Crateva tapiaL.

WFO wfo-0000625731 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Crateva tapia, photographed by Francisco Farriols Sarabia
fig. a Francisco Farriols Sarabia, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-05-01 / obs. 193159794
Crateva tapia, photographed by Francisco Farriols Sarabia
fig. b Francisco Farriols Sarabia, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 136351280
Crateva tapia, photographed by Juan Cruzado Cortés
fig. c Juan Cruzado Cortés, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 186171630
Crateva tapia, photographed by Francisco Farriols Sarabia
fig. d Francisco Farriols Sarabia, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 61300786
Crateva tapia, photographed by Francisco Farriols Sarabia
fig. e Francisco Farriols Sarabia, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 48509256
Crateva tapia, photographed by Francisco Farriols Sarabia
fig. f Francisco Farriols Sarabia, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 46880932
Crateva tapia, photographed by Francisco Farriols Sarabia
fig. g Francisco Farriols Sarabia, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 42950230
Crateva tapia, photographed by Juan Cruzado Cortés
fig. h Juan Cruzado Cortés, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 37925463

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 35 botanical countries

Regions where Crateva tapia is native: Mexico Central, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southeast, Mexico Southwest, Argentina Northeast, Aruba, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil North, Brazil Northeast, Brazil South, Brazil Southeast, Brazil West-Central, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Jamaica, Netherlands Antilles, Nicaragua, Panamá, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuela, Venezuelan Antilles, Windward Is. Mexico CentralMexico GulfMexico NortheastMexico NorthwestMexico SoutheastMexico SouthwestArgentina NortheastBelizeBoliviaBrazil NorthBrazil NortheastBrazil SouthBrazil SoutheastBrazil West-CentralColombiaCosta RicaDominican RepublicEcuadorEl SalvadorFrench GuianaGuatemalaGuyanaHondurasJamaicaNicaraguaPanamáParaguayPeruSurinameTrinidad-TobagoVenezuela ArubaNetherlands AntillesVenezuelan AntillesWindward Is.
Native distribution of Crateva tapia, 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. Regions too small to draw at this scale are marked with a dot.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Argentina Northeast AGE SOUTHERN AMERICA
Aruba ARU
Belize BLZ
Bolivia BOL
Brazil North BZN
Brazil Northeast BZE
Brazil South BZS
Brazil Southeast BZL
Brazil West-Central BZC
Colombia CLM
Costa Rica COS
Dominican Republic DOM
Ecuador ECU
El Salvador ELS
French Guiana FRG
Guatemala GUA
Guyana GUY
Honduras HON
Jamaica JAM
Netherlands Antilles NLA
Nicaragua NIC
Panamá PAN
Paraguay PAR
Peru PER
Suriname SUR
Trinidad-Tobago TRT
Venezuela VEN
Venezuelan Antilles VNA
Windward Is. WIN
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.

Flowering 107 in flower of 137 examined

Peak flowering in Aug. Each bar is the share of Crateva tapia observations in which someone actually recorded the reproductive state and found the plant in flower, not the raw number of flowering records. That distinction matters: people observe plants far more in spring than in winter, so a bare count of flowering records partly measures when people go outside. Dividing by the number examined removes that. 107 of 137 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. One month has fewer than 5 examined observations, so no proportion is drawn for it. This is still a global aggregate and not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres. Where a species has fewer than 30 flowering records we do not draw this chart at all. Computed from 10.15468/dl.cgje2x.

Also published as 16 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.

  • Capparis radiatiflora (DC.) Ruiz & Pav.
  • Capparis trifoliata Spreng. ex DC.
  • Cleome arborea Schrad.
  • Colicodendron obliquifolium Turcz.
  • Crateva acuminata DC.
  • Crateva arborea Schrad.
  • Crateva bahiana Ule
  • Crateva benthamii Eichler
  • Crateva benthamii var. leptopetala Eichler
  • Crateva coriacea Herzog
  • Crateva glauca Lundell
  • Crateva gynandra L.
  • Crateva radiatiflora DC.
  • Crateva tapia var. glauca (Lundell) Standl. & Steyerm.
  • Crateva tapioides DC.
  • Nevosmila arborea (Schrad.) Raf.

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. 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.