Species
+

Ehretia anacua (Terán & Berl.) I.M.Johnst.

Knockaway, anacua, anacua, anaqua

Climate known 49 photographs
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

Ehretia anacua is medium-sized tree found in eastern Mexico and southern Texas in the United States. It is a member of the family Ehretiaceae. One of its common names, anacua, is derived from the Mexican Spanish word anacahuite, as is that of the related Cordia boissieri, the anacahuita. That word in turn is derived from the Nahuatl words āmatl, meaning "paper," and cuahuitl, meaning "tree," possibly referring to the bark. More on Wikipedia ›

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

About the genus · Ehretia

Ehretia is a genus of flowering plants in the family Ehretiaceae. It contains 66 species native to the tropics and subtropics of the Americas, sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, Papuasia, and Australia. The generic name honors German botanical illustrator Georg Dionysius Ehret (1708–1770).

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

Family
Ehretiaceae
Described by
(Terán & Berl.) I.M.Johnst.
Native to
Texas, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf +1
Wild records
1271 in range· 254 open

At a glance

Warmest month
34°C
Aug, mean day; nights 24 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
759mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Sep 109 mm (CHELSA)
Light
18–43DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: a summer growing season, April to October in the northern hemisphere (April to October at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 759 mm a year, wettest September at 109 mm, driest March at 38 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 18 to 43 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 3.1 °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 Ehretia ciliata Miers; Ehretia elliptica A.DC.; Ehretia exasperata Miers; Ehretia lancifolia Sessé & Moc.; Ehretia scabra Kunth & C.D.Bouché and 1 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, April to October in the northern hemisphere (April 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 (555 mm of 759 mm) falls in April to October, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 25.9 °C against a yearly mean of 21.8 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: October 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 759 mm a year, wettest September at 109 mm, driest March at 38 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

759 mm a year at the habitat, 555 mm of it April to October. Wettest month September at 109 mm, driest March at 38 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 560 mm to 1072 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: 18 to 43 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 18 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 17, the highest 90th-percentile month 43).

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 3.1 °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 3.1 °C, the absolute minimum -6.4 °C, 38 frost nights in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 42.0 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 9.3 °C in January (across the envelope cells 6.3 °C to 13.4 °C), warmest day 34.3 °C in August (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 3.1 °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: 58 to 60% 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 20 °C in Jan to 34 °C in Aug; mean night from 9 °C in Jan to 24 °C in Aug. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 759 mm of rain a year, most in Sep. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 370 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -6.4 °C and the 99th-percentile day 42.0 °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°frost42.0° 99th-percentile day (undated)-6.4° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200mm rainDLI 18–43RH 58–60 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 370 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 °C20 / 17–2322 / 19–2525 / 22–2828 / 26–3130 / 28–3332 / 29–3534 / 29–3634 / 29–3631 / 27–3328 / 26–3023 / 21–2720 / 17–23
Night °C9 / 6–1311 / 8–1514 / 11–1717 / 15–2021 / 18–2323 / 20–2524 / 20–2624 / 20–2622 / 19–2418 / 16–2114 / 12–1810 / 7–15
Rain mm40 / 25–5841 / 17–5738 / 17–6851 / 34–6984 / 55–10391 / 60–14371 / 54–12361 / 48–121109 / 76–19888 / 53–12047 / 18–7838 / 17–63
DLI20 / 19–2524 / 23–3031 / 29–3737 / 35–4039 / 37–4241 / 39–4343 / 40–4341 / 38–4134 / 33–3528 / 26–3022 / 20–2718 / 17–24
RH %58 / 57–6158 / 56–6258 / 54–6158 / 55–6160 / 57–6360 / 57–6458 / 56–6458 / 55–6460 / 57–6458 / 57–6358 / 57–6158 / 56–60

Each figure is the median across the 370 grid cells holding the 1165 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 1286:1595 (25.675, -100.225). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -6.4 °C, 1st-percentile night 3.1 °C, 99th-percentile day 42.0 °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 370 distinct grid cells holding the 1165 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1286:1595 (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_-100.000, lapse-corrected -293 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 493 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.
NativeTexas, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Southwest
Kew's description“tree” · “subtropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker29.677, -98.113 · in the densest population, 698 records (55% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1271 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 254 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 3 km away. 12 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 106 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 1271 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Ehretia anacuaEhretia anacuaEhretia anacuaEhretia anacuaEhretia anacuaEhretia anacuaEhretia anacuaEhretia anacua

Photographs: no rights reserved · CC0 (2); (c) Joseph Aubert, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4); (c) Jane Weeden, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) mattmsa, some rights reserved (CC BY).

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

Riparian Vegetation of the Lower Rio Grande
Robert I. Lonard, Frank W. Judd (2002) · The Southwestern Naturalist
Methods of Enhancing Germination of Anacua Seeds
Timothy E. Fulbright, Kay S. Flenniken, Gary L. Waggerman (1986) · Journal of Range Management
Effect of administration of Ehretia anacua aqueous extract on blood glucose level in alloxan - induced diabetic rat
Oyelade Waheed Abimbola, Oyebode Joseph Ademola, Fajilade Temilade Olawande (2021) · World Journal of Advanced Research and Reviews
Monitoreo de la supervivencia de una reforestación con especies nativas del matorral espinoso tamaulipeco
José Manuel Mata-Balderas, Karen Alejandra Cavada-Prado, Tania Isela Sarmiento Muñoz, Humberto González Rodríguez (2022) · Revista mexicana de ciencias forestales
Dynamics of a Community of Dominant Woody Riparian Species Along a Coastal River of Texas
Nicole A. Davis, Elizabeth H. Smith (2013) · The Southwestern Naturalist
Phytochemical Analysis and Therapeutic Evaluation of Ehretia anacua Against Streptozotocin-Induced Diabetes in Rats
Reda A. Abdelhamid, Mahmoud Hussein, Mohamed E. Abouelela, Lotfy D. Ismail (2024) · Egyptian Journal of Chemistry
Estructura y diversidad del arbolado del Parque Hundido, Monterrey, Nuevo León
Eduardo Alanís-Rodríguez, Gerardo Cuéllar-Rodríguez, Javier Jiménez Pérez, Arturo Mora‐Olivo (2023) · Ecosistemas y Recursos Agropecuarios
Chemical Composition of Woods of 37 Woody Species of Tamaulipan Thorn Scrub, Northeast Mexico: A Case Study
Humberto González Rodríguez, Ratikanta Maiti, Natalya Ivanova, Ch. Aruna Kumari (2020) · Apple Academic Press eBooks
GERMINACION DE ESPECIES DEL MATORRAL ESPINOSO TAMAULIPECO EN UN GRADIENTE DE ALTITUD
Regina Pérez-Domínguez, Enrique Jurado, Marco Aurelio González Tagle, Joel Flores (2018) · Revista mexicana de ciencias forestales
Comparative Leaf Surface Anatomy of Woody Species of Tamaulipan Thornscrub, North-Eastern Mexico and its Possible Relation with Taxonomic Delimitation and Drought Resistance
Universidad Autonoma de Nuevo Leon, Facultad de Ciencias Forestales, Carr. Nac. No. 85 Km. 45, Linares, Nuevo Leon (67 700), Mexico, Humberto González Rodríguez, Ratikanta Maiti, Universidad Autonoma de Nuevo Leon, Facultad de Ciencias Forestales, Carr. Nac. No. 85 Km. 45, Linares, Nuevo Leon (67 700), Mexico (2016) · International Journal of Bio-resource and Stress Management

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 Ehretia 2 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (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 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; 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 40 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.