Species
+

Cistanthe guadalupensis (Dudley) Carolin ex Hershk.

Montiaceae

Climate known 23 photographs Cactus or succulent
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

Cistanthe guadalupensis is a species of caudiciform succulent flowering plant in the family Montiaceae. The plant is native to Guadalupe Island. This species is extremely rare in cultivation, due to its tendency to rot in summer dormancy and its remote island location.

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

About the genus · Cistanthe

Cistanthe is a plant genus which includes most plants known as pussypaws. These are small, succulent flowering plants which often bear brightly colored flowers, though they vary quite a bit between species in appearance. Some species have flowers that are tightly packed into fluffy-looking inflorescences, the trait that gives them their common name.

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

Family
Montiaceae
Described by
(Dudley) Carolin ex Hershk.
Native to
Mexican Pacific Is.
Wild records
36 in range· 21 open

At a glance

Warmest month
20°C
Aug, mean day; nights 19 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
97mm/yr
no wet month · peak Feb 20 mm (CHELSA)
Light
22–46DLI
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 cactus or succulent by the genus Cistanthe, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: no rainy season to read (97 mm a year); the temperature rule's cooler six months are December to May in the northern hemisphere. Habitat rain 97 mm a year, wettest February at 20 mm, driest July at 2 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 22 to 46 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 10.2 °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 Cistanthe guadalupensis (Dudley) Carolin; Talinum guadalupense M.G.Dudley; Talinum guadalupense T.R.Dudley.

Cultivation

Grouped as a cactus or succulent by the genus Cistanthe, 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: no rainy season to read (97 mm a year); the temperature rule's cooler six months are December to May in the northern hemisphere.

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

Rain at the habitat is 97 mm a year (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Under 120 mm the rain rule reads no rainy season, and the growing-season rule infers nothing from it. The temperature rule reads the cooler six months as December to May. Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: June to November.

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 97 mm a year, wettest February at 20 mm, driest July at 2 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

97 mm a year at the habitat. Wettest month February at 20 mm, driest July at 2 mm; 4 months under 5 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 84 mm to 116 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: 22 to 46 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 22 to 46 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 49).

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 10.2 °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 10.2 °C, the absolute minimum 8.9 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 21.5 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 14.0 °C in March (across the envelope cells 13.1 °C to 14.5 °C), warmest day 19.9 °C in August (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 10.2 °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: 61 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 15 °C in Feb to 20 °C in Aug; mean night from 14 °C in Mar to 19 °C in Aug. The cold quarter, Feb to Apr, is the three months around the coldest night. 97 mm of rain a year, most in Feb. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 9 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 8.9 °C and the 99th-percentile day 21.5 °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°21.5° 99th-percentile day (undated)8.9° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0102030mm rainDLI 22–46RH 61–66 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 9 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 °C16 / 14–1615 / 14–1615 / 14–1616 / 15–1617 / 16–1818 / 17–2019 / 19–2120 / 19–2120 / 20–2019 / 19–2018 / 17–1816 / 15–17
Night °C14 / 13–1514 / 12–1514 / 13–1515 / 14–1516 / 15–1717 / 16–1918 / 18–2019 / 19–2019 / 19–1918 / 18–1817 / 16–1715 / 14–16
Rain mm13 / 11–1620 / 17–2410 / 8–115 / 4–63 / 3–43 / 2–3225 / 5–610 / 9–129 / 8–1115 / 13–18
DLI24 / 23–2529 / 29–3036 / 36–3743 / 43–4445 / 44–4646 / 46–4946 / 45–4843 / 43–4539 / 38–3931 / 31–3225 / 25–2622 / 21–23
RH %63 / 52–6463 / 53–6463 / 54–6362 / 53–6363 / 55–6466 / 49–6666 / 46–7066 / 46–7066 / 50–6966 / 53–6862 / 52–6461 / 53–63

Each figure is the median across the 9 grid cells holding the 36 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 1219:1233 (29.025, -118.325). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 8.9 °C, 1st-percentile night 10.2 °C, 99th-percentile day 21.5 °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 9 distinct grid cells holding the 36 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1219:1233 (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 29.00_-118.125, lapse-corrected +379 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 406 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.
NativeMexican Pacific Is.
Kew's description“succulent subshrub or shrub” · “desert or dry shrubland”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker28.876, -118.294 · in the densest population, 36 records (100% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 36 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 21 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 2 km away.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 36 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Cistanthe guadalupensisCistanthe guadalupensisCistanthe guadalupensisCistanthe guadalupensisCistanthe guadalupensisCistanthe guadalupensisCistanthe guadalupensisCistanthe guadalupensis

Photographs: Arizona State University Vascular Plant Herbarium, CC BY, via GBIF; Conveyor Belt, CC0, via GBIF (2); unknown, CC0, via GBIF (5).

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

Xylem heterochrony: an unappreciated key to angiosperm origin and diversifications
Sherwin Carlquist (2009) · Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society
Phylogenetic Assessment and Revised Circumscription of Cistanthe Spach (Portulacaceae)
Mark Hershkovitz (1991) · Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden
Leaf Morphology of Cistanthe Spach (Portulacaceae)
Mark Hershkovitz (1991) · Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden
Island Specialists: Shared Flora of the Alta and Baja California Pacific Islands
Sarah E. Ratay, Sula Vanderplank, Benjamin T. Wilder (2014) · Monographs of the Western North American Naturalist
Laysan Albatross on Guadalupe Island, México: Current Status and Conservation Actions
Julio Hernández-Montoya, Luciana Luna-Mendoza, Alfonso Aguirre‐Muñoz, Federico Méndez‐Sánchez (2014) · Monographs of the Western North American Naturalist
PLANT SCRUBS ASSOCIATIONS OF GUADALUPE ISLAND, MEXICO
Martha Lizeth Ceceña-Sánchez, Alfonso Aguirre‐Muñoz, José Delgadillo-Rodríguez (2018) · Polibotánica
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility

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 Cistanthe 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 answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence search API
climate answered
wikidata 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: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild 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)
inat.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 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)
gbif.media answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
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 10 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.