Cologania broussonetii(Balb.) DC.

Mexican cologania

WFO wfo-0000174050 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Cologania broussonetii, photographed by Carlos Martorell
fig. a Carlos Martorell, CC BY 4.0 / 2021-11-08 / obs. 204472334

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 18 botanical countries

Regions where Cologania broussonetii is native: Mexico Central, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southeast, Mexico Southwest, Argentina Northeast, Argentina Northwest, Bolivia, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Peru, Venezuela Mexico CentralMexico GulfMexico NortheastMexico NorthwestMexico SoutheastMexico SouthwestArgentina NortheastArgentina NorthwestBoliviaColombiaCosta RicaEcuadorEl SalvadorGuatemalaHondurasNicaraguaPeruVenezuela
Native distribution of Cologania broussonetii, 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
Argentina Northeast AGE SOUTHERN AMERICA
Argentina Northwest AGW
Bolivia BOL
Colombia CLM
Costa Rica COS
Ecuador ECU
El Salvador ELS
Guatemala GUA
Honduras HON
Nicaragua NIC
Peru PER
Venezuela VEN
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 232 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 2.7 °C 5.6 °C 9.0 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 19.5 °C 23.8 °C 27.8 °C
Annual rainfall 617 mm 1,138 mm 1,767 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 22 mm 39 mm 89 mm

It is found where winters are cool but frost is light or absent. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 232 research-grade observations of Cologania broussonetii 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 23 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.

  • Amphicarpaea ovalifolia (Kunth) Seckt
  • Amphicarpaea ovalifolium (Kunth) Seckt
  • Amphicarpaea pulchella (Kunth) Taub.
  • Clitoria broussonetii Balb.
  • Cologania affinis M.Martens & Galeotti
  • Cologania australie Griseb.
  • Cologania congesta Rose
  • Cologania glabrior Rose
  • Cologania jaliscana S.Watson
  • Cologania lozani Rose
  • Cologania ovalifolia Kunth
  • Cologania pulchella Kunth
  • Cologania pulchella f. glabrior Micheli
  • Cologania rufescens Rose
  • Cologania scandens Rose
  • Cologania tenuis Rose
  • Falcata ovalifolia (Kunth) Kuntze
  • Falcata pulchella (Kunth) A.Chev.
  • Galactia broussonetii (Balb.) Colla
  • Galactia lorentzii Griseb.
  • Galactia pulchella Spreng.
  • Galactia purpurea M.Martens & Galeotti
  • Lotus coeruleus Sessé & Moc.

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. USDA PLANTS Database. common name, checklist symbol COPU4. public domain. 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.