Maclura tinctoria(L.) D.Don ex G.Don

Venetian sumacdyer's mulberrydyer's mulberry treefustictreeold fustic

WFO wfo-0000447821 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 7 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 7 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.

Maclura tinctoria, photographed by Francisco Farriols Sarabia
fig. a Francisco Farriols Sarabia, CC BY 4.0 / 2016-01-13 / obs. 2880386
Maclura tinctoria, photographed by Francisco Farriols Sarabia
fig. b Francisco Farriols Sarabia, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 543651
Maclura tinctoria, photographed by Pier Luiggi Maquilón
fig. c Pier Luiggi Maquilón, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 178319370
Maclura tinctoria, photographed by Pier Luiggi Maquilón
fig. d Pier Luiggi Maquilón, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 178319353
Maclura tinctoria, photographed by keesgroenendijk
fig. e keesgroenendijk, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 112053662
Maclura tinctoria, photographed by Carlos Bolaños
fig. f Carlos Bolaños, CC0 1.0 / obs. 84834391
Maclura tinctoria, photographed by Juan Cruzado Cortés
fig. g Juan Cruzado Cortés, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 59021589
Maclura tinctoria, photographed by Neptalí Ramírez Marcial
fig. h Neptalí Ramírez Marcial, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 1301233

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 39 botanical countries

Regions where Maclura tinctoria is native: Mexico Central, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southeast, Mexico Southwest, Argentina Northeast, Argentina Northwest, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil North, Brazil Northeast, Brazil South, Brazil Southeast, Brazil West-Central, Cayman Is., Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Leeward Is., Netherlands Antilles, Nicaragua, Panamá, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Southwest Caribbean, Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuela, Venezuelan Antilles, Windward Is. Mexico CentralMexico GulfMexico NortheastMexico NorthwestMexico SoutheastMexico SouthwestArgentina NortheastArgentina NorthwestBelizeBoliviaBrazil NorthBrazil NortheastBrazil SouthBrazil SoutheastBrazil West-CentralColombiaCosta RicaCubaDominican RepublicEcuadorEl SalvadorGuatemalaGuyanaHaitiHondurasJamaicaNicaraguaPanamáParaguayPeruPuerto RicoSouthwest CaribbeanTrinidad-TobagoVenezuela Cayman Is.Leeward Is.Netherlands AntillesVenezuelan AntillesWindward Is.
Native distribution of Maclura tinctoria, 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
Argentina Northeast AGE SOUTHERN AMERICA
Argentina Northwest AGW
Belize BLZ
Bolivia BOL
Brazil North BZN
Brazil Northeast BZE
Brazil South BZS
Brazil Southeast BZL
Brazil West-Central BZC
Cayman Is. CAY
Colombia CLM
Costa Rica COS
Cuba CUB
Dominican Republic DOM
Ecuador ECU
El Salvador ELS
Guatemala GUA
Guyana GUY
Haiti HAI
Honduras HON
Jamaica JAM
Leeward Is. LEE
Netherlands Antilles NLA
Nicaragua NIC
Panamá PAN
Paraguay PAR
Peru PER
Puerto Rico PUE
Southwest Caribbean SWC
Trinidad-Tobago TRT
Venezuela VEN
Venezuelan Antilles VNA
Windward Is. WIN
Mexico Central MXC NORTHERN AMERICA
Mexico Gulf MXG
Mexico Northeast MXE
Mexico Northwest MXN
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 389 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 11.2 °C 20.8 °C 25.0 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 27.4 °C 30.4 °C 35.9 °C
Annual rainfall 638 mm 1,257 mm 2,236 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 9 mm 37 mm 241 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 389 research-grade observations of Maclura tinctoria 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 62 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.

  • Broussonetia plumerii Spreng.
  • Broussonetia tinctoria (L.) Dum.Cours.
  • Broussonetia tinctoria (L.) Kunth
  • Broussonetia xanthoxylon (L.) Mart.
  • Broussonetia zanthoxylon (L.) Mart.
  • Chlorophora mollis Fernald
  • Chlorophora mora Lillo
  • Chlorophora reticulata (Chodat) Herzog
  • Chlorophora tinctoria (L.) Gaudich. ex Benth. & Hook.f.
  • Chlorophora tinctoria Gaudich.
  • Chlorophora tinctoria f. glabrescens Huber
  • Chlorophora tinctoria f. miqueliana Hassl.
  • Chlorophora tinctoria f. ovata (Bureau) Hassl.
  • Chlorophora tinctoria f. polyneura (Miq.) Hassl.
  • Chlorophora tinctoria f. tataiiba (Vell.) Hassl.
  • Chlorophora tinctoria subsp. mora Hassl.
  • Chlorophora tinctoria subsp. zanthoxylon (L.) Hassl.
  • Chlorophora tinctoria var. acuminatissima Huber
  • Chlorophora tinctoria var. affinis (Miq.) Hassl.
  • Chlorophora tinctoria var. chlorocarpa (Liebm.) Hemsl.
  • Chlorophora tinctoria var. mora Lillo
  • Chlorophora tinctoria var. ovata (Bureau) Chodat
  • Chlorophora tinctoria var. polyneura (Miq.) Bureau
  • Chlorophora tinctoria var. subintegerrima (Miq.) Hemsl.

and 38 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. 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.