Species
+

Goeppertia majestica (Linden) Borchs. & S.Suárez

Marantaceae

Climate known 12 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

Goeppertia majestica, the majestic prayer plant, is a species of flowering plant in the family Marantaceae. It is native to Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Guyana, and northern Brazil, and has been introduced to Venezuela. Goeppertia majestica belongs to one of the groups of Goeppertia called the Ornata Group.

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

About the genus · Goeppertia

Goeppertia is a genus of flowering plants in the family Marantaceae, native to the New World Tropics. It contains 243 accepted species, many of which were until recently assigned to Calathea. It was first described by Nees von Esenbeck in 1831, who erroneously erected another genus Goeppertia in 1836, which has now been synonymized with Endlicheria. More on Wikipedia ›

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

Family
Marantaceae
Described by
(Linden) Borchs. & S.Suárez
Native to
Guyana, Bolivia, Colombia +3
Wild records
113 in range· 49 open

At a glance

Warmest month
29°C
Sep, mean day; nights 21 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
2268mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Mar 279 mm (CHELSA)
Light
26–34DLI
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 the genus Goeppertia, 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 (2.1 °C of range), so no growing season is inferred. Habitat rain 2268 mm a year, wettest March at 279 mm, driest August at 85 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 26 to 34 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 14.2 °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 Calathea gigas Gagnep.; Calathea imperialis (Burgerstein & Abel) L.H.Bailey & Raffill; Calathea majestica (Linden) H.Kenn.; Calathea ornata var. majestica (Linden) Petersen, 1890; Calathea ornata var. majestica (Linden) Regel and 6 more.

Cultivation

Grouped as a tropical foliage plant by the genus Goeppertia, which is reliably 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 sharp rainy season, October to April at the habitat (not shifted); the temperature curve is flat (2.1 °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 (1655 mm of 2268 mm) falls in October to April. The temperature curve is flat, 2.1 °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 2268 mm a year, wettest March at 279 mm, driest August at 85 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

2268 mm a year at the habitat, 1655 mm of it October to April. Wettest month March at 279 mm, driest August at 85 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1496 mm to 4007 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 34 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 26 to 34 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 22, the highest 90th-percentile month 37).

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 14.2 °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 14.2 °C, the absolute minimum 8.7 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 38.8 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 20.0 °C in July (across the envelope cells 16.2 °C to 22.2 °C), warmest day 28.9 °C in September (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 14.2 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER); the archetype table's minimum for a tropical foliage plant, 12 °C, is lower and does not raise it.

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: 64 to 69% 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 27 °C in Jun to 29 °C in Sep; mean night from 20 °C in Jul to 23 °C in Jan. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest night. 2268 mm of rain a year, most in Mar. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 85 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 8.7 °C and the 99th-percentile day 38.8 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°20°30°40°38.8° 99th-percentile day (undated)8.7° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 26–34RH 64–69 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 85 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 °C29 / 24–3029 / 24–3029 / 25–3028 / 24–2928 / 24–2927 / 24–2927 / 24–2929 / 24–3029 / 24–3129 / 24–3129 / 24–3029 / 24–30
Night °C23 / 17–2323 / 17–2423 / 18–2422 / 18–2321 / 18–2321 / 17–2320 / 16–2221 / 17–2321 / 17–2322 / 17–2422 / 18–2422 / 17–24
Rain mm240 / 76–391247 / 108–381279 / 135–371218 / 175–424199 / 89–421123 / 43–37293 / 35–33885 / 38–276113 / 71–316205 / 112–405229 / 118–337237 / 106–360
DLI31 / 27–3330 / 27–3430 / 28–3528 / 26–3327 / 24–3126 / 22–3228 / 24–3332 / 28–3634 / 30–3733 / 28–3631 / 27–3431 / 27–33
RH %68 / 63–7169 / 62–7169 / 63–7169 / 64–7268 / 66–7267 / 63–7365 / 61–7364 / 60–7266 / 61–7268 / 63–7269 / 64–7269 / 64–71

Each figure is the median across the 85 grid cells holding the 104 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 2052:2217 (-12.625, -69.125). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 8.7 °C, 1st-percentile night 14.2 °C, 99th-percentile day 38.8 °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 85 distinct grid cells holding the 104 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2052:2217 (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 -12.50_-69.375, lapse-corrected -55 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 188 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.
NativeGuyana, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil North· introduced: Venezuela
Kew's description“perennial” · “wet tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-0.267, -76.183 · in the densest population, 53 records (47% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 113 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 49 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 1197 km away. 71 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 9 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 4° block of the 113 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Goeppertia majesticaGoeppertia majesticaGoeppertia majesticaGoeppertia majesticaGoeppertia majesticaGoeppertia majesticaGoeppertia majesticaGoeppertia majestica

Photographs: Paula Romano, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIF; Sara Navarro, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF; Eduardo Chacón Madrigal, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF (5); GERMAN LEONEL SARMIENTO CRUZ, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF.

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

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
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Goeppertia majestica (Linden) Borchs. & S.Suárez
University of Gothenburg (2026) · DiSSCo
Goeppertia majestica (Linden) Borchs. & S.Suárez
University of Gothenburg (2026) · DiSSCo
Goeppertia majestica (Linden) Borchs. & S.Suárez
University of Gothenburg (2026) · DiSSCo
Goeppertia majestica (Linden) Borchs. & S.Suárez
University of Gothenburg (2026) · DiSSCo
Goeppertia majestica (Linden) Borchs. & S.Suárez
University of Gothenburg (2026) · DiSSCo
Goeppertia majestica (Linden) Borchs. & S.Suárez
University of Gothenburg (2026) · DiSSCo

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 Goeppertia 5 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 answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: not asked: 12 wild photographs already from the GBIF download
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: filled 2026-09-20
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 26 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.