Species
+

Bixa orellana L.

Achiote

Climate known 70 photographs
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

Bixa orellana, also known as achiote, is a shrub or small tree native to Mexico and Central and South America. Bixa orellana is grown in many countries worldwide.

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

About the genus · Bixa

Bixa is a genus of plants in the family Bixaceae. It is native to Mexico, Central America, Caribbean, and South America, and naturalized in other places.

Text from Wikipedia, “Bixa”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Bixaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf +25
Wild records
1329 in range· 858 open

At a glance

Warmest month
29°C
Mar, mean day; nights 21 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1861mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Dec 176 mm (CHELSA)
Light
28–34DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (June to January at the habitat (not shifted)). Habitat rain 1861 mm a year, wettest December at 176 mm, driest April at 116 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 28 to 34 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 13.2 °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 Bixa acuminata Bojer; Bixa americana Poir.; Bixa katangensis Delpierre; Bixa odorata Ruiz & Pav. ex G.Don; Bixa orellana f. leiocarpa (Kuntze) J.F.Macbr. and 11 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (June to January at the habitat (not shifted)).

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

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (1324 mm of 1861 mm) takes 8 months, June to January. Mean temperature moves 1.2 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere, within 10° of the equator; with no thermal season there there is no season to reverse, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

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 1861 mm a year, wettest December at 176 mm, driest April at 116 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1861 mm a year at the habitat, 1324 mm of it June to January. Wettest month December at 176 mm, driest April at 116 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1185 mm to 3591 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, southern 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: 28 to 34 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 28 to 34 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 21, the highest 90th-percentile month 42).

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 13.2 °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 13.2 °C, the absolute minimum 9.7 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 40.0 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 20.7 °C in July (across the envelope cells 12.5 °C to 24.1 °C), warmest day 28.7 °C in March (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 13.2 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

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. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 64 to 66% 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 27 °C in Jul to 29 °C in Mar; mean night from 21 °C in Jul to 22 °C in Apr. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest night. 1861 mm of rain a year, most in Dec. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 1131 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 9.7 °C and the 99th-percentile day 40.0 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°20°30°40°50°40.0° 99th-percentile day (undated)9.7° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 28–34RH 64–66 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 1131 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 °C28 / 24–3128 / 25–3129 / 26–3229 / 25–3328 / 23–3327 / 22–3127 / 22–3128 / 23–3228 / 24–3228 / 24–3128 / 24–3028 / 24–30
Night °C21 / 16–2421 / 16–2421 / 17–2422 / 17–2422 / 15–2421 / 13–2421 / 13–2421 / 13–2421 / 15–2422 / 16–2421 / 17–2421 / 17–24
Rain mm161 / 23–335138 / 14–315153 / 14–337116 / 30–372130 / 42–379175 / 25–418161 / 15–404160 / 20–396167 / 45–418160 / 65–390164 / 33–333176 / 25–316
DLI32 / 25–3734 / 28–3934 / 29–4131 / 26–4229 / 23–4128 / 21–3729 / 22–3832 / 27–3832 / 28–3832 / 26–3932 / 25–3931 / 23–37
RH %65 / 58–7064 / 57–7064 / 56–7164 / 57–7165 / 57–7266 / 58–7365 / 56–7265 / 54–7266 / 56–7266 / 58–7265 / 60–7265 / 59–70

Each figure is the median across the 1131 grid cells holding the 1294 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 1394:1809 (20.275, -89.525). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 9.7 °C, 1st-percentile night 13.2 °C, 99th-percentile day 40.0 °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 1131 distinct grid cells holding the 1294 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1394:1809 (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_-89.375, lapse-corrected +24 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 53 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 Northwest, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, French Guiana, Guyana, Surinam, Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil West-Central, Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast, Brazil North, Argentina Northeast, Argentina Northwest, Paraguay· introduced: Benin, Burkina, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Central African Republic, Congo, Gabon, Gulf of Guinea Is., Zaïre, Chad, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Angola, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Comoros, Mauritius, Réunion, China South-Central, China Southeast, Taiwan, Assam, Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Myanmar, Nicobar Is., Thailand, Christmas I., New Caledonia, Samoa, Vanuatu, Wallis-Futuna Is., Society Is., Caroline Is., Marianas, Hawaii, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Puerto Rico, Southwest Caribbean, Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuelan Antilles, Windward Is., Galápagos
Kew's description“shrub or tree” · “wet tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-0.467, -76.667 · in the densest population, 276 records (21% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1329 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 858 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 4132 km away. 438 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 35 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 inside the densest 4° block of the 1329 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Bixa orellanaBixa orellanaBixa orellanaBixa orellanaBixa orellanaBixa orellanaBixa orellanaBixa orellana

Photographs: (c) Diogo Luiz, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Zac Peterson, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Sean Vanderluit, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2).

Photographs: iNaturalist 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 Bixa orellana, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Ethnomedicines used in Trinidad and Tobago for urinary problems and diabetes mellitus
Cheryl Lans (2006) · Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine
Relative Inhibition of Lipid Peroxidation, Cyclooxygenase Enzymes, and Human Tumor Cell Proliferation by Natural Food Colors
Muntha K. Reddy, Ruby Alexander-Lindo, Muraleedharan G. Nair (2005) · Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
Biosynthesis of the Food and Cosmetic Plant Pigment Bixin (Annatto)
Florence Bouvier, Odette Dogbo, Bilal Camara (2003) · Science
Antimicrobial Activity of Annatto (Bixa orellana) Extract
O.N. Irobi, Murray Moo‐Young, William A. Anderson (1996) · Pharmaceutical Biology
Phytochemistry, biological activities and potential of annatto in natural colorant production for industrial applications – A review
Shahid Ul Islam, Luqman Jameel Rather, Faqeer Mohammad (2015) · Journal of Advanced Research
Hepatoprotective Activity of Methanol Extract of Some Medicinal Plants Against Carbon Tetrachloride Induced Hepatotoxicity in Albino Rats
Rajib Ahsan, K.M. Monirul Islam, Israt Jahan Bulbul, Ashik Musaddik (2009) · European journal of scientific research
Aromatic plants of Tropical Central Africa. Part XXXII. Chemical composition and antifungal activity of thirteen essential oils from aromatic plants of Cameroon
P. H. Amvam Zollo, L. Biyiti, François Tchoumbougnang, Chantal Menut (1998) · Flavour and Fragrance Journal
Evaluation of Traditional Indian Antidiabetic Medicinal Plants for Human Pancreatic Amylase Inhibitory Effect In Vitro
Sudha Ponnusamy, Remya Ravindran, Smita Zinjarde, Shobha Bhargava (2010) · Evidence-based Complementary and Alternative Medicine

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.

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 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)
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 220 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.