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Zootrophion hypodiscus (Rchb.f.) Luer

Orchidaceae · Colombia, Ecuador

Photographs not checked iNaturalist was 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.
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Habitat figuresfrom few records
Coldest month, mean nightly low
13.9°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
22°C
Aug at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
3,078mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
23–25DLI
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
Rain spread: 70% of the median year's rain takes 8 months, so no short rainy season. rain rule, CHELSA
Not shifted: the shift rule does not apply to this habitat. The chart is in the habitat's months.

From few records: 3 records in 3 grid cells. The records.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads no short rainy season: 70% of the median year's rain (2,279 mm of 3,059 mm) takes 8 months, April to June and August to December. Mean temperature moves 0.6 °C between the warmest and coldest month. 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

3,059 mm in the median year at the habitat, 2,279 mm of it April to June and August to December. Wettest month May at 353 mm, driest month February at 166 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 2,841 mm to 3,966 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 3,078 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 3,059 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: 23 to 25 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 20, the highest 90th-percentile month 35).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 13.9 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range 11.3 °C to 16.6 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 21.6 °C in August (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: none read. The nearest figure is 13.9 °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: 76 to 79% 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

From few records: this habitat climate is read from 3 records in 3 grid cells; a page says so under 12 records or 5 cells, and shows the figures as read.

Habitat months, southern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Zootrophion hypodiscus through the yearWarmest month August, mean daily high 22 °C; coldest month July, mean nightly low 13.9 °C; 3,059 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA. Habitat months, southern hemisphere.10°15°20°25°°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500600mm rainDLI 23–25RH 76–79%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 3 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 °C20 / 20–2220 / 20–2221 / 20–2220 / 20–2220 / 20–2221 / 20–2221 / 20–2222 / 20–2221 / 20–2220 / 19–2219 / 19–2220 / 19–22
Night °C14 / 12–1714 / 12–1714 / 12–1715 / 12–1815 / 12–1814 / 12–1714 / 11–1714 / 12–1714 / 12–1714 / 12–1714 / 12–1714 / 12–17
Rain mm178 / 112–396166 / 130–392225 / 197–496309 / 298–551353 / 319–412235 / 222–256211 / 173–219236 / 169–237283 / 249–289329 / 257–351279 / 269–314255 / 176–333
DLI23 / 23–3025 / 24–3125 / 25–3124 / 22–2823 / 21–2823 / 20–3124 / 21–3424 / 22–3525 / 21–3325 / 21–2825 / 20–2624 / 22–27
RH %78 / 72–7977 / 71–7876 / 71–7776 / 73–7776 / 72–7777 / 70–7877 / 67–7878 / 67–7979 / 71–7978 / 73–7877 / 73–7978 / 72–79

The daily extremes were not used: the correction for elevation, +1178 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 10.6 °C, 1st-percentile night 12.1 °C.

How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 3 grid cells holding the 3 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 1722:2068 (3.875, -76.575). 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 3 distinct grid cells holding 3 of the 3 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1722:2068 (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 4.00_-76.875, lapse-corrected +1178 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1686 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.
NativeColombia, Ecuador · 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-2.586, -78.558 · in the densest population, 6 records (55% of those in range)
Kew's description“epiphyte” · “wet tropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 11 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 3 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 8 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker in the same place. Under a dozen records behind the map and the climate. 8 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 11 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Not checked. iNaturalist was skipped (not asked) when this page was built; GBIF's observation records with coordinates hold none. Not a statement that none exist.

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

Dendropanax macrophyllus Araliaceae Licaria applanata Lauraceae Kohleria inaequalis Kohleria inaequalis Gesneriaceae Photo: CC BY, Connor Connolly-MoylsHeliconia griggsiana Heliconia griggsiana Heliconiaceae Photo: CC BY, Julien Renoult Symplocos quindiuensis Symplocaceae Cavendishia adenophora Cavendishia adenophora Ericaceae Photo: CC0, author not stated

Other Zootrophion 4 in the reference

Zootrophion atropurpureum Zootrophion atropurpureum Orchidaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Dalton Holland Baptista Zootrophion dayanum Orchidaceae Zootrophion endresianum Orchidaceae Zootrophion gracilentum Orchidaceae

Names & registers

Also known as Cryptophoranthus hypodiscus; Cryptophoranthus moorei; Cryptophoranthus rolfeanus; Masdevallia hypodiscus; Zootrophion moorei. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataiNaturalist

The record

Family
Orchidaceae
Described by
(Rchb.f.) Luer
Native to
Colombia, Ecuador
Wild records
11 in range · 8 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 4.00_-76.875, lapse-corrected +1178 m at 6.5 °C/km; read, and set aside: the correction for elevation, +1178 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 Zootrophion hypodiscus (Rchb.f.) Luer (the item's: IPNI 911657-1, POWO 271260-2)
Wikipedia wikipedia nothing to reportasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild nothing to reportasked 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 nothing to reportasked 2026-10-22
Wikimedia Commons commons nothing to reportasked 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 4 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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