Solanum betaceum Cav.
Baumtomate, Palo de tomate, Tamarillo, Tomate de arbol (Puerto Rico)
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
The tamarillo is a tree or shrub in the flowering plant family Solanaceae. It bears an egg-shaped edible fruit. It is common globally, especially in its native South America, and has been introduced in New Zealand, Nepal, Rwanda, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Australia, Indonesia, and Bhutan.
Text from Wikipedia, “Tamarillo”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.
About the genus · Solanum
Solanum is a large and diverse genus of flowering plants, which include three food crops of high economic importance: the potato, the tomato and the eggplant. It is the largest genus in the nightshade family Solanaceae, comprising around 1,500 species. It also contains the so-called horse nettles, as well as numerous plants cultivated for their ornamental flowers and fruit.
Text from Wikipedia, “Solanum”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.
At a glance
Also known as Cyphomandra betacea (Cav.) Miers; Cyphomandra betacea (Cav.) Sendtn.; Cyphomandra betacea Cav., 1845; Cyphomandra crassifolia (Ortega) J.F.Macbr.; Cyphomandra crassifolia (Ortega) Kuntze and 7 more.
Cultivation
Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, October to April at the habitat (not shifted).
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 (1108 mm of 1447 mm) falls in October to April, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 17.8 °C against a yearly mean of 16.4 °C). 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 1447 mm a year, wettest January at 190 mm, driest August at 47 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
1447 mm a year at the habitat, 1108 mm of it October to April. Wettest month January at 190 mm, driest August at 47 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 969 mm to 2701 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: 25 to 34 mol/m²/day.
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
Open sky over the habitat: 25 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 18, the highest 90th-percentile month 41).
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 5.5 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 5.5 °C, the absolute minimum 2.4 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 26.8 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 9.4 °C in July (across the envelope cells 5.0 °C to 14.8 °C), warmest day 22.0 °C in January (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 5.5 °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.
Relative humidity at the habitat: 61 to 67% 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
Figures by month
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day °C | 22 / 16–28 | 22 / 16–28 | 21 / 16–27 | 21 / 16–25 | 19 / 15–24 | 18 / 15–23 | 18 / 14–23 | 20 / 15–25 | 20 / 16–25 | 21 / 16–27 | 22 / 16–27 | 22 / 16–28 |
| Night °C | 14 / 8–20 | 14 / 8–20 | 14 / 8–19 | 13 / 8–18 | 11 / 7–16 | 10 / 6–15 | 9 / 5–15 | 10 / 6–15 | 11 / 7–16 | 12 / 7–18 | 13 / 8–18 | 14 / 8–20 |
| Rain mm | 190 / 70–335 | 175 / 89–288 | 173 / 108–280 | 125 / 66–273 | 103 / 25–282 | 63 / 12–191 | 51 / 10–177 | 47 / 12–154 | 75 / 22–213 | 129 / 63–289 | 149 / 89–267 | 167 / 88–307 |
| DLI | 34 / 30–39 | 34 / 30–37 | 32 / 27–36 | 28 / 23–34 | 26 / 20–32 | 25 / 18–32 | 27 / 19–34 | 30 / 24–37 | 33 / 27–38 | 34 / 29–38 | 34 / 28–39 | 34 / 29–41 |
| RH % | 66 / 61–70 | 66 / 62–71 | 67 / 62–71 | 67 / 62–72 | 66 / 60–71 | 64 / 58–70 | 63 / 57–68 | 61 / 55–67 | 62 / 56–68 | 64 / 58–70 | 65 / 60–71 | 66 / 61–71 |
Each figure is the median across the 407 grid cells holding the 512 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 1919:2041 (-5.975, -77.925). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 2.4 °C, 1st-percentile night 5.5 °C, 99th-percentile day 26.8 °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 407 distinct grid cells holding the 512 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1919:2041 (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_-78.125, lapse-corrected +281 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 2393 m (cell mean).
Natural habitat
Photographs
Photographs: (c) Abril Bastons, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Caleb Catto, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) naturewatchwidow, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Jakkarin Burananit, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Dinesh Valke, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (3).
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 Solanum betaceum, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.
Related
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.
Sinningia gigantifolia Gesneriaceae
Crassula alsinoides Crassulaceae
Dorstenia ulugurensis Moraceae
Annona cherimola Cherimoya
Stephania abyssinica Menispermaceae Sinningia cardinalis GesneriaceaeOther Solanum 13 in the reference
Solanum americanum American black
Solanum crispum Chilean nightshade
Solanum diphyllum Twoleaf nightshade
Solanum dulcamara Bitter Nightshade
Solanum laciniatum Kangaroo-Apple
Solanum laxum Nightshade
Solanum lycopersicum Garden Tomato
Solanum melongena Aubergine
Solanum muricatum Peruvian pepino
Solanum nigrum Black Nightshade
Solanum pseudocapsicum False Jerusalem Cherry
Solanum quitoense Quito-orange all 14 ›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 answeredgbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zamclimate answeredwikidata 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: skippedinat.taxon not askedinat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skippedinat.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 answeredopenalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skippedEvery upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 108 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.








