Hesperomeles obtusifolia(Pers.) Lindl.

WFO wfo-0000994947 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Hesperomeles obtusifolia, photographed by Andrés Ramírez-Barrera
fig. a Andrés Ramírez-Barrera, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-02-20 / obs. 180171811
Hesperomeles obtusifolia, photographed by Ignacio Moreira-Corral
fig. b Ignacio Moreira-Corral, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 121863481
Hesperomeles obtusifolia, photographed by Luisa Matiz
fig. c Luisa Matiz, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 117427558
Hesperomeles obtusifolia, photographed by Luisa Matiz
fig. d Luisa Matiz, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 117427388
Hesperomeles obtusifolia, photographed by Luisa Matiz
fig. e Luisa Matiz, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 117428487
Hesperomeles obtusifolia, photographed by Andrés Ramírez-Barrera
fig. f Andrés Ramírez-Barrera, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 97602256
Hesperomeles obtusifolia, photographed by Andrés Ramírez-Barrera
fig. g Andrés Ramírez-Barrera, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 94662463
Hesperomeles obtusifolia, photographed by Andrés Ramírez-Barrera
fig. h Andrés Ramírez-Barrera, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 92712003

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 5 botanical countries

Regions where Hesperomeles obtusifolia is native: Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela BoliviaColombiaEcuadorPeruVenezuela
Native distribution of Hesperomeles obtusifolia, 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
Bolivia BOL SOUTHERN AMERICA
Colombia CLM
Ecuador ECU
Peru PER
Venezuela VEN

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 236 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 0.9 °C 6.7 °C 9.8 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 10.6 °C 16.5 °C 20.2 °C
Annual rainfall 1,090 mm 1,846 mm 4,486 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 123 mm 193 mm 494 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 236 research-grade observations of Hesperomeles obtusifolia 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 31 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.

  • Crataegus escalloniaefolia Schltdl.
  • Crataegus escalloniifolia Schltdl.
  • Crataegus obtusifolia Pers.
  • Eleutherocarpum escalloniifolium (Schltdl.) Lechl.
  • Eriobotrya glabrata (Kunth) Steud.
  • Eriobotrya heterophylla Lindl.
  • Eriobotrya obtusifolia (Pers.) DC.
  • Hesperomeles chiriquensis Woodson
  • Hesperomeles escalloniifolia (Schltdl.) C.K.Schneid.
  • Hesperomeles fieldii J.F.Macbr.
  • Hesperomeles glabrata (Kunth) M.Roem.
  • Hesperomeles heterophylla (Lindl.) Hook.
  • Hesperomeles heterophylla var. vacciniifolia Hook.
  • Hesperomeles obovata (Pittier) Standl.
  • Hesperomeles obtusifolia var. pernettyoides (Wedd.) Romoleroux
  • Hesperomeles pernettyoides Wedd.
  • Hesperomeles pernettyoides var. glaucophylla Wedd.
  • Hesperomeles pernettyoides var. microphylla Wedd.
  • Mespilus glabrata Spreng.
  • Mespilus heterophylla (Lindl.) Ruiz & Pav.
  • Mespilus obtusifolia (Pers.) Poir.
  • Mespilus persoonii Spreng.
  • Osteomeles escalloniifolia (Schltdl.) Decne.
  • Osteomeles glabrata Kunth

and 7 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. 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.