Jacaratia spinosa(Aubl.) A.DC.

WFO wfo-0000734686 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.

Jacaratia spinosa, photographed by B. Phalan
fig. a B. Phalan, CC BY 4.0 / 2020-01-12 / obs. 59867931
Jacaratia spinosa, photographed by B. Phalan
fig. b B. Phalan, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 9725384
Jacaratia spinosa, photographed by Diogo Luiz
fig. c Diogo Luiz, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 51746923
Jacaratia spinosa, photographed by Diogo Luiz
fig. d Diogo Luiz, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 51443123
Jacaratia spinosa, photographed by B. Phalan
fig. e B. Phalan, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 59865556
Jacaratia spinosa, photographed by B. Phalan
fig. f B. Phalan, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 9725382
Jacaratia spinosa, photographed by Diogo Luiz
fig. g Diogo Luiz, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 51746994
Jacaratia spinosa, photographed by B. Phalan
fig. h B. Phalan, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 113994290

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 18 botanical countries

Regions where Jacaratia spinosa is native: Argentina Northeast, Bolivia, Brazil North, Brazil Northeast, Brazil South, Brazil Southeast, Brazil West-Central, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Guyana, Nicaragua, Panamá, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname Argentina NortheastBoliviaBrazil NorthBrazil NortheastBrazil SouthBrazil SoutheastBrazil West-CentralColombiaCosta RicaEcuadorFrench GuianaGuatemalaGuyanaNicaraguaPanamáParaguayPeruSuriname
Native distribution of Jacaratia spinosa, 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
Argentina Northeast AGE SOUTHERN AMERICA
Bolivia BOL
Brazil North BZN
Brazil Northeast BZE
Brazil South BZS
Brazil Southeast BZL
Brazil West-Central BZC
Colombia CLM
Costa Rica COS
Ecuador ECU
French Guiana FRG
Guatemala GUA
Guyana GUY
Nicaragua NIC
Panamá PAN
Paraguay PAR
Peru PER
Suriname SUR

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 89 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 10.8 °C 13.1 °C 20.5 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 26.6 °C 30.0 °C 31.7 °C
Annual rainfall 1,262 mm 1,849 mm 3,179 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 31 mm 296 mm 463 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 89 research-grade observations of Jacaratia spinosa 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 8 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.

  • Carica dodecaphylla Vell.
  • Carica spinosa Aubl.
  • Jacaratia costaricensis I.M.Johnst.
  • Jacaratia dodecaphylla (Vell.) A.DC.
  • Jacaratia dodecaphylla f. longiflora Chodat
  • Jacaratia dodecaphylla var. lucida Hassl.
  • Papaya dodecaphylla Baill.
  • Papaya spinosa (Aubl.) DC.

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.