Trichilia pallidaSw.

gaita

WFO wfo-0000455741 Accepted WFO 2026-06 4 photographs CC0

Plate 1 figs. a–d · 1 observation

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 1 time, 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.

Trichilia pallida, photographed by Étienne Lacroix-Carignan
fig. a Étienne Lacroix-Carignan, CC0 1.0 / 2019-04-08 / obs. 40399945
Trichilia pallida, photographed by Étienne Lacroix-Carignan
fig. b Étienne Lacroix-Carignan, CC0 1.0 / obs. 40399954
Trichilia pallida, photographed by Étienne Lacroix-Carignan
fig. c Étienne Lacroix-Carignan, CC0 1.0 / obs. 40399964
Trichilia pallida, photographed by Étienne Lacroix-Carignan
fig. d Étienne Lacroix-Carignan, CC0 1.0 / obs. 66897394

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 32 botanical countries

Regions where Trichilia pallida is native: Mexico Gulf, Mexico Southeast, Mexico Southwest, Argentina Northeast, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil North, Brazil Northeast, Brazil South, Brazil Southeast, Brazil West-Central, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Leeward Is., Nicaragua, Panamá, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Suriname, Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuela, Windward Is. Mexico GulfMexico SoutheastMexico SouthwestArgentina NortheastBelizeBoliviaBrazil NorthBrazil NortheastBrazil SouthBrazil SoutheastBrazil West-CentralColombiaCosta RicaCubaDominican RepublicEcuadorEl SalvadorFrench GuianaGuatemalaGuyanaHaitiHondurasNicaraguaPanamáParaguayPeruPuerto RicoSurinameTrinidad-TobagoVenezuela Leeward Is.Windward Is.
Native distribution of Trichilia pallida, 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
Cuba CUB
Dominican Republic DOM
Ecuador ECU
El Salvador ELS
French Guiana FRG
Guatemala GUA
Guyana GUY
Haiti HAI
Honduras HON
Leeward Is. LEE
Nicaragua NIC
Panamá PAN
Paraguay PAR
Peru PER
Puerto Rico PUE
Suriname SUR
Trinidad-Tobago TRT
Venezuela VEN
Windward Is. WIN
Mexico Gulf MXG NORTHERN AMERICA
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 135 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 11.9 °C 16.9 °C 22.7 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 25.6 °C 29.4 °C 31.7 °C
Annual rainfall 1,347 mm 1,818 mm 2,838 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 37 mm 279 mm 464 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 135 research-grade observations of Trichilia pallida 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 39 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.

  • Guarea obtusifolia Lam.
  • Hedwigia simplicifolia Spreng.
  • Pholacilia diversifolia (A.Juss.) Griseb.
  • Pholacilia trinitensis (A.Juss.) Griseb.
  • Portesia diversifolia M.Roem.
  • Portesia echinocarpa de Vriese
  • Portesia montana M.Roem.
  • Portesia ovata Cav.
  • Portesia simplicifolia (Spreng.) M.Roem.
  • Portesia trinitensis (A.Juss.) M.Roem.
  • Trichilia brachystachya Klotzsch ex C.DC.
  • Trichilia brasiensis P.T.Li & X.M.Chen
  • Trichilia davisii Sandwith
  • Trichilia diversifolia A.Juss.
  • Trichilia echinocarpa (de Vriese) Walp.
  • Trichilia excelsa Benth.
  • Trichilia flava C.DC.
  • Trichilia gigantophylla Harms
  • Trichilia goudotiana Triana & Planch.
  • Trichilia laminensis Barb.Rodr.
  • Trichilia macrophylla Benth.
  • Trichilia microphylla Walp.
  • Trichilia mollis C.DC.
  • Trichilia montana Kunth

and 15 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. 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.