Species
+

Paubrasilia echinata (Lam.) Gagnon, H.C.Lima & G.P.Lewis

Brazilwood, Pernambuco wood, Pernambuco wood, Pernambuco-wood

Climate known 24 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

Paubrasilia echinata is a species of flowering plant in the legume family, Fabaceae, that is endemic to the Atlantic Forest of Brazil. It is a Brazilian timber tree commonly known as brazilwood and is the national tree of Brazil. This plant has a dense, orange-red heartwood that takes a high shine, and it is the premier wood used for making bows for stringed instruments. The wood also yields a historically important red dye called brazilin, which oxidizes to brazilein.

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

About the genus · Paubrasilia

Paubrasilia echinata is a species of flowering plant in the legume family, Fabaceae, that is endemic to the Atlantic Forest of Brazil. It is a Brazilian timber tree commonly known as brazilwood and is the national tree of Brazil. This plant has a dense, orange-red heartwood that takes a high shine, and it is the premier wood used for making bows for stringed instruments. More on Wikipedia ›

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

Family
Fabaceae
Described by
(Lam.) Gagnon, H.C.Lima & G.P.Lewis
Native to
Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast
Wild records
894 in range· 555 open

At a glance

Warmest month
29°C
Feb, mean day; nights 23 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1235mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Mar 157 mm (CHELSA)
Light
23–39DLI
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, April to October in the northern hemisphere (October to April at the habitat, southern). Habitat rain 1235 mm a year, wettest March at 157 mm, driest August at 57 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 23 to 39 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 16.0 °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 Caesalpinia echinata Lam.; Caesalpinia obliqua Vogel; Caesalpinia vesicaria Vell.; Guilandina echinata (Lam.) Spreng.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, April to October in the northern hemisphere (October to April 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 (882 mm of 1235 mm) falls in October to April, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 25.3 °C against a yearly mean of 24.1 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: April to October.

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 1235 mm a year, wettest March at 157 mm, driest August at 57 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1235 mm a year at the habitat, 882 mm of it October to April. Wettest month March at 157 mm, driest August at 57 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1041 mm to 1711 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: 23 to 39 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 23 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 22, the highest 90th-percentile month 42).

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 16.0 °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 16.0 °C, the absolute minimum 13.3 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 35.1 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 18.2 °C in July (across the envelope cells 12.5 °C to 22.8 °C), warmest day 28.9 °C in February (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 16.0 °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: 62 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 25 °C in Jul to 29 °C in Feb; mean night from 18 °C in Jul to 23 °C in Feb. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest night. 1235 mm of rain a year, most in Mar. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 290 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 13.3 °C and the 99th-percentile day 35.1 °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°35.1° 99th-percentile day (undated)13.3° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250300mm rainDLI 23–39RH 62–65 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 290 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 / 27–3129 / 27–3129 / 26–3028 / 26–2926 / 24–2825 / 23–2725 / 22–2625 / 23–2726 / 24–2927 / 25–3028 / 26–3028 / 26–31
Night °C23 / 19–2523 / 19–2523 / 19–2522 / 17–2520 / 15–2419 / 13–2318 / 13–2318 / 14–2319 / 15–2320 / 17–2421 / 18–2422 / 18–25
Rain mm116 / 55–287107 / 69–199157 / 107–204122 / 75–22789 / 48–22571 / 29–24166 / 22–20557 / 20–13070 / 39–10096 / 21–135136 / 22–213148 / 34–243
DLI38 / 35–4139 / 36–4134 / 33–3830 / 28–3426 / 23–3123 / 22–3024 / 22–3129 / 26–3532 / 29–3936 / 32–4137 / 33–4237 / 35–41
RH %64 / 61–6764 / 61–6765 / 62–6865 / 61–6865 / 60–6764 / 59–6764 / 57–6763 / 55–6662 / 56–6562 / 58–6663 / 60–6764 / 61–68

Each figure is the median across the 290 grid cells holding the 443 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 2085:2815 (-14.275, -39.225). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 13.3 °C, 1st-percentile night 16.0 °C, 99th-percentile day 35.1 °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 290 distinct grid cells holding the 443 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2085:2815 (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 -14.50_-39.375, lapse-corrected -20 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 171 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 Northeast, Brazil Southeast· introduced: Cuba, Trinidad-Tobago
Kew's description“tree” · “seasonally dry tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-22.82, -43.109 · in the densest population, 632 records (71% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 894 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 555 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 1054 km away. 73 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 451 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 894 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Paubrasilia echinataPaubrasilia echinataPaubrasilia echinataPaubrasilia echinataPaubrasilia echinataPaubrasilia echinataPaubrasilia echinataPaubrasilia echinata

Photographs: Paula Romano, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIF (3); Rebecca, CC BY-SA, via GBIF; Gabriel Cardoso Fialho, CC0, iNaturalist via GBIF; Gisele Inácio, CC BY-SA, via GBIF; Zac Peterson, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF (2).

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

Reduced reproductive success of the endangered tree brazilwood (Paubrasilia echinata, Leguminosae) in urban ecosystem compared to Atlantic forest remnant: lessons for tropical urban ecology
Willams Oliveira, Jéssica Luiza S. Silva, Marcela Tomaz Pontes de Oliveira, Oswaldo Cruz‐Neto (2019) · Urban forestry & urban greening
UV-B effects on growth, photosynthesis, total antioxidant potential and cell wall components of shade-tolerant and sun-tolerant ecotypes of Paubrasilia echinata
Geraldo Rogério Faustini Cuzzuol, Vinícius Novo Gama, Leonardo Valandro Zanetti, Elias Terra Werner (2020) · Flora
Bio-insecticide effect of isolates ofFusarium caatingaense(Sordariomycetes: Hypocreales) combined to botanical extracts againstDactylopius opuntiae(Hemiptera: Dactylopiidae)
Athaline Gonçalves Diniz, Luiz Felipe Silva Barbosa, Ana Carla da Silva Santos, Neiva Tinti de Oliveira (2020) · Biocontrol Science and Technology
Intraspecific variation of Paubrasilia echinata (Fabaceae) wood along a latitudinal gradient in Brazil
Tahysa Mota Macedo, Haroldo Cavalcante de Lima, Natália Dias de Souza, Ana Carla Ramos da Silva Gonçalves (2019) · Flora
Phylogenomic and morphological data reveal hidden patterns of diversity in the national tree of Brazil, Paubrasilia echinata
Mathew Rees, Linda E. Neaves, Gwilym P. Lewis, Haroldo C. de Lima (2023) · American Journal of Botany
Avaliação dos parâmetros morfológicos da qualidade de mudas de Paubrasilia echinata (pau-brasil) em viveiro florestal
Silvio Henrique Menezes Gomes, Francineide Bezerra Gonçalves, Robério Anastácio Ferreira, Felipy Rafael Marinho Pereira (2019) · Scientia Plena
Karyotype diversity and 2C DNA content in species of the Caesalpinia group
Polliana Silva Rodrigues, Margarete Magalhães Souza, Cláusio Antônio Ferreira de Melo, Telma Nair Santana Pereira (2018) · BMC Genetics
A Biodiversity Hotspot Losing Its Biocultural Heritage: The Challenge to Biocultural Conservation of Brazilwood (Paubrasilia echinata)
Juan Gomes Bastos, Lorelaï Kury, Natália Hanazaki, Rebeca Capozzi (2022) · Frontiers in Forests and Global Change
Changes in cell wall composition and ultrastructure related to desiccation during the seed maturation of Paubrasilia echinata (brazilwood)
Tatiana Botelho Mescia, Ricardo Pereira Louro, Cláudio José Barbedo, Elaine R. Carbonero (2022) · PROTOPLASMA
Pau-brasil and string instrument bows telecouple nature, art, and heritage
Silke Lichtenberg, Elisabeth Huber‐Sannwald, Juan Antonio Reyes‐Agüero, Dieter Anhuf (2022) · Ecology and Society
Future uncertainties for the distribution and conservation of Paubrasilia echinata under climate change
Luíz Fernando Esser, Daniel Dutra Saraiva, João André Jarenkow (2019) · Acta Botanica Brasilica

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.

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 not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: not asked: 19 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 97 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.