Rauvolfia tetraphyllaL.

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WFO wfo-0000295195 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Rauvolfia tetraphylla, photographed by Brian Oakes Haiti Hunter
fig. a Brian Oakes Haiti Hunter, CC BY 4.0 / 2022-05-28 / obs. 201563892
Rauvolfia tetraphylla, photographed by adel-fridus
fig. b adel-fridus, CC0 1.0 / obs. 171620502
Rauvolfia tetraphylla, photographed by Sebastián de Jesús Herrera Buenfil
fig. c Sebastián de Jesús Herrera Buenfil, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 139525929
Rauvolfia tetraphylla, photographed by Lyrae
fig. d Lyrae, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 137243254
Rauvolfia tetraphylla, photographed by P Jeganathan
fig. e P Jeganathan, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 124098941
Rauvolfia tetraphylla, photographed by Alexis López Hernández
fig. f Alexis López Hernández, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 82622294
Rauvolfia tetraphylla, photographed by Alexis López Hernández
fig. g Alexis López Hernández, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 82622233
Rauvolfia tetraphylla, photographed by Alexis López Hernández
fig. h Alexis López Hernández, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 67979308

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 26 botanical countries

Regions where Rauvolfia tetraphylla is native: Mexico Central, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southeast, Mexico Southwest, Belize, Bolivia, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Leeward Is., Nicaragua, Panamá, Peru, Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuela, Venezuelan Antilles, Windward Is. Mexico CentralMexico GulfMexico NortheastMexico NorthwestMexico SoutheastMexico SouthwestBelizeBoliviaColombiaCosta RicaDominican RepublicEcuadorEl SalvadorFrench GuianaGuatemalaHaitiHondurasJamaicaNicaraguaPanamáPeruTrinidad-TobagoVenezuela Leeward Is.Venezuelan AntillesWindward Is.
Native distribution of Rauvolfia tetraphylla, 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
Belize BLZ SOUTHERN AMERICA
Bolivia BOL
Colombia CLM
Costa Rica COS
Dominican Republic DOM
Ecuador ECU
El Salvador ELS
French Guiana FRG
Guatemala GUA
Haiti HAI
Honduras HON
Jamaica JAM
Leeward Is. LEE
Nicaragua NIC
Panamá PAN
Peru PER
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 1,207 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 12.1 °C 19.8 °C 23.7 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 29.3 °C 31.5 °C 36.6 °C
Annual rainfall 759 mm 1,192 mm 2,772 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 6 mm 23 mm 161 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 1,207 research-grade observations of Rauvolfia tetraphylla 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 14 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.

  • Rauvolfia canescens L.
  • Rauvolfia canescens var. glabra Müll.Arg.
  • Rauvolfia canescens var. intermedia Markgr.
  • Rauvolfia canescens var. tomentosa Müll.Arg.
  • Rauvolfia canescens var. typica Markgr.
  • Rauvolfia heterophylla Willd. ex Roem. & Schult.
  • Rauvolfia heterophylla var. puberula A.Gray
  • Rauvolfia hirsuta Jacq.
  • Rauvolfia hirsuta var. glabra (Müll.Arg.) Woodson
  • Rauvolfia latifolia var. minor Müll.Arg.
  • Rauvolfia nitida Sessé & Moc.
  • Rauvolfia odontophora Van Heurck & Müll.Arg.
  • Rauvolfia subpubescens L.
  • Rauvolfia tomentosa Jacq.

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.