Species
+

Pachira glabra Pasq.

French-peanut, castanha-do-maranhão, luckytree, moneytree

Climate known 57 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

Pachira glabra is a tropical wetland tree in the mallow family, Malvaceae, native to eastern Brazil, where it grows along waterways. It is generally known by the nonscientific names Guinea peanut, French peanut, Saba nut, money tree, and lucky tree. It shares many of these common names with the similar P. aquatica.

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

About the genus · Pachira

Pachira is a genus of tropical trees distributed in Central and South America and the Caribbean, ranging from Mexico to Bolivia and southern Brazil. They are classified in the subfamily Bombacoideae of the family Malvaceae. Previously the genus was assigned to Bombacaceae. More on Wikipedia ›

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

Family
Malvaceae
Described by
Pasq.
Native to
Brazil Southeast, Brazil South
Wild records
361 in range· 300 open

At a glance

Warmest month
28°C
Feb, mean day; nights 20 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1544mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jan 261 mm (CHELSA)
Light
22–36DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: a summer growing season, April to September in the northern hemisphere (October to March at the habitat, southern). Habitat rain 1544 mm a year, wettest January at 261 mm, driest August at 40 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 22 to 36 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 6.9 °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 Bombacopsis glabra (Pasq.) A.Robyns; Bombax anisophyllum Buxb.; Bombax columellatum Buxb.; Bombax glabrum (Pasq.) A.Robyns; Bombax kimuenzae De Wild. & T.Durand and 4 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, April to September in the northern hemisphere (October to March at the habitat, southern).

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 (1132 mm of 1544 mm) falls in October to March, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 22.9 °C against a yearly mean of 20.9 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: April to September.

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 1544 mm a year, wettest January at 261 mm, driest August at 40 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1544 mm a year at the habitat, 1132 mm of it October to March. Wettest month January at 261 mm, driest August at 40 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1340 mm to 2005 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: 22 to 36 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 22 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 17, the highest 90th-percentile month 40).

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 6.9 °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 6.9 °C, the absolute minimum -0.3 °C, 1 frost night in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 36.1 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 12.5 °C in July (across the envelope cells 10.9 °C to 17.0 °C), warmest day 27.5 °C in February (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 6.9 °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 65% 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 22 °C in Jul to 28 °C in Feb; mean night from 13 °C in Jul to 20 °C in Jan. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest night. 1544 mm of rain a year, most in Jan. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 303 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -0.3 °C and the 99th-percentile day 36.1 °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°frost36.1° 99th-percentile day (undated)-0.3° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 22–36RH 61–65 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 303 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 °C27 / 26–2928 / 26–2927 / 25–2825 / 24–2723 / 21–2522 / 20–2422 / 19–2423 / 20–2624 / 21–2725 / 23–2826 / 24–2826 / 25–28
Night °C20 / 18–2320 / 18–2419 / 18–2317 / 16–2215 / 13–1913 / 12–1813 / 11–1713 / 12–1715 / 13–1817 / 15–2018 / 17–2119 / 18–22
Rain mm261 / 162–325194 / 127–262174 / 134–253102 / 68–15879 / 38–13356 / 17–11249 / 11–12740 / 19–9786 / 57–155134 / 103–170158 / 127–231211 / 153–303
DLI36 / 34–4036 / 34–3932 / 30–3428 / 24–3123 / 19–2722 / 17–2523 / 18–2727 / 22–3229 / 24–3533 / 29–3736 / 33–3936 / 33–40
RH %65 / 63–6865 / 62–6865 / 62–6964 / 60–6864 / 59–6663 / 58–6662 / 56–6661 / 54–6663 / 55–6763 / 58–6864 / 60–6865 / 62–68

Each figure is the median across the 303 grid cells holding the 358 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 2257:2658 (-22.875, -47.075). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -0.3 °C, 1st-percentile night 6.9 °C, 99th-percentile day 36.1 °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 303 distinct grid cells holding the 358 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2257:2658 (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 -23.00_-46.875, lapse-corrected -93 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 662 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.
NativeBrazil Southeast, Brazil South· introduced: Benin, Ghana, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Burundi, Cabinda, Cameroon, Congo, Gulf of Guinea Is., Rwanda, Zaïre, Chad, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, New Caledonia, Trinidad-Tobago, Brazil West-Central, Brazil Northeast
Kew's description“tree” · “wet tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-23.449, -46.753 · in the densest population, 136 records (38% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 361 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 300 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 4 km away. 330 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 3 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 361 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Pachira glabraPachira glabraPachira glabraPachira glabraPachira glabraPachira glabraPachira glabraPachira glabra

Photographs: (c) Daniel Schelesky, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4); no rights reserved · CC0; (c) Karen Eichholz, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Rafael Silva, 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 Pachira glabra, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Chemical constituents and gastro-protective potential of Pachira glabra leaves against ethanol-induced gastric ulcer in experimental rat model
Mariam I. Gamal El‐Din, Fadia S. Youssef, Riham S. Said, Mohamed L. Ashour (2020) · Inflammopharmacology
Pachira glabra Pasq. Essential Oil: Chemical Constituents, Antimicrobial and Insecticidal Activities
Oladipupo A. Lawal, Isiaka A. Ogunwande, Atinuke F. Salvador, Adetayo A. Sanni (2014) · Journal of Oleo Science
Do chromosome numbers reflect phylogeny? New counts for Bombacoideae and a review of Malvaceae s.l.
Rafaela Cabral Marinho, Clesnan Mendes‐Rodrigues, Francisco Balao, Pedro L. Ortiz (2014) · American Journal of Botany
New γ-pyrone glycoside from Pachira glabra and assessment of its gastroprotective activity using an alcohol-induced gastric ulcer model in rats
Mariam I. Gamal El‐Din, Fadia S. Youssef, Mohamed L. Ashour, Omayma A. Eldahshan (2020) · Food & Function
A novel species of Diaporthe causing leaf spot in Pachira glabra
Cristiane A. Milagres, Renata Belisário, Mariana Aguiar Silva, Daniela O. Lisboa (2018) · Tropical Plant Pathology
Effects of extraction parameters on the yield of oils from non-edible seeds of Bauhinia variegata and Pachira glabra
Ulrich Cabrel Kenmegne Tebe, Julius Kewir Tangka, Henri Grisseur Djoukeng, Brice Martial Kamdem (2024) · Heliyon
First Report of Leaf Brown Spot Caused by Diaporthe phoenicicola on Pachira glabra in China
Chuchu Deng, Haihua Wang, Biyao Wen, Jiaqi Gu (2024) · Plant Disease

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 Pachira 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 69 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.