Species
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Turnera subulata J.E.Sm.

Cuban Buttercup, Politician's flower, Politician's plant (Lesser Antilles), white alder

Climate known 73 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

Turnera subulata is a species of flowering subshrub in the passionflower family known by the common names white buttercup, sulphur alder, politician's flower, dark-eyed turnera, and white alder. Despite its names, it is not related to the buttercups or the alders. It is native to Central and South America, from Panama south to Brazil. It is well known in many other places as an introduced species, such as Malaysia, Indonesia, several other Pacific Islands, the Caribbean, and Florida in the United States.

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

About the genus · Turnera

Turnera is a genus of flowering plants in the passionflower family, Passifloraceae. It contains more than 100 species native to tropical and subtropical America. The name honours English naturalist William Turner (1508–1568). More on Wikipedia ›

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

Family
Turneraceae
Described by
J.E.Sm.
Native to
Windward Is., French Guiana, Guyana +10
Wild records
1315 in range· 693 open

At a glance

Warmest month
29°C
Feb, mean day; nights 23 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1256mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Mar 174 mm (CHELSA)
Light
27–38DLI
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, November to May at the habitat (not shifted); the temperature curve is flat (2.9 °C of range), so no growing season is inferred. Habitat rain 1256 mm a year, wettest March at 174 mm, driest August at 40 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 27 to 38 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 16.4 °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 Turnera elegans Otto; Turnera elegans Otto ex Nees; Turnera mollis Kunth; Turnera peruviana Willd. ex Roem. & Schult.; Turnera sericea Kunth and 2 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a sharp rainy season, November to May at the habitat (not shifted); the temperature curve is flat (2.9 °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 (952 mm of 1256 mm) falls in November to May. The temperature curve is flat, 2.9 °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, southern 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 1256 mm a year, wettest March at 174 mm, driest August at 40 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1256 mm a year at the habitat, 952 mm of it November to May. Wettest month March at 174 mm, driest August at 40 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 764 mm to 2359 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: 27 to 38 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 27 to 38 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 44).

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 16.4 °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 16.4 °C, the absolute minimum 14.6 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 37.2 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 19.7 °C in July (across the envelope cells 12.9 °C to 23.6 °C), warmest day 29.0 °C in February (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 16.4 °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: 61 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 26 °C in Jul to 29 °C in Feb; mean night from 20 °C in Jul to 23 °C in Feb. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest night. 1256 mm of rain a year, most in Mar. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 953 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 14.6 °C and the 99th-percentile day 37.2 °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°37.2° 99th-percentile day (undated)14.6° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 27–38RH 61–65 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 953 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 / 26–3229 / 27–3229 / 26–3128 / 25–3028 / 24–3027 / 23–3026 / 22–3127 / 24–3228 / 24–3329 / 25–3429 / 26–3429 / 26–33
Night °C23 / 19–2523 / 19–2523 / 19–2522 / 17–2521 / 15–2420 / 13–2420 / 13–2420 / 14–2421 / 16–2421 / 17–2522 / 18–2523 / 18–25
Rain mm141 / 53–297139 / 65–282174 / 103–314147 / 71–32598 / 35–28862 / 15–27056 / 8–23040 / 6–16261 / 5–14385 / 8–183118 / 11–238135 / 32–275
DLI37 / 30–4137 / 30–4134 / 30–3931 / 27–3529 / 23–3327 / 22–3328 / 22–3532 / 27–3936 / 29–4338 / 32–4438 / 32–4337 / 31–42
RH %64 / 56–6863 / 57–6964 / 59–6965 / 60–7064 / 57–6963 / 55–6862 / 53–6762 / 51–6661 / 51–6661 / 52–6762 / 53–6863 / 55–68

Each figure is the median across the 953 grid cells holding the 1281 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 1949:2877 (-7.475, -36.125). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 14.6 °C, 1st-percentile night 16.4 °C, 99th-percentile day 37.2 °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 953 distinct grid cells holding the 1281 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1949:2877 (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 -7.50_-36.250, lapse-corrected -98 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 387 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.
NativeWindward Is., French Guiana, Guyana, Surinam, Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Brazil West-Central, Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast, Brazil North, Brazil South· introduced: India, Maldives, Sri Lanka, Andaman Is., Thailand, Jawa, Malaya, Sumatera, Florida, Netherlands Antilles, Trinidad-Tobago
Kew's description“subshrub or shrub” · “wet tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-5.205, -37.324 · in the densest population, 489 records (37% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1315 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 693 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 140 km away. 477 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 34 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 1315 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Turnera subulataTurnera subulataTurnera subulataTurnera subulataTurnera subulataTurnera subulataTurnera subulataTurnera subulata

Photographs: (c) zebedeugalinha, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Pablo Cauã da Silva Toledo, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Lucas Kaminski, 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 Turnera subulata, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Characterization and localization of short‐specific polygalacturonase in distylous Turnera subulata (Turneraceae)
Andreas Athanasiou, Davood Khosravi, Farshad Tamari, Joel S. Shore (2003) · American Journal of Botany
Phytochemical and pharmacological profiling of Turnera subulata Sm., a vital medicinal herb
Mythili Saravanan, P. Senthilkumar, K. Kalimuthu, Vajjiram Chinnadurai (2018) · Industrial Crops and Products
Chemical Characterization of Flowers and Leaf Extracts Obtained from Turnera subulata and Their Immunomodulatory Effect on LPS-Activated RAW 264.7 Macrophages
Jefferson Romáryo Duarte da Luz, Éder Alves Barbosa, Thayse Evellyn Silva do Nascimento, Adriana Augusto de Rezende (2022) · Molecules
Protein matters: ants remove herbivores more frequently from extrafloral nectary-bearing plants when habitats are protein poor
Felipe C S Passos, Laura C. Leal (2019) · Biological Journal of the Linnean Society

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 Turnera 1 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 101 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.