Species
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Copernicia alba Morong

Caranday Palm, copernicia, Carandá

Climate known 39 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

Copernicia alba is a South American species of palm tree, which is found in the Humid Chaco ecoregion in Bolivia, Paraguay, Colombia, Brazil and Argentina. They often, but not always, form dense single-species woodlands. Its common names in Spanish show the various colours that the trunk takes according to its environment: palma blanca, palma negra, palma colorada. In Guaraní, it is called caranday, "water palm". More on Wikipedia ›

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

About the genus · Copernicia

Copernicia is a genus of palms native to South America and the Greater Antilles. Of the known species and nothospecies (hybrids), 22 of the 27 are endemic to Cuba. They are fan palms, with the leaves with a bare petiole terminating in a rounded fan of numerous leaflets. More on Wikipedia ›

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

Family
Arecaceae
Described by
Morong
Native to
Bolivia, Brazil West-Central, Argentina Northeast +1
Wild records
998 in range· 285 open

At a glance

Warmest month
32°C
Jan, mean day; nights 23 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1378mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Nov 170 mm (CHELSA)
Light
17–43DLI
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 Arecaceae, which is usually but not always one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a summer growing season, April to October in the northern hemisphere (October to April at the habitat, southern). Habitat rain 1378 mm a year, wettest November at 170 mm, driest July at 34 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 17 to 43 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 12 °C (archetype minimum for a tropical foliage plant, above the 3.1 °C habitat night).
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 Copernicia australis Becc.; Copernicia australis var. alba (Morong ex Morong & Britton) Bertoni; Copernicia australis var. nigra (Morong) Bertoni; Copernicia nigra Morong; Copernicia ramulosa Burret and 2 more.

Cultivation

Grouped as a tropical foliage plant by Arecaceae, 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 summer growing season, April to October in the northern hemisphere (October to April at the habitat, southern).

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 (1096 mm of 1378 mm) falls in October to April, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 25.5 °C against a yearly mean of 22.7 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: April to October.

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 1378 mm a year, wettest November at 170 mm, driest July at 34 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1378 mm a year at the habitat, 1096 mm of it October to April. Wettest month November at 170 mm, driest July at 34 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1037 mm to 1613 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: 17 to 43 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 17 to 43 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 16, the highest 90th-percentile month 45).

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 12 °C (archetype minimum for a tropical foliage plant, above the 3.1 °C habitat night).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 3.1 °C, the absolute minimum -1.6 °C, 18 frost nights in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 41.6 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 13.2 °C in July (across the envelope cells 10.5 °C to 18.1 °C), warmest day 31.7 °C in January (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 12 °C. The habitat figure, the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER), is 3.1 °C; the archetype table's conventional minimum for a tropical foliage plant (grouped by Arecaceae, which is usually but not always one kind of plant) is 12 °C, which is higher, and the floor rule takes the higher.

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: 57 to 62% 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 22 °C in Jul to 32 °C in Jan; mean night from 13 °C in Jul to 23 °C in Jan. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest night. 1378 mm of rain a year, most in Nov. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 409 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -1.6 °C and the 99th-percentile day 41.6 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-10°10°20°30°40°50°frost41.6° 99th-percentile day (undated)-1.6° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250300mm rainDLI 17–43RH 57–62 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 409 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 °C32 / 31–3331 / 30–3230 / 29–3127 / 25–3024 / 22–2822 / 19–2722 / 19–2825 / 22–3026 / 23–3129 / 26–3230 / 28–3231 / 30–32
Night °C23 / 22–2423 / 21–2422 / 20–2419 / 17–2216 / 14–2014 / 12–1913 / 11–1815 / 12–2016 / 13–2119 / 16–2320 / 18–2322 / 21–24
Rain mm162 / 140–256152 / 125–189157 / 124–198158 / 75–19588 / 47–11455 / 21–7234 / 13–5336 / 19–4969 / 40–103132 / 80–152170 / 118–189165 / 138–210
DLI42 / 35–4438 / 35–3933 / 31–3526 / 24–3121 / 20–2617 / 16–2520 / 19–2825 / 24–3230 / 30–3536 / 35–3740 / 37–4243 / 36–45
RH %59 / 57–6560 / 59–6560 / 60–6562 / 60–6361 / 60–6262 / 59–6360 / 55–6158 / 53–5957 / 53–5858 / 56–5958 / 57–6159 / 57–64

Each figure is the median across the 409 grid cells holding the 975 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 2303:2436 (-25.175, -58.175). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -1.6 °C, 1st-percentile night 3.1 °C, 99th-percentile day 41.6 °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 409 distinct grid cells holding the 975 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2303:2436 (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 -25.00_-58.125, lapse-corrected -4 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 73 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.
NativeBolivia, Brazil West-Central, Argentina Northeast, Paraguay
Kew's description“tree” · “seasonally dry tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-25.973, -58.199 · in the densest population, 553 records (55% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 998 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 285 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 146 km away. 5 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 23 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 2° block of the 998 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

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Photographs: (c) Eduardo Luis Beltrocco, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Thomaz Ricardo Favreto Sinani, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); no rights reserved · CC0 (2); (c) Tomás Tamagno, 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 Copernicia alba, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Impacts of large herbivores on spinescence and abundance of palms in the Pantanal, Brazil
Bastian Göldel, Andréa Cardoso Araujo, W. Daniel Kissling, Jens‐Christian Svenning (2016) · Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society
Botanical and geographical origin of honey from the dry and humid Chaco ecoregions (Argentina)
Cristina R. Salgado Laurenti, Marı́a Cristina Tellerı́a, Juan Manuel Coronel (2017) · Grana
STRUCTURE OF TWO COMMUNITIES DOMINATED BY COPERNICIA ALBA AND ASSOCIATIONS WITH SOIL AND INUNDATION IN PANTANAL WETLAND, BRAZIL
Gisaine Andrade Amador, Geraldo Alves Damasceno‐Júnior, José Carlos Casagrande, Ângela Lúcia Bagnatori Sartori (2012) · Oecologia Australis
Climate change impacts on the Copernicia alba and Copernicia prunifera (Arecaceae) distribution in South America
Marcones Ferreira Costa, Ana Flávia Francisconi, Maurício Humberto Vancine, Maria Imaculada Zucchi (2022) · Revista Brasileira de Botânica
Germinação e armazenamento de sementes de carandá (Copernicia alba)
Tathiana Elisa Masetto, Silvana de Paula Quintão Scalon, Josué Quadros de Brito, Fernando Henrique Moreira (2012) · CERNE
CONHECIMENTO LOCAL SOBRE PLANTAS ALIMENTÍCIAS NATIVAS NO CHACO BRASILEIRO
Ieda Maria Bortolotto, Elidiene Priscila Seleme, Ivanda Piffer Pavão de Araújo, Simone de Souza Moura (2019) · Oecologia Australis
Assessment of Freezing Injury in Palm Species by Chlorophyll Fluorescence
María A. Equiza, David A. Francko (2010) · HortScience
Fitofisionomias dominantes em parte das sub-regiões do Nabileque e Miranda, Sul do Pantanal
João dos Santos Vila da Silva, Myrian de Moura Abdon, Araê Boock, Marta Pereira da Silva (1998) · Pesquisa Agropecuária Brasileira
Phenology of Copernicia alba in Flooded and Not Flooded Environments
Maicon Marinho Vieira Araujo, Francisco de Almeida Lobo (2020) · Floresta e Ambiente
Complete chloroplast genomes of six neotropical palm species, structural comparison, and evolutionary dynamic patterns
Ana Flávia Francisconi, Jonathan Andre Morales Marroquín, Luiz Augusto Cauz‐Santos, Cássio van den Berg (2023) · Scientific Reports

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