Species
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Copiapoa cinerea (Phil.) Britton & Rose

Copiapoa de Phil.

Climate known 55 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

Copiapoa cinerea is a species of plant in the genus Copiapoa in the family Cactaceae. The epithet cinerea comes from the Latin word for ash, by reference to the color of the epidermis.

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

About the genus · Copiapoa

Copiapoa is a genus of flowering plants in the cactus family Cactaceae, from the dry coastal deserts, particularly the Atacama Desert, of northern Chile.

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

Family
Cactaceae
Described by
(Phil.) Britton & Rose
Native to
Chile North
Wild records
393 in range· 51 open

At a glance

Warmest month
22°C
Feb, mean day; nights 16 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
48mm/yr
no wet month · peak Jun 8 mm (CHELSA)
Light
26–57DLI
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 Copiapoa, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: no rainy season to read (48 mm a year); the temperature rule's cooler six months are November to April in the northern hemisphere. Habitat rain 48 mm a year, wettest June at 8 mm, driest April at 2 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 26 to 57 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 11.4 °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 Copiapoa cinerea var. albispina F.Ritter; Copiapoa cinerea var. cinerea; Echinocactus cinereus Phil.

Cultivation

Grouped as a cactus or succulent by the genus Copiapoa, 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 (48 mm a year); the temperature rule's cooler six months are November to April in the northern hemisphere.

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

Rain at the habitat is 48 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 May to October. Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-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 48 mm a year, wettest June at 8 mm, driest April at 2 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

48 mm a year at the habitat. Wettest month June at 8 mm, driest April at 2 mm; 9 months under 5 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 23 mm to 79 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: 26 to 57 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 26 to 57 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 25, the highest 90th-percentile month 58).

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 11.4 °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 11.4 °C, the absolute minimum 8.9 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 26.3 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 10.3 °C in July (across the envelope cells 8.4 °C to 12.7 °C), warmest day 22.2 °C in February (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 11.4 °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.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 55 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

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 18 °C in Jul to 22 °C in Feb; mean night from 10 °C in Jul to 16 °C in Feb. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest night. 48 mm of rain a year, most in Jun. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 58 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 8.9 °C and the 99th-percentile day 26.3 °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°26.3° 99th-percentile day (undated)8.9° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter01020mm rainDLI 26–57RH 55–64 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 58 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 °C22 / 20–2522 / 21–2522 / 20–2420 / 19–2219 / 18–2118 / 17–2018 / 16–1918 / 16–2018 / 16–2019 / 17–2120 / 18–2221 / 19–24
Night °C16 / 15–1716 / 15–1716 / 15–1714 / 13–1513 / 11–1411 / 9–1410 / 8–1311 / 10–1311 / 11–1312 / 11–1313 / 13–1415 / 14–16
Rain mm3 / 1–53 / 1–43 / 1–52 / 1–55 / 2–88 / 6–148 / 5–114 / 2–63 / 1–53 / 1–63 / 1–53 / 1–6
DLI55 / 55–5652 / 51–5245 / 44–4637 / 35–3829 / 28–3126 / 25–2828 / 26–2934 / 32–3542 / 41–4350 / 49–5155 / 54–5657 / 56–58
RH %64 / 61–6864 / 61–6864 / 60–6962 / 57–6959 / 53–6755 / 49–6455 / 49–6356 / 51–6458 / 53–6660 / 55–6762 / 58–6863 / 59–68

Each figure is the median across the 58 grid cells holding the 170 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 2307:2190 (-25.375, -70.475). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 8.9 °C, 1st-percentile night 11.4 °C, 99th-percentile day 26.3 °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 58 distinct grid cells holding the 170 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2307:2190 (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 -25.50_-70.625, lapse-corrected -262 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 47 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.
NativeChile North
Kew's description“succulent subshrub” · “desert or dry shrubland”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-25.47, -70.538 · in the densest population, 391 records (99% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 393 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 51 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 50 km away. 223 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 393 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Copiapoa cinereaCopiapoa cinereaCopiapoa cinereaCopiapoa cinereaCopiapoa cinereaCopiapoa cinereaCopiapoa cinereaCopiapoa cinerea

Photographs: (c) Nicolás Villaseca Merino, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (7); no rights reserved · CC0.

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

Plant Surfaces: Structures and Functions for Biomimetic Innovations
Wilhelm Barthlott, Matthias Mail, Bharat Bhushan, Kerstin Koch (2017) · Nano-Micro Letters
The Phytogeography and Ecology of the Coastal Atacama and Peruvian Deserts
Philip W. Rundel, Michael O. Dillon, Beatriz Palma, Harold A. Mooney (1991) · Aliso
Seeds photoblastism and its relationship with some plant traits in 136 cacti taxa
Joel Flores, Enrique Jurado, Leonardo Chapa‐Vargas, Aldo Ceroni Stuva (2010) · Environmental and Experimental Botany
Thermal buffering capacity of the germination phenotype across the environmental envelope of the Cactaceae
Charlotte E. Seal, Matthew I. Daws, Joel Flores, Pablo Ortega–Baes (2017) · Global Change Biology
Dew harvesting efficiency of four species of cacti
Tegwen Malik, R. M. Clement, D.T. Gethin, D. Beysens (2015) · Bioinspiration & Biomimetics
Physiology, genomics, and evolutionary aspects of desert plants
Tapan Kumar Mohanta, Yugal Kishore Mohanta, Prashant Kaushik, Jitesh Kumar (2023) · Journal of Advanced Research
Spatial relationships and competition in a Chilean desert cactus
S. L. Gulmon, Philip W. Rundel, James R. Ehleringer, Harold A. Mooney (1979) · Oecologia
An integrative approach to understanding the evolution and diversity of Copiapoa (Cactaceae), a threatened endemic Chilean genus from the Atacama Desert
Isabel Larridon, Helmut E. Walter, Pablo C. Guerrero, Milén Duarte (2015) · American Journal of Botany
Myxomycetes collected in the first phase of a North-South transect of Chile
Carlos Lado, Arturo Estrada‐Torres, SL Stephenson (2007) · DIGITAL.CSIC (Spanish National Research Council (CSIC))
Hierarchical structures of cactus spines that aid in the directional movement of dew droplets
Tegwen Malik, R. M. Clement, D.T. Gethin, Matthew C. Kiernan (2016) · Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A Mathematical Physical and Engineering Sciences

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 Copiapoa 27 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 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 10 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.