Species
+

Bromelia pinguin L.

Pinguin, Pingwing, chabchamhuitz, chom

Climate known 68 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

Bromelia pinguin, also called ananas or anana, is a plant species in the genus Bromelia. This species is native to Central America, Mexico, the West Indies, and northern South America. It is also reportedly naturalized in Florida. It is very common in Jamaica, where it is planted as a fence around pasturelands on account of its prickly leaves, and has historically been used as an herbal abortifacient. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Bromelia pinguin”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Bromelia

Bromelia is a genus of about 70 plant species widespread across Latin America and the West Indies. It is the type genus of the family Bromeliaceae, subfamily Bromelioideae, and its type species is B. karatas. Bromelia species are characterized by flowers with a deeply cleft calyx. More on Wikipedia ›

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

Family
Bromeliaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northwest +24
Wild records
1385 in range· 498 open

At a glance

Warmest month
30°C
May, mean day; nights 23 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1296mm/yr
10 wet months · peak Sep 223 mm (CHELSA)
Light
28–42DLI
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 Bromeliaceae, which is usually but not always one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a sharp rainy season, June to October at the habitat (not shifted); the temperature curve is flat (3.9 °C of range), so no growing season is inferred. Habitat rain 1296 mm a year, wettest September at 223 mm, driest February at 22 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 28 to 42 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 18.5 °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 Agallostachys fastuosa (Lindl.) Beer; Agallostachys pinguin (L.) Beer; Ananas pinguin (L.) Gaertn.; Ananas pinguin Trew; Bromelia fastuosa Lindl. and 4 more.

Cultivation

Grouped as a other epiphyte by Bromeliaceae, which is usually but not always 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 sharp rainy season, June to October at the habitat (not shifted); the temperature curve is flat (3.9 °C of range), so no growing season is inferred.

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

The rain rule reads a sharp season: 70% of the year's rain (956 mm of 1296 mm) falls in June to October. The temperature curve is flat, 3.9 °C between the warmest and coldest month, so the growing-season rule does not infer a growing season from it. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; with a flat temperature curve 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 1296 mm a year, wettest September at 223 mm, driest February at 22 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1296 mm a year at the habitat, 956 mm of it June to October. Wettest month September at 223 mm, driest February at 22 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 829 mm to 2602 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: 28 to 42 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 28 to 42 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 23, the highest 90th-percentile month 50).

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 18.5 °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 18.5 °C, the absolute minimum 17.3 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 33.2 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 20.0 °C in January (across the envelope cells 13.0 °C to 23.9 °C), warmest day 30.0 °C in May (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 18.5 °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 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 Jan to 30 °C in May; mean night from 20 °C in Jan to 24 °C in Aug. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1296 mm of rain a year, most in Sep. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 756 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 17.3 °C and the 99th-percentile day 33.2 °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°33.2° 99th-percentile day (undated)17.3° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 28–42RH 59–66 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 756 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 °C27 / 23–3128 / 24–3229 / 25–3330 / 27–3330 / 27–3430 / 27–3430 / 27–3230 / 28–3229 / 27–3129 / 27–3128 / 26–3027 / 24–30
Night °C20 / 13–2420 / 14–2421 / 15–2422 / 17–2523 / 19–2524 / 21–2624 / 20–2624 / 21–2624 / 20–2623 / 20–2522 / 16–2521 / 14–24
Rain mm30 / 6–10522 / 5–8022 / 4–10243 / 2–169117 / 4–297180 / 42–363180 / 104–354205 / 129–338223 / 155–365168 / 79–33670 / 24–20636 / 13–137
DLI30 / 24–3635 / 29–3940 / 34–4342 / 35–4740 / 31–5038 / 29–4437 / 30–4236 / 31–4133 / 30–3832 / 28–3430 / 25–3328 / 23–33
RH %60 / 54–6660 / 54–6559 / 53–6460 / 53–6663 / 54–6764 / 59–6965 / 61–6865 / 62–6966 / 63–7065 / 62–6963 / 59–6862 / 57–66

Each figure is the median across the 756 grid cells holding the 1327 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 1833:1984 (-1.675, -80.775). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 17.3 °C, 1st-percentile night 18.5 °C, 99th-percentile day 33.2 °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 756 distinct grid cells holding the 1327 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1833:1984 (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 -1.50_-80.625, lapse-corrected -34 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 149 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 Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Cayman Is., Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Puerto Rico, Southwest Caribbean, Venezuelan Antilles, Windward Is., Guyana, Surinam, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador· introduced: Florida
Kew's description“perennial” · “seasonally dry tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker23.722, -106.62 · in the densest population, 430 records (31% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1385 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 498 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 1328 km away. 151 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 58 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 1385 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Bromelia pinguinBromelia pinguinBromelia pinguinBromelia pinguinBromelia pinguinBromelia pinguinBromelia pinguinBromelia pinguin

Photographs: (c) Zac Peterson, some rights reserved (CC BY) (5); (c) Olvin Wilfredo Oyuela, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA); (c) Ron Bondy, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (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 Bromelia pinguin, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

The cysteine proteinases of the pineapple plant.
Andrew D. Rowan, David J. Buttle, A. John Barrett (1990) · PubMed
Ants Like Flower Nectar
William A. Haber, Gordon W. Frankie, Herbert G. Baker, Irene Baker (1981) · Biotropica
Antitumor plants. 11. Diterpenoid and flavonoid constituents of Bromelia pinguin L
Robert F. Raffauf, Mary D. Menachery, Philip W. Le Quesne, Eddy Arnold (1981) · The Journal of Organic Chemistry
Isolation, purification, and partial characterization of pinguinain, the proteolytic enyzme from Bromelia pinguin L
E. Toro-Goyco, Andrew Maretzki, M. MATOS (1968) · Archives of Biochemistry and Biophysics
Partial Characterization of the Proteolytic Properties of an Enzymatic Extract From “Aguama” Bromelia pinguin L. Fruit Grown in Mexico
Jesús M. Moreno-Hernández, Xitlalli Desideria Hernández-Mancillas, Evelia Lorena Coss-Navarrete, Miguel A. Mazorra‐Manzano (2016) · Applied Biochemistry and Biotechnology
Purification and Characterization of Four New Cysteine Endopeptidases From Fruits of Bromelia pinguin L. Grown in Cuba
Juan Abreu Payrol, Walter David Obregón, Stephen J. Trejo, Néstor O. Caffini (2007) · The Protein Journal
Bromelia karatas and Bromelia pinguin: sources of plant proteases used for obtaining antioxidant hydrolysates from chicken and fish by-products
Martha Guillermina Romero-Garay, Emmanuel Martínez‐Montaño, Adrián Hernández‐Mendoza, Belinda Vallejo‐Córdoba (2020) · Applied Biological Chemistry
Reinvestigation of the proteolytically active components of Bromelia pinguin fruit
Juan Abreu Payrol, Walter David Obregón, Claudia L. Natalucci, Néstor O. Caffini (2005) · Fitoterapia
Antifungal activity of fruit pulp extract from Bromelia pinguin
Irma Leticia Camacho‐Hernández, J.A Chávez-Velázquez, M.J. Uribe-Beltrán, Antelmo Rı́os-Morgan (2002) · Fitoterapia
Seed and Seedling Predation of Bromelia pinguin L. by the Red Land Crab Gecarcinus lateralis Frem. in Veracruz, Mexico
José G. García‐Franco, Víctor Rico‐Gray, Oscar Zayas (1991) · Biotropica
Physicochemical, Nutritional and Antibacterial Characteristics of the Fruit of Bromelia pinguin L.
Juan Fernando Pío-León, Gabriela López‐Ángulo, Octavio Paredes‐López, Magdalena de Jesús Uribe-Beltrán (2009) · Plant Foods for Human Nutrition

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 93 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.