Mesechites trifidus(Jacq.) Müll.Arg.

WFO wfo-0000241929 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 4 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 4 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.

Mesechites trifidus, photographed by Andrés Ramírez-Barrera
fig. a Andrés Ramírez-Barrera, CC BY 4.0 / 2019-12-15 / obs. 58169910
Mesechites trifidus, photographed by Andrés Ramírez-Barrera
fig. b Andrés Ramírez-Barrera, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 35523629
Mesechites trifidus, photographed by Andrés Ramírez-Barrera
fig. c Andrés Ramírez-Barrera, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 35523663
Mesechites trifidus, photographed by Andrés Ramírez-Barrera
fig. d Andrés Ramírez-Barrera, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 35523648
Mesechites trifidus, photographed by Skjold Søndergaard
fig. e Skjold Søndergaard, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 168291996
Mesechites trifidus, photographed by Skjold Søndergaard
fig. f Skjold Søndergaard, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 168292004
Mesechites trifidus, photographed by Leonardo O. Alvarado Cárdenas
fig. g Leonardo O. Alvarado Cárdenas, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 110491462
Mesechites trifidus, photographed by Leonardo O. Alvarado Cárdenas
fig. h Leonardo O. Alvarado Cárdenas, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 110491467

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
01201331
Filed as
Mesechites trifidus (Jacq.) Müll.Arg.
Det. by
J. F. Morales Quirós 2003-01-01
Collected
G. Davidse 1980-04-09
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 27 botanical countries

Regions where Mesechites trifidus is native: Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Southeast, Mexico Southwest, Argentina Northeast, Argentina Northwest, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil North, Brazil Northeast, Brazil South, Brazil West-Central, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panamá, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuela Mexico GulfMexico NortheastMexico SoutheastMexico SouthwestArgentina NortheastArgentina NorthwestBelizeBoliviaBrazil NorthBrazil NortheastBrazil SouthBrazil West-CentralColombiaCosta RicaEcuadorEl SalvadorFrench GuianaGuatemalaGuyanaHondurasNicaraguaPanamáParaguayPeruSurinameTrinidad-TobagoVenezuela
Native distribution of Mesechites trifidus, 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
Argentina Northwest AGW
Belize BLZ
Bolivia BOL
Brazil North BZN
Brazil Northeast BZE
Brazil South BZS
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
Paraguay PAR
Peru PER
Suriname SUR
Trinidad-Tobago TRT
Venezuela VEN
Mexico Gulf MXG NORTHERN AMERICA
Mexico Northeast MXE
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 65 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 15.2 °C 20.8 °C 23.7 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 27.0 °C 31.2 °C 34.0 °C
Annual rainfall 1,326 mm 2,240 mm 5,275 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 44 mm 184 mm 572 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 65 research-grade observations of Mesechites trifidus 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 24 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.

  • Echites bicorniculatus Rusby
  • Echites chloranthus Schltdl.
  • Echites cuspidatus Willd. ex Müll.Arg.
  • Echites disadenus Miq.
  • Echites japurensis Stadelm.
  • Echites mapirensis H.J.P.Winkl.
  • Echites pallidus Miers
  • Echites rigidus Rusby
  • Echites sanctae-crucis S.Moore
  • Echites surinamensis Miq.
  • Echites trifidus O.F.Müll.
  • Echites trifidus Jacq.
  • Echites trifidus f. puberulus Markgr.
  • Echites trifidus var. major Benth.
  • Echites trifidus var. sanctae-crucis Malme
  • Echites tubulosus Benth.
  • Manothrix nodosa Miers
  • Mesechites acutisepalus Monach.
  • Mesechites bicorniculatus (Rusby) Woodson
  • Mesechites disadenus (Miq.) Müll.Arg.
  • Mesechites japurensis Müll.Arg.
  • Mesechites sanctae-crucis Woodson
  • Mesechites surinamensis (Miq.) Müll.Arg.
  • Mesechites trifidus var. tomentulosus Woodson

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.