Species
+

Malpighia glabra L.

Acerola, Azerolakirsche, Barbados Cherry, Barbados Cherry

Climate known 63 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

Malpighia glabra, the wild crapemyrtle, is a tropical fruit-bearing shrub or small tree in the family Malpighiaceae. It has often been confused with the related cultivated crop tree M. emarginata, but has small insipid fruit and a very different flower structure.

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

About the genus · Malpighia

Malpighia is a genus of flowering plants in the nance family, Malpighiaceae. It contains 108 species of shrubs or small trees, all of which are native to the American tropics, ranging from Texas through Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean to Venezuela, Colombia, and Ecuador. The generic name honours Marcello Malpighi, a 17th-century Italian physician and botanist. More on Wikipedia ›

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

Family
Malpighiaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Vietnam, Texas, Mexico Central +25
Wild records
1318 in range· 945 open

At a glance

Warmest month
30°C
Apr, mean day; nights 21 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1370mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Sep 225 mm (CHELSA)
Light
25–39DLI
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, June to October in the northern hemisphere (June to October at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 1370 mm a year, wettest September at 225 mm, driest February at 32 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 25 to 39 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 15.7 °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 Bunchosia parvifolia S.Watson; Malpighia biflora L.; Malpighia biflora Poir.; Malpighia fallax Salisb.; Malpighia glabra subsp. undulata (A.Juss.) F.K.Mey. and 21 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, June to October in the northern hemisphere (June 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 (969 mm of 1370 mm) falls in June to October, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 26.1 °C against a yearly mean of 24.7 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December 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 1370 mm a year, wettest September at 225 mm, driest February at 32 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1370 mm a year at the habitat, 969 mm of it June to October. Wettest month September at 225 mm, driest February at 32 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 776 mm to 2783 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: 25 to 39 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 25 to 39 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 20, the highest 90th-percentile month 44).

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 15.7 °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 15.7 °C, the absolute minimum 12.6 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 35.6 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 18.3 °C in January (across the envelope cells 10.3 °C to 23.2 °C), warmest day 29.7 °C in April (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 15.7 °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: 60 to 67% 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 26 °C in Jan to 30 °C in Apr; mean night from 18 °C in Jan to 23 °C in Jun. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1370 mm of rain a year, most in Sep. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 915 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 12.6 °C and the 99th-percentile day 35.6 °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°40°35.6° 99th-percentile day (undated)12.6° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 25–39RH 60–67 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 915 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 °C26 / 20–3127 / 22–3228 / 24–3330 / 26–3430 / 26–3429 / 25–3329 / 24–3429 / 25–3429 / 24–3228 / 23–3027 / 22–3026 / 20–30
Night °C18 / 10–2319 / 11–2420 / 13–2421 / 15–2423 / 17–2523 / 17–2523 / 17–2523 / 17–2623 / 17–2521 / 16–2420 / 13–2419 / 11–23
Rain mm36 / 8–10632 / 8–9533 / 9–9950 / 22–161120 / 58–286202 / 74–378173 / 61–378191 / 54–393225 / 115–436178 / 83–36081 / 25–22849 / 13–151
DLI27 / 21–3531 / 25–3836 / 31–4239 / 33–4439 / 30–4236 / 29–4237 / 30–4337 / 31–4133 / 29–3630 / 27–3327 / 23–3225 / 20–33
RH %61 / 55–6860 / 55–6660 / 55–6560 / 55–6763 / 58–6965 / 59–7065 / 58–7165 / 58–7167 / 60–7166 / 58–7164 / 58–7063 / 57–69

Each figure is the median across the 915 grid cells holding the 1287 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 1539:1884 (13.025, -85.775). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 12.6 °C, 1st-percentile night 15.7 °C, 99th-percentile day 35.6 °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 915 distinct grid cells holding the 1287 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1539:1884 (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 13.00_-85.625, lapse-corrected -12 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 576 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.
NativeVietnam, Texas, Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Aruba, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Netherlands Antilles, Puerto Rico, Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuelan Antilles, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador· introduced: Bangladesh, Marianas, Peru
Kew's description“shrub or tree” · “seasonally dry tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker19.272, -96.428 · in the densest population, 599 records (45% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1318 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 945 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 43 km away. 68 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 31 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 1318 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Malpighia glabraMalpighia glabraMalpighia glabraMalpighia glabraMalpighia glabraMalpighia glabraMalpighia glabraMalpighia glabra

Photographs: (c) earl woolsey, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Neptalí Ramírez Marcial, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4); no rights reserved · CC0 (2); (c) johnyochum, 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 Malpighia glabra, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Identification of Lactic Acid Bacteria in Fruit Pulp Processing Byproducts and Potential Probiotic Properties of Selected Lactobacillus Strains
Estefânia Fernandes Garcia, Winnie Alencar Luciano, Danilo Elias Xavier, Whyara Karoline Almeida da Costa (2016) · Frontiers in Microbiology
Freeze-drying of acerola (Malpighia glabra L.)
Luanda Gimeno Marques, Maria do Carmo Ferreira, José Teixeira Freire (2006) · Chemical Engineering and Processing - Process Intensification
Caracterização nutricional e compostos antioxidantes em resíduos de polpas de frutas tropicais
Mariana Séfora Bezerra Sousa, Luanne Morais Vieira, Manoel de Jesus Marques da Silva, Alessandro de Lima (2011) · Ciência e Agrotecnologia
Gene expression of ascorbic acid biosynthesis related enzymes of the Smirnoff-Wheeler pathway in acerola (Malpighia glabra)
Adebanjo A. Badejo, Yukichi Fujikawa, Muneharu Esaka (2008) · Journal of Plant Physiology
Fenólicos totais e capacidade antioxidante in vitro de resíduos de polpas de frutas tropicais
Mariana Séfora Bezerra Sousa, Luanne Morais Vieira, Alessandro de Lima (2011) · Brazilian journal of food technology/Brazilian Journal of Food Technology
Increase in Ascorbate Content of Transgenic Tobacco Plants Overexpressing the Acerola (Malpighia glabra) Phosphomannomutase Gene
Adebanjo A. Badejo, Hani A. Eltelib, Keiko Fukunaga, Yukichi Fujikawa (2008) · Plant and Cell Physiology
Estimation of phytochemicals and antioxidant activity of underutilized fruits of Andaman Islands (India)
Dharmendra Singh, Shrawan Singh, K. M. Salim, Rashmi Srivastava (2011) · International Journal of Food Sciences and Nutrition
Metabolic engineering of the fungal D-galacturonate pathway for L-ascorbic acid production
Joosu Kuivanen, Merja Penttilä, Peter Richard (2015) · Microbial Cell Factories

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 Malpighia 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 173 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.