Oxypetalum cordifolium(Vent.) Schltr.

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WFO wfo-0000384979 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Oxypetalum cordifolium, photographed by Daniel Mesa
fig. a Daniel Mesa, CC BY 4.0 / 2021-11-02 / obs. 167018161
Oxypetalum cordifolium, photographed by Daniel Mesa
fig. b Daniel Mesa, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 159072683
Oxypetalum cordifolium, photographed by Claudio Cantú Muñiz
fig. c Claudio Cantú Muñiz, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 181348383
Oxypetalum cordifolium, photographed by Skjold Søndergaard
fig. d Skjold Søndergaard, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 177079257
Oxypetalum cordifolium, photographed by Skjold Søndergaard
fig. e Skjold Søndergaard, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 167950699
Oxypetalum cordifolium, photographed by Ángela María Gómez M
fig. f Ángela María Gómez M, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 163360903
Oxypetalum cordifolium, photographed by Daniel Mesa
fig. g Daniel Mesa, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 147520303
Oxypetalum cordifolium, photographed by Leonardo O. Alvarado Cárdenas
fig. h Leonardo O. Alvarado Cárdenas, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 59988796

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
01204320
Filed as
Oxypetalum cordifolium (Vent.) Schltr.
Det. by
W. D. Stevens 2004-01-01
Collected
F. A. González 1995-12-30
Origin
CO
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 20 botanical countries

Regions where Oxypetalum cordifolium is native: Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Southeast, Mexico Southwest, Brazil South, Brazil Southeast, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Leeward Is., Panamá, Peru, Puerto Rico, Venezuela Mexico GulfMexico NortheastMexico SoutheastMexico SouthwestBrazil SouthBrazil SoutheastColombiaCosta RicaCubaDominican RepublicEcuadorGuatemalaHaitiHondurasJamaicaPanamáPeruPuerto RicoVenezuela Leeward Is.
Native distribution of Oxypetalum cordifolium, 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
Brazil South BZS SOUTHERN AMERICA
Brazil Southeast BZL
Colombia CLM
Costa Rica COS
Cuba CUB
Dominican Republic DOM
Ecuador ECU
Guatemala GUA
Haiti HAI
Honduras HON
Jamaica JAM
Leeward Is. LEE
Panamá PAN
Peru PER
Puerto Rico PUE
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 54 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 8.8 °C 12.7 °C 18.8 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 20.0 °C 22.2 °C 28.7 °C
Annual rainfall 1,023 mm 2,226 mm 3,429 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 64 mm 312 mm 568 mm

It is barely found anywhere that freezes. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 54 research-grade observations of Oxypetalum cordifolium 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 12 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.

  • Gothofreda cordifolia Vent.
  • Gothofreda pedicellata (Decne.) Kuntze
  • Oxypetalum gothofreda Schult.
  • Oxypetalum huilense Pittier
  • Oxypetalum lindenianum Turcz.
  • Oxypetalum mexiae Malme
  • Oxypetalum pedicellatum Decne.
  • Oxypetalum pedicellatum var. itatiaiense Occhioni
  • Oxypetalum riparium Kunth
  • Oxypetalum riparium var. brasiliense Decne.
  • Oxypetalum riparium var. glabrescens K.Schum.
  • Oxypetalum subriparium Malme

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.