Species
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Peperomia monticola Miq.

Piperaceae

Climate known 11 photographs Tropical foliage plant
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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

Peperomia monticola is a species of plant in the genus Peperomia. It is endemic to Mexico. It is a geophytic plant, storing water and reserves in an underground tuber. During dry periods, parts above ground, such as leaves, will wither away but the plant will survive due to the tuber. More on Wikipedia ›

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

About the genus · Peperomia

Peperomia is one of the two large genera of the family Piperaceae. It is estimated that there are over 1,000 species, occurring in all tropical and subtropical regions of the world. They are concentrated in South and Central America, but may also be found in southern North America, the Caribbean islands, Africa, Oceania, and southern and eastern parts of Asia. More on Wikipedia ›

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

Family
Piperaceae
Described by
Miq.
Native to
Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf +1
Wild records
42 in range· 28 open

At a glance

Warmest month
26°C
May, mean day; nights 12 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
566mm/yr
6 wet months · peak Jul 119 mm (CHELSA)
Light
29–47DLI
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 Peperomia, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a summer growing season, June to September in the northern hemisphere (June to September at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 566 mm a year, wettest July at 119 mm, driest March at 8 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 29 to 47 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 12 °C (archetype minimum for a tropical foliage plant, above the -1.5 °C habitat night).
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 Peperomia umbilicata var. macrophylla C.DC.; Peperomia umbilicata var. monticola (Miq.) Dahlst.; Peperomia umbilicata var. subacutifolia C.DC.; Piper hydrocotylefolium M.Martens & Galeotti; Piper hydrocotylifolium M.Martens & Galeotti.

Cultivation

Grouped as a tropical foliage plant by the genus Peperomia, 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 summer growing season, June to September in the northern hemisphere (June to September 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 (402 mm of 566 mm) falls in June to September, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 18.3 °C against a yearly mean of 16.3 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December to March.

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 566 mm a year, wettest July at 119 mm, driest March at 8 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

566 mm a year at the habitat, 402 mm of it June to September. Wettest month July at 119 mm, driest March at 8 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 433 mm to 972 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: 29 to 47 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 29 to 47 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 27, the highest 90th-percentile month 49).

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 12 °C (archetype minimum for a tropical foliage plant, above the -1.5 °C habitat night).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -1.5 °C, the absolute minimum -7.9 °C, about 9 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 32.6 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 5.4 °C in January (across the envelope cells 3.7 °C to 9.4 °C), warmest day 26.2 °C in May (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 12 °C. The habitat figure, the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER), is -1.5 °C; the archetype table's conventional minimum for a tropical foliage plant (grouped by the genus Peperomia, which is reliably one kind of plant) is 12 °C, which is higher, and the floor rule takes the higher.

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: 47 to 64% 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 19 °C in Jan to 26 °C in May; mean night from 5 °C in Jan to 13 °C in Jun. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 566 mm of rain a year, most in Jul. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 37 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -7.9 °C and the 99th-percentile day 32.6 °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°frost32.6° 99th-percentile day (undated)-7.9° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250mm rainDLI 29–47RH 47–64 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 37 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 °C19 / 17–2221 / 19–2424 / 22–2726 / 24–2926 / 24–2925 / 22–2823 / 20–2523 / 21–2522 / 19–2521 / 19–2421 / 19–2420 / 18–22
Night °C5 / 4–96 / 5–108 / 7–1111 / 9–1412 / 11–1613 / 11–1712 / 11–1712 / 11–1712 / 10–1710 / 8–158 / 6–126 / 5–10
Rain mm19 / 14–2412 / 9–168 / 3–1321 / 8–2943 / 22–6590 / 67–185119 / 82–215102 / 63–19991 / 67–17040 / 33–7111 / 9–1710 / 7–12
DLI31 / 29–3337 / 34–3944 / 41–4647 / 44–4947 / 43–4942 / 37–4540 / 37–4239 / 37–4234 / 32–3634 / 31–3632 / 29–3429 / 27–31
RH %52 / 48–5950 / 45–5747 / 41–5548 / 42–5553 / 47–5859 / 54–6563 / 59–6763 / 59–6664 / 59–6861 / 54–6555 / 49–6153 / 48–59

Each figure is the median across the 37 grid cells holding the 41 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 1350:1568 (22.475, -101.575). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -7.9 °C, 1st-percentile night -1.5 °C, 99th-percentile day 32.6 °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 37 distinct grid cells holding the 41 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1350:1568 (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 22.50_-101.875, lapse-corrected +79 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 2217 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.
NativeMexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Southwest
Kew's description“tuberous geophyte” · “seasonally dry tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker21.993, -101.037 · in the densest population, 31 records (74% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 42 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 28 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 7 km away. 1 in-range record is placed to worse than 10 km and stays 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 42 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Peperomia monticolaPeperomia monticolaPeperomia monticolaPeperomia monticolaPeperomia monticolaPeperomia monticolaPeperomia monticolaPeperomia monticola

Photographs: (c) Leonardo O. Alvarado Cárdenas, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Carlos Martorell, some rights reserved (CC BY) (5); (c) Oscar Israel Rodríguez Ortiz, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Oscar Alejandro Morales Juárez, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA).

Photographs: iNaturalist and GBIF media 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 Peperomia monticola, 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 (2018) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility

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 Peperomia 8 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence search API
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media did not answercarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: api.gbif.org not asked: offline re-derivation
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; 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 7 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.