Davilla kunthiiA.St.-Hil.

WFO wfo-0000638809 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 5 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 5 times, so some figures below are different views of the same plant, taken on the same day, rather than different individuals. They are usually different parts of it: the leaf, the flower, the bark.

Davilla kunthii, photographed by botanygirl
fig. a botanygirl, CC BY 4.0 / 2013-02-04 / obs. 259355
Davilla kunthii, photographed by Neptalí Ramírez Marcial
fig. b Neptalí Ramírez Marcial, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 8131468
Davilla kunthii, photographed by Emily Franzen
fig. c Emily Franzen, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 173338775
Davilla kunthii, photographed by Erick Vélez Sánchez
fig. d Erick Vélez Sánchez, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 56532079
Davilla kunthii, photographed by Erick Vélez Sánchez
fig. e Erick Vélez Sánchez, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 56532097
Davilla kunthii, photographed by Erick Vélez Sánchez
fig. f Erick Vélez Sánchez, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 56532113
Davilla kunthii, photographed by Miguel Sho
fig. g Miguel Sho, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 181745277
Davilla kunthii, photographed by Miguel Sho
fig. h Miguel Sho, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 181745295

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.

The specimen a real sheet, in a real collection

Herbarium
The New York Botanical Garden
Accession
495481
Filed as
Davilla kunthii A.St.-Hil.
Det. by
K. Kubitzki 1978-09-01
Collected
T. S. dos Santos 1974-09-10
Origin
BR
The sheet
View the digitised specimen (CC BY 4.0)

A real pressed plant, in a real collection, under the accession number above. Not an illustration of one. The holding institution does not serve this sheet’s image to third parties, so there is no photograph here. The record is real and the link goes to it. Where we hold no openly licensed sheet for a species this section is simply absent, and where a sheet never recorded who determined it, that field stays empty rather than being filled in. Roughly half of all herbarium sheets never recorded a determiner, which is ordinary.

Native range 25 botanical countries

Regions where Davilla kunthii is native: Mexico Central, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Southeast, Mexico Southwest, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil North, Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast, Brazil West-Central, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panamá, Peru, Southwest Caribbean, Suriname, Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuela Mexico CentralMexico GulfMexico SoutheastMexico SouthwestBelizeBoliviaBrazil NorthBrazil NortheastBrazil SoutheastBrazil West-CentralColombiaCosta RicaEcuadorEl SalvadorFrench GuianaGuatemalaGuyanaHondurasNicaraguaPanamáPeruSouthwest CaribbeanSurinameTrinidad-TobagoVenezuela
Native distribution of Davilla kunthii, 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
Brazil North BZN
Brazil Northeast BZE
Brazil Southeast BZL
Brazil West-Central BZC
Colombia CLM
Costa Rica COS
Ecuador ECU
El Salvador ELS
French Guiana FRG
Guatemala GUA
Guyana GUY
Honduras HON
Nicaragua NIC
Panamá PAN
Peru PER
Southwest Caribbean SWC
Suriname SUR
Trinidad-Tobago TRT
Venezuela VEN
Mexico Central MXC NORTHERN AMERICA
Mexico Gulf MXG
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 68 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 16.2 °C 20.3 °C 23.9 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 26.7 °C 30.5 °C 33.8 °C
Annual rainfall 1,682 mm 2,571 mm 4,247 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 57 mm 182 mm 347 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 68 research-grade observations of Davilla kunthii 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 14 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.

  • Davilla aspera var. tenuis (Eichler) Benoist
  • Davilla asperrima Splitg.
  • Davilla brasiliana Billb. ex Beurl.
  • Davilla densa J.F.Macbr.
  • Davilla lucida C.Presl
  • Davilla lucida var. tenuis Eichler
  • Davilla ovata C.Presl
  • Davilla pseudorugosa Glaz.
  • Davilla surinamensis Miq.
  • Davilla tenuis Eichler
  • Hieronia scabra Vell.
  • Tetracera calophylla Gilg
  • Tetracera plicata Willd. ex Schltdl.
  • Tetracera rugosa Kunth ex Schltdl.

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.