Species
+

Inga edulis Mart.

Guamo rabo de mico, Ice Cream Bean, Icecreambean, Mené, Meneque

Climate known 70 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

Inga edulis, known as ice-cream bean, paterna, whitey, padoo, cushín, joaquiniquil, cuaniquil guama, or guaba, is a fruit native to Central and South America. It is in the mimosoid tribe of the legume family Fabaceae. It is widely grown, especially by Indigenous Amazonians, for shade, food, timber, medicines, and production of the alcoholic beverage cachiri. It is popular in Peru, Ecuador, Pernambuco-Brazil, Venezuela, Guyana, Costa Rica and Colombia. More on Wikipedia ›

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

About the genus · Inga

Inga is a genus of small tropical, tough-leaved, nitrogen-fixing trees and shrubs, subfamily Mimosoideae. Inga's leaves are pinnate, and flowers are generally white. Many of the hundreds of species are used ornamentally.

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

Family
Fabaceae
Described by
Mart.
Native to
French Guiana, Guyana, Surinam +12
Wild records
1091 in range· 671 open

At a glance

Warmest month
29°C
Feb, mean day; nights 22 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
2190mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Apr 234 mm (CHELSA)
Light
26–33DLI
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: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (October to May at the habitat (not shifted)). Habitat rain 2190 mm a year, wettest April at 234 mm, driest August at 112 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 26 to 33 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 19.3 °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 Feuilleea conferta (Benth.) Kuntze; Feuilleea edulis (Mart.) Kuntze; Feuilleea scabriuscula (Benth.) Kuntze; Inga benthamiana Meisn.; Inga complanata Amshoff and 15 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (October to May at the habitat (not shifted)).

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

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (1652 mm of 2190 mm) takes 8 months, October to May. Mean temperature moves 2.1 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, northern 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 2190 mm a year, wettest April at 234 mm, driest August at 112 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

2190 mm a year at the habitat, 1652 mm of it October to May. Wettest month April at 234 mm, driest August at 112 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1345 mm to 3740 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: 26 to 33 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 26 to 33 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 21, 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 19.3 °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 19.3 °C, the absolute minimum 17.5 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 33.6 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 20.1 °C in July (across the envelope cells 13.3 °C to 23.2 °C), warmest day 28.6 °C in February (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 19.3 °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: 65 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 27 °C in Jul to 29 °C in Feb; mean night from 20 °C in Jul to 22 °C in Feb. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest night. 2190 mm of rain a year, most in Apr. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 803 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 17.5 °C and the 99th-percentile day 33.6 °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°35°33.6° 99th-percentile day (undated)17.5° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 26–33RH 65–68 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 803 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 / 24–3129 / 24–3129 / 24–3128 / 24–3028 / 22–2927 / 21–2927 / 21–3028 / 22–3128 / 22–3129 / 23–3128 / 23–3029 / 23–30
Night °C22 / 17–2422 / 17–2422 / 17–2422 / 17–2421 / 15–2421 / 14–2320 / 13–2320 / 14–2321 / 15–2421 / 16–2422 / 16–2422 / 17–24
Rain mm195 / 32–360192 / 75–351218 / 97–366234 / 102–414233 / 65–464156 / 29–442132 / 17–409112 / 27–347138 / 45–350185 / 64–373200 / 89–326195 / 65–329
DLI32 / 27–3832 / 27–3932 / 27–3629 / 25–3426 / 22–3126 / 21–3228 / 22–3431 / 25–3633 / 26–3933 / 27–3932 / 26–3832 / 27–37
RH %67 / 57–7167 / 57–7167 / 59–7268 / 62–7268 / 63–7267 / 61–7366 / 58–7265 / 57–7265 / 58–7266 / 60–7267 / 61–7267 / 61–71

Each figure is the median across the 803 grid cells holding the 1066 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 1720:2126 (3.975, -73.675). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 17.5 °C, 1st-percentile night 19.3 °C, 99th-percentile day 33.6 °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 803 distinct grid cells holding the 1066 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1720:2126 (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 4.00_-73.750, lapse-corrected -945 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 447 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.
NativeFrench Guiana, Guyana, Surinam, Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Galápagos, Peru, Brazil West-Central, Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast, Brazil North, Brazil South, Argentina Northwest· introduced: Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Gulf of Guinea Is., Zaïre, Tanzania, Angola, Jawa, Malaya, Vanuatu, Cook Is., Tuamotu, Tubuai Is., Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Puerto Rico, Trinidad-Tobago, Windward Is.
Kew's description“tree” · “wet tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker6, -75 · in the densest population, 181 records (17% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1091 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 671 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 771 km away. 92 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 25 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 1091 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Inga edulisInga edulisInga edulisInga edulisInga edulisInga edulisInga edulisInga edulis

Photographs: no rights reserved · CC0; (c) Maria Janeiro, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Alejandro Alfredo Aguirre, some rights reserved (CC BY) (5).

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

Optimization of extraction of phenolics from Inga edulis leaves using response surface methodology
Evaldo Martins da Silva, Hervé Rogez, Yvan Larondelle (2007) · Separation and Purification Technology
Origin and Domestication of Native Amazonian Crops
Charles R. Clément, Michelly de Cristo-Araújo, Géo Coppens D'Eeckenbrugge, Alessandro Alves‐Pereira (2010) · Diversity
Planting Seedlings in Tree Islands Versus Plantations as a Large‐Scale Tropical Forest Restoration Strategy
Karen D. Holl, Rakan A. Zahawi, Rebecca J. Cole, Rebecca Ostertag (2010) · Restoration Ecology
Seed rain under tree islands planted to restore degraded lands in a tropical agricultural landscape
Rebecca J. Cole, Karen D. Holl, Rakan A. Zahawi (2010) · Ecological Applications
Amelioration of Degraded Rain Forest Soils by Plantations of Native Trees
Richard F. Fisher (1995) · Soil Science Society of America Journal
Optimisation of the adsorption of polyphenols from Inga edulis leaves on macroporous resins using an experimental design methodology
Evaldo Martins da Silva, Darly Rodrigues Pompeu, Yvan Larondelle, Hervé Rogez (2006) · Separation and Purification Technology
Plant Extracts Display Synergism with Different Classes of Antibiotics
Danielle M. Silva, PRISCILLA A. DA COSTA, Andréa de Oliveira Barros Ribon, Gislaine Aparecida Purgato (2019) · Anais da Academia Brasileira de Ciências
Litterfall Dynamics Under Different Tropical Forest Restoration Strategies in Costa Rica
Danielle Celentano, Rakan A. Zahawi, Bryan Finegan, Rebecca Ostertag (2010) · Biotropica
Phenolic composition, antioxidant and anti-proliferative activities of edible and medicinal plants from the Peruvian Amazon
Jan Tauchen, Ludvik Bortl, Lukáš Huml, Petra Mikšátková (2016) · Revista Brasileira de Farmacognosia
Interactions among leaf toughness, chemistry, and harvesting by attine ants
Colin M. Orians, Jack C. Schultz (1990) · Ecological Entomology
Interplanting Inga edulis yields nitrogen benefits to Terminalia amazonia
J. Doland Nichols, F. Lynn Carpenter (2006) · Forest Ecology and 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 Inga 1 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 220 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.