Hura crepitansL.

sandbox tree

WFO wfo-0000215711 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Hura crepitans, photographed by Attila Oláh
fig. a Attila Oláh, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-04-12 / obs. 187804321
Hura crepitans, photographed by Ben Meredyk
fig. b Ben Meredyk, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 177618841
Hura crepitans, photographed by Cliff Tyllick
fig. c Cliff Tyllick, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 173051758
Hura crepitans, photographed by Luis Rubio-Yépez
fig. d Luis Rubio-Yépez, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 154625879
Hura crepitans, photographed by Francis Pérez
fig. e Francis Pérez, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 124817834
Hura crepitans, photographed by Carlos A. Padrón P.
fig. f Carlos A. Padrón P., CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 109383867
Hura crepitans, photographed by Carlos A. Padrón P.
fig. g Carlos A. Padrón P., CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 109376622
Hura crepitans, photographed by fede2cr
fig. h fede2cr, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 63365422

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
01418274
Filed as
Hura crepitans L.
Det. by
E. Jablonski 1969-01-01
Collected
G. T. Prance 1965-10-15
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 24 botanical countries

Regions where Hura crepitans is native: Bahamas, Bolivia, Brazil North, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Leeward Is., Nicaragua, Panamá, Peru, Puerto Rico, Southwest Caribbean, Suriname, Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuela, Venezuelan Antilles, Windward Is. BoliviaBrazil NorthColombiaCosta RicaCubaDominican RepublicEcuadorFrench GuianaGuyanaHaitiHondurasJamaicaNicaraguaPanamáPeruPuerto RicoSouthwest CaribbeanSurinameTrinidad-TobagoVenezuela BahamasLeeward Is.Venezuelan AntillesWindward Is.
Native distribution of Hura crepitans, 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
Bahamas BAH SOUTHERN AMERICA
Bolivia BOL
Brazil North BZN
Colombia CLM
Costa Rica COS
Cuba CUB
Dominican Republic DOM
Ecuador ECU
French Guiana FRG
Guyana GUY
Haiti HAI
Honduras HON
Jamaica JAM
Leeward Is. LEE
Nicaragua NIC
Panamá PAN
Peru PER
Puerto Rico PUE
Southwest Caribbean SWC
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.

Where it actually grows measured, from 873 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 16.3 °C 21.9 °C 24.2 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 26.7 °C 29.9 °C 34.0 °C
Annual rainfall 1,104 mm 1,795 mm 3,518 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 12 mm 186 mm 522 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 873 research-grade observations of Hura crepitans 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 13 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.

  • Hura brasiliensis Willd.
  • Hura crepitans f. oblongifolia Müll.Arg.
  • Hura crepitans f. orbicularis Müll.Arg.
  • Hura crepitans f. ovata Müll.Arg.
  • Hura crepitans var. genuina Müll.Arg.
  • Hura crepitans var. membranacea Müll.Arg.
  • Hura crepitans var. oblongifolia Müll.Arg.
  • Hura crepitans var. orbicularis Müll.Arg.
  • Hura crepitans var. ovata Müll.Arg.
  • Hura crepitans var. senegalensis (Baill.) Boiss.
  • Hura crepitans var. strepens Müll.Arg.
  • Hura senegalensis Baill.
  • Hura strepens Willd.

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.