Species
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Retrophyllum rospigliosii (Pilg.) C.N.Page

Podocarpaceae

Climate known 112 photographs
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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

Retrophyllum rospigliosii is a species of conifer in the family Podocarpaceae. It is a large tree native to the montane rainforests of Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia in South America.

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

About the genus · Retrophyllum

Retrophyllum is a genus of conifers in the family Podocarpaceae. It contains five generally recognized extant species with a disjunct distribution in the Southern Hemisphere, found in Papuasia and also in South America. Retrophyllum are trees and shrubs typically occurring in tropical rainforests and cloud forests.

Text from Wikipedia, “Retrophyllum”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Podocarpaceae
Described by
(Pilg.) C.N.Page
Native to
Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia +2
Wild records
505 in range· 223 open

At a glance

Warmest month
20°C
Sep, mean day; nights 11 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
2081mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Oct 253 mm (CHELSA)
Light
28–34DLI
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 sharp rainy season, February to May and October to December at the habitat (not shifted); the temperature curve is flat (0.7 °C of range), so no growing season is inferred. Habitat rain 2081 mm a year, wettest October at 253 mm, driest July at 105 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 28 to 34 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 9.1 °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 Decussocarpus rospigliosii (Pilg.) DeLaub.; Decussocarpus rospigliosii (Pilg.) de Laub.; Nageia rospigliosii (Pilg.) DeLaub.; Nageia rospigliosii (Pilg.) de Laub.; Podocarpus rospigliosii Pilg. and 1 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a sharp rainy season, February to May and October to December at the habitat (not shifted); the temperature curve is flat (0.7 °C of range), so no growing season is inferred.

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a sharp season: 70% of the year's rain (1464 mm of 2081 mm) falls in February to May and October to December. The temperature curve is flat, 0.7 °C between the warmest and coldest month, so the growing-season rule does not infer a growing season from it. 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 2081 mm a year, wettest October at 253 mm, driest July at 105 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

2081 mm a year at the habitat, 1464 mm of it February to May and October to December. Wettest month October at 253 mm, driest July at 105 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1204 mm to 3210 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: 28 to 34 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 28 to 34 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 38).

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 9.1 °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 9.1 °C, the absolute minimum 4.0 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 27.8 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 10.9 °C in July (across the envelope cells 8.3 °C to 16.5 °C), warmest day 20.1 °C in September (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 9.1 °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: 64 to 70% 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 Jun to 20 °C in Sep; mean night from 11 °C in Jul to 12 °C in Apr. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest night. 2081 mm of rain a year, most in Oct. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 223 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 4.0 °C and the 99th-percentile day 27.8 °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°27.8° 99th-percentile day (undated)4.0° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 28–34RH 64–70 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 223 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 °C20 / 17–2420 / 17–2420 / 17–2420 / 17–2419 / 17–2419 / 16–2419 / 16–2420 / 17–2520 / 17–2420 / 17–2419 / 16–2319 / 16–23
Night °C12 / 9–1712 / 9–1712 / 9–1712 / 10–1812 / 9–1711 / 9–1711 / 8–1711 / 8–1711 / 9–1712 / 9–1712 / 9–1712 / 8–17
Rain mm129 / 50–299151 / 65–316207 / 96–328237 / 129–343212 / 103–362124 / 60–269105 / 51–240111 / 49–248148 / 67–287253 / 123–369240 / 122–351164 / 72–306
DLI31 / 27–3432 / 28–3432 / 27–3529 / 25–3328 / 23–3228 / 24–3430 / 26–3733 / 28–3834 / 28–3831 / 26–3528 / 25–3329 / 26–32
RH %69 / 62–7368 / 62–7369 / 63–7270 / 65–7369 / 64–7367 / 61–7365 / 59–7264 / 57–7066 / 59–7069 / 63–7270 / 65–7369 / 63–73

Each figure is the median across the 223 grid cells holding the 482 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 2092:2229 (-14.625, -68.525). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 4.0 °C, 1st-percentile night 9.1 °C, 99th-percentile day 27.8 °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 223 distinct grid cells holding the 482 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2092:2229 (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_-68.750, lapse-corrected -231 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1773 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.
NativeVenezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru
Kew's description“tree” · “montane tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker4.931, -74.424 · in the densest population, 406 records (80% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 505 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 223 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 8 km away. 2 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 23 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 505 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Retrophyllum rospigliosiiRetrophyllum rospigliosiiRetrophyllum rospigliosiiRetrophyllum rospigliosiiRetrophyllum rospigliosiiRetrophyllum rospigliosiiRetrophyllum rospigliosiiRetrophyllum rospigliosii

Photographs: (c) Paúl Gonzáles, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) GERMAN LEONEL SARMIENTO CRUZ, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Nicolás Baresch Uribe, some rights reserved (CC BY) (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 Retrophyllum rospigliosii, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

New and Interesting Fungi
P.W. Crous, B.A.D. Begoude, J Boers, Uwe Braun (2022) · Fungal Systematics and Evolution
Shade tree timber as a source of income diversification in agroforestry coffee plantations, Peru
Lenka Ehrenbergerová, Zuzana Šeptunová, Hana Habrová, Ronald Puerta (2019) · BOIS & FORETS DES TROPIQUES
Carbon Storage in Coffee Agroforestry Systems: Role of Native and Introduced Shade Trees in the Central Peruvian Amazon
Noelito Salgado Veramendi, Lorena Estefani Romero-Chávez, Eldhy Sianina Huerto Pajuelo, Carolina del Carmen Ibarra Porras (2025) · Agriculture
Diversidad florística y estructura del bosque nublado del Río Numbala, Zamora-Chinchipe, Ecuador: El “bosque gigante” de Podocarpaceae adyacente al Parque Nacional Podocarpus
Celso Yaguana, Deicy Carolina Lozano Sivisaca, David Neill, Gricelda Mercedes Asanza Novillo (2012) · Revista Amazónica Ciencia y Tecnología
Growth and yield of Retrophyllum rospigliosii pure plantations in the Colombian Andes
Jorge A. Ramírez, Adriana María Marín Vélez, Alejandro Gómez, Jorge I. del Valle (2024) · New Forests
Propagación vegetativa de Retrophyllum rospigliosii (Pilg.) C.N. Page “ulcumano” en cámara de subirrigación en Chanchamayo / Perú
P. E. More, José Eloy Cuellar Bautista, Evelin Judith Salazar-Hinostroza (2021) · Ecología Aplicada
Rospiglioside, a New Totarane Diterpene from the Leaves of Retrophyllum rospigliosii
Juan M. Amaro‐Luis, Ángel Amesty, Roger Montealegre, Alı́ Bahsas (2006) · Revista de la Sociedad Química de México
Efecto de la fertilización en el crecimiento de Retrophyllum rospigliosii de la zona andina colombiana
Jorge A. Ramírez, Adriana María Marín Vélez, J. Byron Urrego, Alvaro Jose Henao Castaño (2021) · Madera y Bosques
ANATOMÍA Y DENSIDAD DE LA MADERA DE ÁRBOLES DE PINO ROMERÓN [Retrophyllum rospigliosii (Pilger) C.N. Page] DE OCHO AÑOS DE EDAD
Ángela María Vásquez Correa, Esteban Alcántara Vara (2009) · Revista Facultad Nacional de Agronomía Medellín
Biflavones from the leaves of Retrophyllum rospigliosii
Juan M. Amaro‐Luis, Ángel Amesty, Alı́ Bahsas, Roger Montealegre (2008) · Biochemical Systematics and Ecology
Dendrochronological potential of three Podocarpaceae species from the Andean Cordillera
Milton Javier Escobar Chimbaco, Adriana Marín, Jorge A. Giraldo, Jorge A. Ramírez (2023) · Revista de Biología Tropical

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 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 76 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.