Renealmia cernua(Sw. ex Roem. & Schult.) J.F.Macbr.

WFO wfo-0000510380 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 8 separate observations

Renealmia cernua, photographed by Andrés Ramírez-Barrera
fig. a Andrés Ramírez-Barrera, CC BY 4.0 / 2021-07-05 / obs. 141345009
Renealmia cernua, photographed by Andrés Ramírez-Barrera
fig. b Andrés Ramírez-Barrera, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 104042276
Renealmia cernua, photographed by anbalemans
fig. c anbalemans, CC0 1.0 / obs. 58993538
Renealmia cernua, photographed by Dario Taraborelli
fig. d Dario Taraborelli, CC0 1.0 / obs. 58805738
Renealmia cernua, photographed by Aitor
fig. e Aitor, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 49514047
Renealmia cernua, photographed by Reid Hardin
fig. f Reid Hardin, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 45805358
Renealmia cernua, photographed by Aitor
fig. g Aitor, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 40485499
Renealmia cernua, photographed by Lena Struwe
fig. h Lena Struwe, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 34724414

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 12 botanical countries

Regions where Renealmia cernua is native: Mexico Southeast, Brazil North, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panamá, Peru, Suriname, Venezuela Mexico SoutheastBrazil NorthColombiaCosta RicaEcuadorGuatemalaHondurasNicaraguaPanamáPeruSurinameVenezuela
Native distribution of Renealmia cernua, 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
Brazil North BZN SOUTHERN AMERICA
Colombia CLM
Costa Rica COS
Ecuador ECU
Guatemala GUA
Honduras HON
Nicaragua NIC
Panamá PAN
Peru PER
Suriname SUR
Venezuela VEN
Mexico Southeast MXT NORTHERN AMERICA

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 528 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 13.5 °C 17.9 °C 23.3 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 22.7 °C 27.3 °C 29.8 °C
Annual rainfall 2,310 mm 3,886 mm 5,593 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 112 mm 381 mm 760 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 528 research-grade observations of Renealmia cernua 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 11 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.

  • Alpinia presliana Steud.
  • Alpinia spicata C.Presl
  • Alpinia strobilifera Poepp. & Endl.
  • Calathea strobilifera (K.Koch) Miq.
  • Costus cernuus Sw. ex Roem. & Schult.
  • Costus podocephalus Donn.Sm.
  • Maranta strobilifera Miq.
  • Phrynium strobiliferum (Miq.) K.Koch
  • Phyllodes strobilifera Kuntze
  • Renealmia hygrophila K.Schum.
  • Renealmia strobilifera (Poepp. & Endl.) Poepp. & Endl.

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.