Species
+

Calathea lutea (Aubl.) E.Mey. ex Schult.

Bijao, Cuban Cigar Plant, Kachibou, Cachibou, pampano

Climate known 56 photographs Tropical foliage plant
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

Calathea lutea, called the bijao, cigar calathea, Cuban cigar, Mexican cigar plant, Habana cigar, and pampano, is a species of flowering plant from the genus Calathea in the family Marantaceae. It is native to Belize, Bolivia, Brazil North, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, French Guiana, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Jamaica, Leeward Is., Mexico, Nicaragua, Panamá, Peru, Puerto Rico, Suriname, Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuela, Venezuelan Antilles and Windward Is.

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

About the genus · Calathea

Calathea is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Marantaceae. They are commonly called calatheas or prayer plants. About 200 species formerly assigned to Calathea are now in the genus Goeppertia. More on Wikipedia ›

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

Family
Marantaceae
Described by
(Aubl.) E.Mey. ex Schult.
Native to
Mexico Gulf, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast +22
Wild records
1217 in range· 636 open

At a glance

Warmest month
29°C
Mar, mean day; nights 22 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
2657mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jun 294 mm (CHELSA)
Light
27–35DLI
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 tropical foliage plant by the genus Calathea, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a sharp rainy season, May to November at the habitat (not shifted); the temperature curve is flat (1.3 °C of range), so no growing season is inferred. Habitat rain 2657 mm a year, wettest June at 294 mm, driest February at 95 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 27 to 35 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 21.2 °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 Calathea cachibou (Jacq.) Lindl.; Calathea cachibou (Jacq.) Lindl. ex Horan.; Calathea discolor G.Mey.; Calathea lutea (Aubl.) E.Mey.; Calathea lutea (Aubl.) G.Mey. and 9 more.

Cultivation

Grouped as a tropical foliage plant by the genus Calathea, 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 sharp rainy season, May to November at the habitat (not shifted); the temperature curve is flat (1.3 °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 (1980 mm of 2657 mm) falls in May to November. The temperature curve is flat, 1.3 °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, 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 2657 mm a year, wettest June at 294 mm, driest February at 95 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

2657 mm a year at the habitat, 1980 mm of it May to November. Wettest month June at 294 mm, driest February at 95 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1613 mm to 4442 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: 27 to 35 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 27 to 35 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 41).

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 21.2 °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 21.2 °C, the absolute minimum 19.4 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 39.9 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 21.5 °C in January (across the envelope cells 17.3 °C to 23.8 °C), warmest day 28.7 °C in March (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 21.2 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER); the archetype table's minimum for a tropical foliage plant, 12 °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: 64 to 69% 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 Dec to 29 °C in Mar; mean night from 22 °C in Jan to 23 °C in May. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 2657 mm of rain a year, most in Jun. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 856 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 19.4 °C and the 99th-percentile day 39.9 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.15°20°25°30°35°40°45°39.9° 99th-percentile day (undated)19.4° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500600mm rainDLI 27–35RH 64–69 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 856 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 / 24–3028 / 25–3129 / 26–3129 / 26–3128 / 25–3128 / 25–3028 / 25–3028 / 25–3028 / 25–3028 / 25–3027 / 24–2927 / 24–29
Night °C22 / 17–2422 / 18–2422 / 18–2423 / 19–2423 / 19–2523 / 18–2522 / 18–2422 / 18–2422 / 18–2422 / 18–2422 / 18–2422 / 18–24
Rain mm111 / 26–32095 / 24–310111 / 30–337188 / 47–393286 / 109–494294 / 98–506283 / 78–504286 / 77–537289 / 104–554294 / 129–598248 / 99–468172 / 65–346
DLI30 / 24–3532 / 28–3735 / 28–4035 / 26–4130 / 24–4028 / 22–3629 / 23–3731 / 25–3731 / 25–3629 / 24–3427 / 23–3228 / 23–33
RH %66 / 58–7165 / 57–7164 / 58–7066 / 59–7268 / 62–7369 / 64–7469 / 63–7469 / 63–7369 / 64–7369 / 64–7469 / 64–7368 / 62–72

Each figure is the median across the 856 grid cells holding the 1192 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 1825:2006 (-1.275, -79.675). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 19.4 °C, 1st-percentile night 21.2 °C, 99th-percentile day 39.9 °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 856 distinct grid cells holding the 1192 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1825:2006 (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_-79.375, lapse-corrected -904 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 35 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 Gulf, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Jamaica, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Puerto Rico, Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuelan Antilles, Windward Is., French Guiana, Guyana, Surinam, Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil North
Kew's description“perennial” · “wet tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker8.62, -83.476 · in the densest population, 282 records (23% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1217 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 636 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 6 km away. 68 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 25 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 1217 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Calathea luteaCalathea luteaCalathea luteaCalathea luteaCalathea luteaCalathea luteaCalathea luteaCalathea lutea

Photographs: (c) Fives, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Andrés Ramírez-Barrera, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Daniel Mesa, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Stevie Steele, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2).

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

Observations on Habitats of Culicoides Larvae in Trinidad, W. I. (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae)
Roger W. Williams (1964) · Annals of the Entomological Society of America
Floral Synorganization and Secondary Pollen Presentation in Four Marantaceae from Costa Rica
Regine Claßen‐Bockhoff, Ariane Heller (2008) · International Journal of Plant Sciences
Leaf movement in Calathea lutea (Marantaceae)
Thomas J. Herbert, Parry B. Larsen (1985) · Oecologia
Insects Inhabiting Two Host Plants,Heliconia strictaHuber (Heliconiaceae) andCalathea luteaSchult (Marantaceae), in Southeastern Peru
Joseph Jalinsky, Riley A. Wertenberger, Thomas A. Radocy, Caroline S. Chaboo (2014) · Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society
Content of carbohydrates in tropical rainforest nectars ofMarantaceaeusing high-performance thin-layer chromatography
Alexander Ruppel, Gertrud E. Morlock (2015) · Journal of Planar Chromatography – Modern TLC
EXTRACTION OF CELLULOSE FIBERS FROM TÓ LEAF PETIOLES (Calathea lutea) AND CHARACTERIZATION
Gloria Ivette Bolio–López, Genaro Cadenas-Madrigal, L. Véleva, R. Falconi (2015)
Are plant species that need gaps for recruitment more attractive to seed-dispersing birds and ants than other species?
Carol C. Horvitz, Marco Aurélio Pizo, Bernardina Bello y Bello, J. LeCorff (2002) · CABI Publishing eBooks
Notizen: The Wax of Calathea lutea (Marantaceae)
Karl Egil Malterud, Eckhard Wollenweber, Luis Diego Gomez P. (1979) · Zeitschrift für Naturforschung C
Teçume d’Amazônia: fortalecimento político das mulheres produzindo vitalidade de conhecimentos tradicionais
Marília de Jesus Silva e Sousa, Nelissa Peralta, Juliana Menegassi Leoni, Maria Marly Das Chagas Oliveira (2017) · Amazônica - Revista de Antropologia

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