 23–30 | 28 / 23–31 | 28 / 23–32 | 28 / 23–32 | 28 / 23–30 | 27 / 22–30 | 27 / 23–30 |
| Night °C | 21 / 16–24 | 21 / 16–24 | 21 / 16–24 | 21 / 17–24 | 22 / 17–25 | 22 / 16–25 | 21 / 16–25 | 22 / 16–26 | 22 / 16–26 | 22 / 16–25 | 21 / 16–25 | 21 / 16–24 |
| Rain mm | 99 / 53–156 | 96 / 50–159 | 122 / 63–258 | 191 / 100–305 | 202 / 123–311 | 131 / 77–242 | 136 / 50–255 | 151 / 45–243 | 193 / 73–291 | 226 / 135–314 | 204 / 83–283 | 137 / 48–200 |
| DLI | 31 / 27–35 | 34 / 29–37 | 36 / 29–41 | 34 / 26–43 | 32 / 25–42 | 34 / 25–43 | 36 / 27–42 | 38 / 30–41 | 37 / 30–39 | 33 / 27–37 | 30 / 26–34 | 29 / 25–34 |
| RH % | 64 / 55–70 | 64 / 54–70 | 64 / 56–70 | 65 / 61–71 | 66 / 60–72 | 65 / 56–72 | 64 / 53–72 | 64 / 52–71 | 65 / 54–71 | 67 / 59–72 | 66 / 61–72 | 65 / 59–71 |
Records on both sides of the equator: the 26 cells at least 10° south of it have seasons six months apart and are left out, not combined into a year no place has. These figures are across the 133 cells that remain: the 54 at least 10° north and the 79 within 10° of the equator, which stay in either way.
The daily extremes were not used: the correction for elevation, -1363 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 16.3 °C, 1st-percentile night 19.9 °C.
How this section is made
Natural habitat
How this section is made
Photographs
Photographs: (c) Guillaume Delaitre, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Kurt Miller, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (2); (c) Gabriel Fernandes, some rights reserved (CC BY).
Related
Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.
Zanthoxylum schreberi Yellow prickle Photo: CC0, author not stated
Epidendrum rigidum Stiff flower star orchid Photo: CC BY, harrii
Tectaria incisa Incised halberd fern Photo: CC BY, Matteo Bellucci
Microgramma piloselloides Hairy snakefern Photo: CC BY, Matteo Bellucci
Mikania micrantha Mile-a-minute Photo: CC BY, Jared Shorma
Heliconia bihai Macaw-flower Photo: CC0, author not statedOther Varronia 6 in the reference
Varronia bullata Cordiaceae Photo: CC BY, Dayron Breto
Varronia curassavica Black sage Photo: CC BY, Nicolas Olejnik
Varronia cylindristachya Cordiaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, julianazuluaga-carrero
Varronia dichotoma Cordiaceae Photo: CC BY, Andrea Gantzer
Varronia globosa Boraginaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Krzysztof Ziarnek, Kenraiz Varronia wagnerorum Luquillo Mountain manjack Names & registers
Also known as Cordia adnata; Cordia boliviana; Cordia corymbosa; Cordia corymbosa f. hirsuta; Cordia corymbosa f. intonsa and 52 more. (GBIF Backbone)
Kew accepts as species of their own Varronia guazumifolia; Varronia urticifolia: older names in GBIF's record of this species that Kew's World Checklist accepts as other species. (WCVP, RBG Kew, file of 2026-06-04)
Under another author Varronia globosa Desv. is an older name of this species, not Varronia globosa, a species of the reference. (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; 28 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (13 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 9 at a herbarium, 6 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)climate answeredasked 2026-10-22climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 4.50_-74.375, lapse-corrected -1363 m at 6.5 °C/km; read, and set aside: the correction for elevation, -1363 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 shownwikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22wikipedia 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 2026-10-22openalex 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 171 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.