Cojoba arborea(L.) Britton & Rose

wild tamarind

WFO wfo-0000171255 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Cojoba arborea, photographed by Vincent A. Vos
fig. a Vincent A. Vos, CC BY 4.0 / 2020-04-25 / obs. 68886549
Cojoba arborea, photographed by Alan Rockefeller
fig. b Alan Rockefeller, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 24745859
Cojoba arborea, photographed by adel-fridus
fig. c adel-fridus, CC0 1.0 / obs. 39376101
Cojoba arborea, photographed by Neptalí Ramírez Marcial
fig. d Neptalí Ramírez Marcial, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 1297855
Cojoba arborea, photographed by Lena Struwe
fig. e Lena Struwe, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 13453780
Cojoba arborea, photographed by Neptalí Ramírez Marcial
fig. f Neptalí Ramírez Marcial, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 1301279
Cojoba arborea, photographed by Skjold Søndergaard
fig. g Skjold Søndergaard, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 201877000
Cojoba arborea, photographed by Mariana Cortés
fig. h Mariana Cortés, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 68890434

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 21 botanical countries

Regions where Cojoba arborea is native: Mexico Central, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southeast, Mexico Southwest, Belize, Bolivia, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Nicaragua, Peru, Puerto Rico Mexico CentralMexico GulfMexico NortheastMexico NorthwestMexico SoutheastMexico SouthwestBelizeBoliviaColombiaCosta RicaCubaDominican RepublicEcuadorEl SalvadorGuatemalaHaitiHondurasJamaicaNicaraguaPeruPuerto Rico
Native distribution of Cojoba arborea, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Belize BLZ SOUTHERN AMERICA
Bolivia BOL
Colombia CLM
Costa Rica COS
Cuba CUB
Dominican Republic DOM
Ecuador ECU
El Salvador ELS
Guatemala GUA
Haiti HAI
Honduras HON
Jamaica JAM
Nicaragua NIC
Peru PER
Puerto Rico PUE
Mexico Central MXC NORTHERN AMERICA
Mexico Gulf MXG
Mexico Northeast MXE
Mexico Northwest MXN
Mexico Southeast MXT
Mexico Southwest MXS

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Where it actually grows measured, from 311 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 11.1 °C 17.8 °C 23.7 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 24.9 °C 29.7 °C 33.7 °C
Annual rainfall 943 mm 1,937 mm 3,650 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 27 mm 168 mm 325 mm

It is not found anywhere that gets close to freezing. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 311 research-grade observations of Cojoba arborea that carry a coordinate, and this is the range those places actually span. The 5th and 95th percentiles are used rather than the minimum and maximum, because a single cultivated specimen in a heated conservatory should not widen a tropical plant's range to the Arctic.

This is not a hardiness zone. A USDA zone is the average annual extreme minimum temperature. The figure above is the mean daily minimum of the coldest month, which is a different quantity and is typically far warmer. Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one.

Also published as 35 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Acacia arborea (L.) Willd.
  • Cojoba arborea var. cubensis (Bisse) Barneby & J.W.Grimes
  • Cojoba austrina (Standl. & L.O.Williams) L.Rico
  • Cojoba colombiana Britton & Killip
  • Cojoba guatemalensis Britton & Rose
  • Cojoba longipendula (Forero & A.H.Gentry) Forero & C.Romero
  • Cojoba matudae (Lundell) L.Rico
  • Cojoba matudai (Lundell) L.Rico
  • Cojoba tonduzii Britton & Rose
  • Cojoba tuerckheimii Britton & Rose
  • Feuilleea filicifolia (Lam.) Kuntze
  • Mimosa arborea L.
  • Mimosa filicifolia Lam.
  • Mimosa ouyratama Vitman
  • Pithecellobium angustifolium (Rusby) Rusby
  • Pithecellobium arboreum (L.) Urb.
  • Pithecellobium arboreum var. filifolia Kitan.
  • Pithecellobium arboreum var. filifolium Kitan.
  • Pithecellobium austrinum Standl. & L.O.Williams
  • Pithecellobium cubense Bisse
  • Pithecellobium filicifolium (Lam.) Benth.
  • Pithecellobium longipendulum Forero & A.H.Gentry
  • Pithecellobium matudae Lundell
  • Pithecellobium sophorocarpum var. angustifolium Rusby

and 11 more.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Wikidata. common name (P1843), joined on the World Flora Online identifier (P7715). CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-13.
  4. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.