Bursera simaruba (L.) Sarg.
Almacigo, Balsam Tree, Chaca o chacah, Chacaj
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
Bursera simaruba, the gumbo-limbo, copperwood, tourist tree, turpentine tree, almácigo, or West Indian birch, is a tree species in the family Burseraceae. It is native to the Neotropics, from South Florida to Mexico and the Caribbean to Brazil, Nicaragua, and Venezuela. Bursera simaruba is prevalent in the Petenes mangroves ecoregion of the Yucatán, where it is a subdominant plant species to the mangroves. In the United States, specimens may be found along the regions adjacent to the Gulf of Mexico and extending down the western coast of Florida.
Text from Wikipedia, “Bursera simaruba”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.
About the genus · Bursera
Bursera is a genus with about 100 described species of flowering shrubs and trees varying in size up to 25 m (82 ft) high. It is the type genus for Burseraceae. The trees are native to the Americas, from the southern United States south through to northern Argentina, in tropical and warm temperate forest habitats. More on Wikipedia ›
The opening of Wikipedia, “Bursera”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.
At a glance
Also known as Bursera bonairensis Bold.; Bursera gummifera Jacq.; Bursera gummifera L.; Bursera gummifera var. glabrata Griseb.; Bursera gummifera var. polyphylla DC. and 13 more.
Cultivation
Grouped as a cactus or succulent by the genus Bursera, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). The table holds no figure for this group, which spans too much for one minimum; the cold floor is the habitat's alone, and no prose comes from the table.
Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, May to October in the northern hemisphere (May 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 (1069 mm of 1454 mm) falls in May to October, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 26.7 °C against a yearly mean of 24.8 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November 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 1454 mm a year, wettest September at 222 mm, driest January at 53 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
1454 mm a year at the habitat, 1069 mm of it May to October. Wettest month September at 222 mm, driest January at 53 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1095 mm to 2326 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 41 mol/m²/day.
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
Open sky over the habitat: 24 to 41 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 20, the highest 90th-percentile month 44).
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 14.4 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 14.4 °C, the absolute minimum 11.3 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 40.0 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 18.9 °C in January (across the envelope cells 14.4 °C to 24.2 °C), warmest day 29.4 °C in August (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 14.4 °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.
Relative humidity at the habitat: 60 to 64% 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
Figures by month
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day °C | 25 / 22–28 | 25 / 23–29 | 26 / 23–30 | 27 / 25–32 | 28 / 26–32 | 29 / 27–31 | 29 / 27–31 | 29 / 27–31 | 29 / 27–30 | 28 / 26–29 | 27 / 25–28 | 25 / 23–28 |
| Night °C | 19 / 14–24 | 20 / 15–24 | 20 / 17–24 | 22 / 19–25 | 23 / 20–25 | 25 / 21–26 | 25 / 20–27 | 25 / 20–27 | 25 / 20–26 | 24 / 19–26 | 22 / 18–25 | 20 / 16–25 |
| Rain mm | 53 / 25–116 | 54 / 17–82 | 60 / 14–104 | 70 / 27–130 | 122 / 57–233 | 199 / 100–286 | 174 / 96–310 | 201 / 120–315 | 222 / 152–346 | 151 / 100–297 | 89 / 45–232 | 59 / 26–156 |
| DLI | 26 / 22–34 | 30 / 27–37 | 36 / 33–41 | 41 / 38–44 | 41 / 35–44 | 39 / 32–42 | 40 / 33–43 | 38 / 33–41 | 33 / 30–38 | 30 / 27–34 | 26 / 23–32 | 24 / 20–31 |
| RH % | 60 / 58–66 | 60 / 58–65 | 60 / 57–63 | 60 / 57–65 | 62 / 59–67 | 64 / 62–69 | 63 / 62–68 | 64 / 62–68 | 64 / 63–70 | 64 / 61–69 | 62 / 59–68 | 61 / 58–67 |
Each figure is the median across the 426 grid cells holding the 720 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 1380:1807 (20.975, -89.625). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 11.3 °C, 1st-percentile night 14.4 °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 426 distinct grid cells holding the 720 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1380:1807 (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 21.00_-89.375, lapse-corrected -2 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 9 m (cell mean).
Natural habitat
Photographs
Photographs: (c) Douglas Goldman, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (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 Bursera simaruba, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.
Related
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.
Stachytarpheta jamaicensis Brazilian-tea
Swietenia mahagoni American Mahogany
Clusia rosea Florida Clusia
Turnera ulmifolia Ramgoat Dashalong Agave offoyana Asparagaceae
Pinguicula albida White ButterwortOther Bursera 1 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 answeredgbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence search APIclimate answeredwikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried 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: skippedinat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skippedinat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried 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 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)gbif.media answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skippedopenalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skippedEvery upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 4 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.