Species
+

Philodendron erubescens K.Koch & Augustin

Philodendron, blushing philodendron, red-leaf philodendron

Climate known 67 photographs Tropical foliage plant
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

Philodendron erubescens, the blushing philodendron or red-leaf philodendron, is a species of flowering plant in the family Araceae, native to Colombia. It is a robust evergreen climber growing to 3–6 m (10–20 ft), with red stems and heart-shaped leaves up to 40 cm (16 in) in length. The flowers are deep red, fragrant spathes up to 15 cm (6 in) long, in summer and autumn. The specific epithet erubescens means "blushing".

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

About the genus · Philodendron

Philodendron is a large genus of flowering plants in the family Araceae. As of September 2025, the Plants of the World Online accepted 625 species; other sources accept different numbers. Regardless of number of species, the genus is the second-largest member of the family Araceae, after genus Anthurium. More on Wikipedia ›

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

Family
Araceae
Described by
K.Koch & Augustin
Native to
Colombia
Wild records
37 in range· 15 open

At a glance

Warmest month
24°C
Aug, mean day; nights 15 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1848mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Oct 228 mm (CHELSA)
Light
29–35DLI
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 Philodendron, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (March to June and September to December at the habitat (not shifted)). Habitat rain 1848 mm a year, wettest October at 228 mm, driest January at 80 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 29 to 35 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 14.0 °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.

Cultivation

Grouped as a tropical foliage plant by the genus Philodendron, 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: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (March to June and September to December 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 (1418 mm of 1848 mm) takes 8 months, March to June and September to December. Mean temperature moves 0.6 °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 1848 mm a year, wettest October at 228 mm, driest January at 80 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1848 mm a year at the habitat, 1418 mm of it March to June and September to December. Wettest month October at 228 mm, driest January at 80 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1106 mm to 2894 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 35 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 29 to 35 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 23, the highest 90th-percentile month 43).

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 14.0 °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 14.0 °C, the absolute minimum 12.6 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 27.6 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 14.5 °C in July (across the envelope cells 9.9 °C to 21.2 °C), warmest day 24.1 °C in August (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 14.0 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER); the archetype table's minimum for a tropical foliage plant, 12 °C, is lower and does not raise it.

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: 64 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 23 °C in Nov to 24 °C in Aug; mean night from 15 °C in Jul to 16 °C in Apr. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest night. 1848 mm of rain a year, most in Oct. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 27 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 12.6 °C and the 99th-percentile day 27.6 °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°27.6° 99th-percentile day (undated)12.6° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 29–35RH 64–68 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 27 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 °C23 / 19–3024 / 19–3124 / 19–3124 / 19–3024 / 19–2924 / 19–2924 / 19–2924 / 20–3024 / 19–3023 / 19–3023 / 18–2923 / 19–29
Night °C15 / 10–2115 / 10–2215 / 10–2216 / 11–2216 / 11–2215 / 10–2215 / 10–2115 / 10–2115 / 10–2215 / 10–2215 / 10–2215 / 10–21
Rain mm80 / 30–153104 / 45–156148 / 58–227206 / 115–310212 / 142–348126 / 80–249125 / 53–252121 / 60–257167 / 85–291228 / 157–333201 / 126–334130 / 58–202
DLI31 / 28–3533 / 30–3534 / 29–3731 / 24–3629 / 23–3631 / 25–4033 / 27–4335 / 28–4335 / 28–4232 / 25–3629 / 24–3230 / 26–32
RH %66 / 56–7065 / 56–7166 / 58–7168 / 62–7267 / 63–7166 / 62–7164 / 60–7065 / 59–6966 / 59–6968 / 60–7168 / 62–7367 / 59–72

Each figure is the median across the 27 grid cells holding the 37 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 1675:2088 (6.225, -75.575). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 12.6 °C, 1st-percentile night 14.0 °C, 99th-percentile day 27.6 °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 27 distinct grid cells holding the 37 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1675:2088 (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 6.00_-75.625, lapse-corrected -301 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1547 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.
NativeColombia
Kew's description“climber” · “wet tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker6.207, -75.571 · in the densest population, 23 records (62% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 37 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 15 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 5 km away. 268 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 37 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Philodendron erubescensPhilodendron erubescensPhilodendron erubescensPhilodendron erubescensPhilodendron erubescensPhilodendron erubescensPhilodendron erubescensPhilodendron erubescens

Photographs: (c) Thomas Mesaglio, some rights reserved (CC BY) (7); (c) Brodie Cass Talbott, 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 Philodendron erubescens, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Physiological Effect of Diphenylamin and Tryptophan on the Growth and Chemical Constituents of Philodendron erubescens Plants
Abou Dahab T.A.M., G. A. A. Nahed (2006) · World Journal of Agriculture and Soil Science
Infrared thermography used to diagnose the effects of salinity in a soilless culture
Miguel Urrestarazu (2013) · Quantitative InfraRed Thermography Journal
In Vitro Propagation of Philodendron erubescens ‘Pink Princess’ and Ex Vitro Acclimatization of the Plantlets
Preekamol Klanrit, Haruthairat Kitwetcharoen, Pornthap Thanonkeo, Pornthap Thanonkeo (2023) · Horticulturae
Studies on vertical garden system: A new landscape concept for urban living space
S. Rameshkumar (1970) · Journal of Floriculture and Landscaping
Contribution of thermal imaging to fertigation in soilless culture
Isidro Morales, Juan E. Álvaro, Miguel Urrestarazu (2013) · Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry
Performance of foliage ornamentals in hydroponic nutrient solutions
Dhanasekaran Dhanraj (2020) · Journal of Floriculture and Landscaping
60 Co gamma irradiation-induced mutation in vegetatively propagated Philodendron erubescens 'Gold'.
Dayani Karunananda, Ramya Ranathunga, W.A.M.W.K.S.B. Abeysinghe (2021) · CABI eBooks
Standardization of Growing Media for Ornamental Plant Species Grown in A Vertical Garden System in Assam
Madhusree Ghosh Madhumita Choudhury Talukdar (2021) · International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences
Influence of Light Intensity on Morphological and Growth Responses of Ornamental Foliage Plants in Vertical Garden Systems
Bashaboina Sunil, P. Prasanth, Zehra Salma, G. Jyothi (2025) · Journal of Advances in Biology & Biotechnology
Organic substrate amendments improve growth, nutrient uptake and antioxidant responses in Philodendron erubescens var. prince of orange
Sharifeh Ghasemi, Sepideh Kalateh Jari, Marjan Diyanat (2025) · Flower and Ornamental Plants

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 Philodendron 5 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 29 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.