Species
+

Aechmea bracteata (Sw.) Griseb.

chacana, cócom-huey, vase bromeliad

Climate known 53 photographs Other epiphyte
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Aechmea bracteata is a plant species in the genus Aechmea. This species is native to Central America, Mexico, Colombia, and Venezuela; it is also reportedly naturalized in the Bahamas.

Text from Wikipedia, “Aechmea bracteata”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Aechmea

Aechmea is a genus of flowering plants in the family Bromeliaceae. The name comes from the Greek aichme, meaning "spear". Suggested pronunciations include EEK-me-ə and eek-MEE-ə. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Aechmea”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Bromeliaceae
Described by
(Sw.) Griseb.
Native to
Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf +10
Wild records
1507 in range· 648 open

At a glance

Warmest month
31°C
May, mean day; nights 23 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1415mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Sep 249 mm (CHELSA)
Light
24–40DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a other epiphyte by the genus Aechmea, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a summer growing season, June to October in the northern hemisphere (June to October at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 1415 mm a year, wettest September at 249 mm, driest March at 35 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 24 to 40 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 13.4 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Aechmea barleei Baker; Aechmea bracteata var. bracteata; Aechmea bracteata var. pacifica Beutelsp.; Aechmea isabellina Baker; Aechmea laxiflora Benth. and 9 more.

Cultivation

Grouped as a other epiphyte by the genus Aechmea, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). The table supplies one figure for this group, a conventional minimum for the cold floor, and no prose.

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, June to October in the northern hemisphere (June to October at the habitat, northern).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (1019 mm of 1415 mm) falls in June to October, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 26.6 °C against a yearly mean of 25.3 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December to April.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 1415 mm a year, wettest September at 249 mm, driest March at 35 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1415 mm a year at the habitat, 1019 mm of it June to October. Wettest month September at 249 mm, driest March at 35 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1064 mm to 2533 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 24 to 40 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 24 to 40 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 22, the highest 90th-percentile month 47).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor 13.4 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 13.4 °C, the absolute minimum 10.0 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 39.6 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 18.7 °C in January (across the envelope cells 13.8 °C to 21.1 °C), warmest day 31.4 °C in May (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 13.4 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER); the archetype table's minimum for a other epiphyte, 10 °C, is lower and does not raise it.

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence, and the archetype table's group minimum where that is higher. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 59 to 67% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 26 °C in Jan to 31 °C in May; mean night from 19 °C in Jan to 24 °C in Jun. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1415 mm of rain a year, most in Sep. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 894 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 10.0 °C and the 99th-percentile day 39.6 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°15°20°25°30°35°40°45°39.6° 99th-percentile day (undated)10.0° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 24–40RH 59–67 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 894 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C26 / 23–2927 / 24–3029 / 26–3331 / 28–3431 / 28–3530 / 27–3330 / 27–3330 / 27–3329 / 26–3228 / 26–3027 / 25–2926 / 23–29
Night °C19 / 14–2119 / 14–2220 / 15–2222 / 17–2423 / 19–2524 / 20–2523 / 20–2523 / 20–2523 / 20–2522 / 18–2421 / 16–2319 / 15–22
Rain mm49 / 27–12439 / 15–8835 / 5–6343 / 3–7298 / 17–162195 / 142–331198 / 129–386206 / 145–376249 / 185–401171 / 106–31578 / 25–21754 / 19–157
DLI25 / 22–3130 / 27–3636 / 34–4340 / 37–4740 / 37–4737 / 33–3937 / 32–4036 / 32–3932 / 29–3529 / 27–3226 / 24–3124 / 22–29
RH %63 / 57–6861 / 56–6760 / 54–6559 / 54–6561 / 56–6665 / 61–6966 / 61–7165 / 62–7167 / 64–7166 / 62–7064 / 60–6963 / 58–69

Each figure is the median across the 894 grid cells holding the 1456 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1388:1828 (20.575, -88.575). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 10.0 °C, 1st-percentile night 13.4 °C, 99th-percentile day 39.6 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 894 distinct grid cells holding the 1456 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1388:1828 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 20.50_-88.750, lapse-corrected -1 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 27 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeMexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Belize, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Venezuela, Colombia· introduced: Bahamas
Kew's description“epiphyte” · “seasonally dry tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker20.56, -88.56 · in the densest population, 420 records (28% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1507 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 648 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 7 km away. 6 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 51 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 1507 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Aechmea bracteataAechmea bracteataAechmea bracteataAechmea bracteataAechmea bracteataAechmea bracteataAechmea bracteataAechmea bracteata

Photographs: (c) Ricard Busquets Reverte, some rights reserved (CC BY) (8).

Photographs: iNaturalist and Wikimedia Commons did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Aechmea bracteata, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Water relations of evergreen and drought-deciduous trees along a seasonally dry tropical forest chronosequence
Niles J. Hasselquist, Michael F. Allen, Louis S. Santiago (2010) · Oecologia
A pantropical analysis of the impacts of forest degradation and conversion on local temperature
Rebecca A. Senior, Jane K. Hill, Pamela González‐del‐Pliego, L. K. Goode (2017) · Ecology and Evolution
Los manglares de México: una revisión
Jorge López‐Portillo, Exequiel Ezcurra (2016) · Madera y Bosques
Bromeliad ornamental species: conservation issues and challenges related to commercialization
Raquel Rejane Bonato Negrelle, Adilson Anacleto, Darcy Mitchell (2011) · Acta Scientiarum Biological Sciences
The contribution of microorganisms and metazoans to mineral nutrition in bromeliads
Céline Leroy, Jean‐François Carrias, Régis Céréghino, Bruno Corbara (2015) · Journal of Plant Ecology
Ecological studies on Aechmea bracteata (Swartz) (Bromeliaceae)
Alain Déjean, Ingrid Olmsted (1997) · Journal of Natural History
La familia Bromeliaceae en México
Adolfo Espejo‐Serna, Ana Rosa López‐Ferrari (2018) · Botanical Sciences
Natural History of the Neotropical Arboreal Ant,Odontomachus hastatus: Nest Sites, Foraging Schedule, and Diet
Rafael X. De Camargo, Paulo S. Oliveira (2012) · Journal of Insect Science
A PRELIMINARY CHECKLIST OF THE VASCULAR PLANTS OF THE CHIQUIBUL FOREST, BELIZE
Samuel Bridgewater, David J. Harris, Caroline Whitefoord, Alexandre K. Monro (2006) · Edinburgh Journal of Botany
Relacionamento entre anfíbios anuros e bromélias da restinga de Regência, Linhares, Espírito Santo, Brasil
J. A. P. SCHINEIDER, Rogério L. Teixeira (2001) · Iheringia Série Zoologia
Time‐traveling seeds reveal that plant regeneration and growth traits are responding to climate change
Susan E. Everingham, Catherine A. Offord, Manon Sabot, Angela T. Moles (2020) · Ecology

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Aechmea 4 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 65 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.