Roupala montanaAubl.

WFO wfo-0000403899 Accepted WFO 2026-06 3 photographs CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–c · 2 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 2 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.

Roupala montana, photographed by keesgroenendijk
fig. a keesgroenendijk, CC BY 4.0 / 2021-11-28 / obs. 170739108
Roupala montana, photographed by keesgroenendijk
fig. b keesgroenendijk, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 170739149
Roupala montana, photographed by Leonardo Bergamini
fig. c Leonardo Bergamini, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 165565776

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 28 botanical countries

Regions where Roupala montana is native: Mexico Central, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Southeast, Mexico Southwest, Argentina Northeast, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil North, Brazil Northeast, Brazil South, Brazil Southeast, Brazil West-Central, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panamá, Peru, Suriname, Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuela, Venezuelan Antilles Mexico CentralMexico GulfMexico NortheastMexico SoutheastMexico SouthwestArgentina NortheastBelizeBoliviaBrazil NorthBrazil NortheastBrazil SouthBrazil SoutheastBrazil West-CentralColombiaCosta RicaEcuadorEl SalvadorFrench GuianaGuatemalaGuyanaHondurasNicaraguaPanamáPeruSurinameTrinidad-TobagoVenezuela Venezuelan Antilles
Native distribution of Roupala montana, 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
Belize BLZ
Bolivia BOL
Brazil North BZN
Brazil Northeast BZE
Brazil South BZS
Brazil Southeast BZL
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
Peru PER
Suriname SUR
Trinidad-Tobago TRT
Venezuela VEN
Venezuelan Antilles VNA
Mexico Central MXC NORTHERN AMERICA
Mexico Gulf MXG
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.

Also published as 47 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.

  • Embothrium chaparro Humb.
  • Embothrium curvatum Willd. ex Roem. & Schult.
  • Roupala adiantifolia Klotzsch
  • Roupala arvensis Barb.Rodr.
  • Roupala boissieriana Meisn.
  • Roupala borealis Hemsl.
  • Roupala brasiliensis Klotzsch
  • Roupala brasiliensis var. velutina (Klotzsch) Meisn.
  • Roupala cataractarum Sleumer
  • Roupala complicata Kunth
  • Roupala corcovadensis hort. ex Meisn.
  • Roupala darienensis Pittier
  • Roupala dentata R.Br.
  • Roupala dentigera Knight
  • Roupala discolor Rusby
  • Roupala dissimilis Pittier
  • Roupala frondosa Rich. ex Meisn.
  • Roupala gardneri Meisn.
  • Roupala gardneri var. integrifolia Meisn.
  • Roupala glabrata Klotzsch ex Meisn.
  • Roupala grandifolia Klotzsch
  • Roupala heterophylla Pohl
  • Roupala macrophylla Pohl
  • Roupala macropoda Klotzsch

and 23 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. 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.