Cupania americanaL.

wild ackee

WFO wfo-0000629388 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Cupania americana, photographed by Yolanda M. Leon
fig. a Yolanda M. Leon, CC0 1.0 / 2020-09-13 / obs. 96333890
Cupania americana, photographed by Daniel Cahen
fig. b Daniel Cahen, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 61404710
Cupania americana, photographed by Daniel Cahen
fig. c Daniel Cahen, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 61240713
Cupania americana, photographed by Thalia M. Mite
fig. d Thalia M. Mite, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 200481694
Cupania americana, photographed by Kurt Miller
fig. e Kurt Miller, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 199969191
Cupania americana, photographed by Kurt Miller
fig. f Kurt Miller, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 181184176
Cupania americana, photographed by Wes Gapp
fig. g Wes Gapp, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 117263608
Cupania americana, photographed by Yolanda M. Leon
fig. h Yolanda M. Leon, CC0 1.0 / obs. 81342640

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 17 botanical countries

Regions where Cupania americana is native: Brazil North, Colombia, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Leeward Is., Panamá, Puerto Rico, Suriname, Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuela, Venezuelan Antilles, Windward Is. Brazil NorthColombiaCubaDominican RepublicEcuadorGuatemalaHaitiHondurasJamaicaPanamáPuerto RicoSurinameTrinidad-TobagoVenezuela Leeward Is.Venezuelan AntillesWindward Is.
Native distribution of Cupania americana, 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
Brazil North BZN SOUTHERN AMERICA
Colombia CLM
Cuba CUB
Dominican Republic DOM
Ecuador ECU
Guatemala GUA
Haiti HAI
Honduras HON
Jamaica JAM
Leeward Is. LEE
Panamá PAN
Puerto Rico PUE
Suriname SUR
Trinidad-Tobago TRT
Venezuela VEN
Venezuelan Antilles VNA
Windward Is. WIN

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.

Also published as 4 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.

  • Cupania saponaria Pers.
  • Cupania tomentosa (Jacq.) Sw.
  • Trigonia tomentosa (Jacq.) Warm.
  • Trigonis tomentosa Jacq.

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.