Species
+

Furcraea andina Trel.

Asparagaceae

Climate known 41 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

Furcraea andina is a species of flowering plant in the family Asparagaceae. It is native to Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia in South America. The fibres in its leaves, known as fique, are used in making ropes.

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

About the genus · Furcraea

Furcraea is a genus of succulent plants belonging to the family Asparagaceae, native to tropical regions of Mexico, the Caribbean, Central America and northern South America. Some species are also naturalized in parts of Africa, the United States (Florida), Portugal, Thailand, India, and Australia, as well as on various oceanic islands. Plants of this genus are the origin of fique or cabuyo, a natural fiber.

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

Family
Asparagaceae
Described by
Trel.
Native to
Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru
Wild records
642 in range· 74 open

At a glance

Warmest month
18°C
Aug, mean day; nights 9 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1183mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Mar 165 mm (CHELSA)
Light
30–36DLI
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 Furcraea, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a sharp rainy season, October to April at the habitat (not shifted); the temperature curve is flat (0.8 °C of range), so no growing season is inferred. Habitat rain 1183 mm a year, wettest March at 165 mm, driest August at 33 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 30 to 36 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 4.0 °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 Furcraea deledevantii Rivière.

Cultivation

Grouped as a cactus or succulent by the genus Furcraea, 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: a sharp rainy season, October to April at the habitat (not shifted); the temperature curve is flat (0.8 °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 (891 mm of 1183 mm) falls in October to April. The temperature curve is flat, 0.8 °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, southern 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 1183 mm a year, wettest March at 165 mm, driest August at 33 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1183 mm a year at the habitat, 891 mm of it October to April. Wettest month March at 165 mm, driest August at 33 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 854 mm to 2642 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: 30 to 36 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 30 to 36 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 26, the highest 90th-percentile month 39).

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 4.0 °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 4.0 °C, the absolute minimum 2.0 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 20.4 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 8.5 °C in August (across the envelope cells 5.4 °C to 15.4 °C), warmest day 18.0 °C in August (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 4.0 °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 68% 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 17 °C in Jan to 18 °C in Aug; mean night from 9 °C in Aug to 10 °C in Feb. The cold quarter, Jul to Sep, is the three months around the coldest night. 1183 mm of rain a year, most in Mar. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 220 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 2.0 °C and the 99th-percentile day 20.4 °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°20.4° 99th-percentile day (undated)2.0° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 30–36RH 61–68 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 220 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 °C17 / 15–2317 / 15–2317 / 15–2317 / 15–2317 / 15–2317 / 14–2317 / 14–2318 / 15–2318 / 15–2318 / 15–2318 / 15–2317 / 15–23
Night °C10 / 7–1710 / 7–1710 / 7–1710 / 7–1610 / 7–169 / 6–169 / 5–159 / 5–159 / 6–169 / 7–1610 / 7–1610 / 7–17
Rain mm108 / 71–263131 / 88–295165 / 115–356154 / 101–337100 / 45–23160 / 22–15134 / 17–9633 / 19–9265 / 38–148103 / 63–188114 / 71–211116 / 78–233
DLI31 / 26–3632 / 27–3632 / 26–3631 / 26–3530 / 26–3430 / 26–3431 / 27–3534 / 30–3836 / 30–3935 / 29–3934 / 28–3831 / 26–36
RH %67 / 63–7367 / 63–7368 / 63–7268 / 63–7266 / 62–7164 / 59–7162 / 58–7061 / 57–6862 / 58–6965 / 61–7166 / 62–7267 / 63–73

Each figure is the median across the 220 grid cells holding the 632 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 1800:2030 (-0.025, -78.475). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 2.0 °C, 1st-percentile night 4.0 °C, 99th-percentile day 20.4 °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 220 distinct grid cells holding the 632 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1800:2030 (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 0.00_-78.750, lapse-corrected +1012 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 2875 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, Ecuador, Peru
Kew's description“semisucculent subshrub or shrub” · “seasonally dry tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-0.042, -78.446 · in the densest population, 531 records (83% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 642 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 74 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 1 km away. 9 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 10 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 642 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Furcraea andinaFurcraea andinaFurcraea andinaFurcraea andinaFurcraea andinaFurcraea andinaFurcraea andinaFurcraea andina

Photographs: (c) Frank Dietze, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); no rights reserved · CC0 (2); (c) Thibaud Aronson, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (3); (c) Diego F. Cisneros-Heredia, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA).

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

Energy Absorption and Limit Velocity of Epoxy Composites Incorporated with Fique Fabric as Ballistic Armor—A Brief Report
Michelle Souza Oliveira, Fernanda Santos da Luz, Henry Lopera, Lúcio Fábio Cassiano Nascimento (2021) · Polymers
Correlation between the Density and the Diameter of Fique Fibers
Pedro Amoy Netto, Giulio Rodrigues Altoé, Frederico Muylaert Margem, Fábio de Oliveira Braga (2016) · Materials science forum
Study and characterization of the lignocellulosic Fique (Furcraea Andina spp.) fiber
Karen Giovanna Bastidas-Gómez, M. Fernando R. Pereira, César A. Sierra, Hugo Zea (2022) · Cellulose
Agave americana and Furcraea andina : Key Species to Andean Cultures in Ecuador
Lucía de la Torre, Ian Cummins, Eliot Logan–Hines (2018) · Botanical Sciences
TOXICITY OF THE BIOPESTICIDES AGAVE AMERICANA, FURCRAEA ANDINA (ASPARAGACEAE) AND SAPINDUS SAPONARIA (SAPINDACEAE) ON INVADER SNAIL MELANOIDES TUBERCULATA (THIARIDAE)
José Iannacone‍, María Isabel La Torre, Lorena Alvariño, Carla Cepeda (2021) · LA Referencia (Red Federada de Repositorios Institucionales de Publicaciones Científicas)
Effect of fique fibers and its processing by-products on morphology, thermal and mechanical properties of epoxy based biocomposites
Nicolas Centeno-Mesa, Oscar Lombana-Toro, Juan P. Correa‐Aguirre, Miguel A. Hidalgo‐Salazar (2022) · Scientific Reports
Numerical and experimental study of flexural behaviour in polymer composite materials reinforced with natural fique textiles
Fernando Barros, Jefferson Gamboa, G. Díaz, Octavio Andrés González‐Estrada (2019) · Journal of Physics Conference Series
Adobe estabilizado con extracto de cabuya (Furcraea andina)
Benites Zapata, Verónica Beatriz (2017) · Universidad de Piura
TOXICIDAD DE AGAVE AMERICANA Y FURCRAEA ANDINA (ASPARAGACEAE) SOBRE CULEX QUINQUEFASCIATUS (DIPTERA) Y HELEOBIA CUMINGII (MOLLUSCA)
José Iannacone‍, Cindy Cajachagua, Brenda Dueñas, Luis Castillo (2013) · Neotropical Helminthology
Influencia de fibras naturales y sintéticas en la permeabilidad de morteros de cemento - arena, y cemento, cal y arena
Paulina Viera, Dayra Morillo, Jofre Parion (2022) · FIGEMPA Investigación y Desarrollo

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 Furcraea 25 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 14 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.