Species
+

Xanthosoma robustum Schott

Capote, carámicua, elephant ear, lu

Climate known 43 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

Xanthosoma robustum, also known as Elephant Ear, is a robust herbaceous plant native to Central Mexico and Central America that can grow up to 4 meters tall. It's an important plant with uses in medicine, environmental applications, and as a food source. This species has large, waxy, green leaves that can grow over a meter long. The plant also produces distinct inflorescences with a white to yellowish-green spathe and a pale yellow to ochre spadix.

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

About the genus · anthosoma

Anthosoma is a monotypic genus of copepods in the family Dichelesthiidae, of which Anthosoma crassum is the sole representative.

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

Family
Araceae
Described by
Schott
Native to
India, Mexico Central, Mexico Gulf +7
Wild records
639 in range· 346 open

At a glance

Warmest month
30°C
May, mean day; nights 19 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1682mm/yr
11 wet months · peak Sep 314 mm (CHELSA)
Light
27–41DLI
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 Araceae, which is usually but not always one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a summer growing season, June to October in the northern hemisphere (June to October at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 1682 mm a year, wettest September at 314 mm, driest February at 24 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 27 to 41 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 12.7 °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 Araceae, which is usually but not always 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 October in the northern hemisphere (June to October 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 (1334 mm of 1682 mm) falls in June to October, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 23.4 °C against a yearly mean of 22.3 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: December to April.

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 1682 mm a year, wettest September at 314 mm, driest February at 24 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1682 mm a year at the habitat, 1334 mm of it June to October. Wettest month September at 314 mm, driest February at 24 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 875 mm to 3178 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: 27 to 41 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 27 to 41 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 48).

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 12.7 °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 12.7 °C, the absolute minimum 9.6 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 32.6 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 14.8 °C in January (across the envelope cells 8.9 °C to 20.0 °C), warmest day 29.6 °C in May (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 12.7 °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: 59 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 24 °C in Jan to 30 °C in May; mean night from 15 °C in Jan to 20 °C in Jun. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1682 mm of rain a year, most in Sep. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 478 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 9.6 °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°15°20°25°30°35°32.6° 99th-percentile day (undated)9.6° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500600mm rainDLI 27–41RH 59–68 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 478 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 °C24 / 20–2926 / 21–3028 / 23–3129 / 25–3330 / 25–3328 / 24–3127 / 23–3027 / 23–3027 / 22–3026 / 22–2925 / 21–2825 / 20–28
Night °C15 / 9–2015 / 10–2016 / 11–2118 / 13–2319 / 15–2520 / 15–2420 / 15–2420 / 15–2420 / 15–2419 / 13–2317 / 11–2216 / 10–21
Rain mm36 / 7–13824 / 7–10327 / 4–8044 / 3–110112 / 20–273264 / 147–444285 / 169–456284 / 168–468314 / 162–515187 / 67–40769 / 15–25536 / 7–192
DLI29 / 23–3434 / 27–3939 / 34–4541 / 37–4841 / 36–4736 / 31–4036 / 31–4036 / 31–3932 / 28–3530 / 27–3428 / 24–3327 / 22–32
RH %62 / 52–6961 / 50–6759 / 48–6560 / 48–6562 / 51–6767 / 60–7166 / 62–7267 / 62–7268 / 63–7367 / 60–7164 / 56–7063 / 53–70

Each figure is the median across the 478 grid cells holding the 624 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 1535:1886 (13.225, -85.675). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 9.6 °C, 1st-percentile night 12.7 °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 478 distinct grid cells holding the 624 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1535:1886 (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 13.00_-85.625, lapse-corrected +453 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1041 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.
NativeIndia, Mexico Central, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Belize, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua· introduced: Hawaii
Kew's description“shrub” · “wet tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker19.508, -96.925 · in the densest population, 271 records (42% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 639 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 346 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 203 km away. 597 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 15 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 2° block of the 639 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Xanthosoma robustumXanthosoma robustumXanthosoma robustumXanthosoma robustumXanthosoma robustumXanthosoma robustumXanthosoma robustumXanthosoma robustum

Photographs: (c) Alan Rockefeller, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); no rights reserved · CC0 (2); (c) Luc Wyn, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Kevin Faccenda, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Jose Antonio Aranda Pineda, 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 Xanthosoma robustum, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Physicochemical, morphological, and rheological characterization of Xanthosoma robustum Lego-like starch
Sandra M. Londoño‐Restrepo, Natalia Rincón-Londoño, Margarita Contreras-Padilla, Andrés Antonio Acosta-Osorio (2014) · International Journal of Biological Macromolecules
Antibacterial hydroperoxysterols from Xanthosoma robustum
Takeshi Kato, Barbara Frei, Michael Heinrich, Otto Sticher (1996) · Phytochemistry
Les Relations Araceae-Drosophilidae. Drosophila Aracea une Espèce Anthophile Associée à L'aracée Xanthosoma Robustum au Mexique (Diptera: Drosophilidae)
Leónidas Tsacas, Marie-Thérèse Chassagnard (1992) · Annales de la Société entomologique de France (N S )
Advertisement call, tadpole morphology, and other natural history aspects of the threatened poison frogAndinobates daleswansoni(Dendrobatidae)
Sebastián Duarte‐Marín, Cristian González-Acosta, Pedro Henrique dos Santos Dias, Gustavo Arias-Álvarez (2020) · Journal of Natural History
Use of tropical macrophytes in wastewater treatment
Marimar Lara-Acosta, Fabiola Lango‐Reynoso, María del Refugio Castañeda-Chávez (2022) · Agro Productividad
Pises (Xanthosoma robustum, Araceae): Traditional Knowledge and Sustainable Farming Practices of a Neglected and Underutilized Crop in a Mexican Indigenous Community
Jaime Pacheco-Trejo, Eliazar Aquino‐Torres, Judith Prieto Méndez, Ma Isabel Reyes Santamaría (2022) · Economic Botany
Feeding Specialization of Flies (Diptera: Richardiidae) in Aroid Infructescences (Araceae) of the Neotropics
Guadalupe Amancio, Vicente Hernández-Ortíz, Armando Aguirre‐Jaimes, Roger Guevara (2019) · Journal of Insect Science
Xanthosoma robustum (Araceae): An addition to the flora of India
R. Prameela, J. Swamy (2022) · Indian Journal of Forestry
Physicochemical and rheological properties of purees based on Mafafa ( Xanthosoma robustum ) and quinoa ( Chenopodium quinoa Willd.) with the addition of cryoprotectants
Nelson David Rodríguez-Marín, Aylin A. Figueroa‐Chaverra, Mayerly A. Sánchez‐Jiménez, Vanessa Orozco‐Orrego (2018) · Journal of Texture Studies

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 anthosoma 1 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (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 download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (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 asked
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)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
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 74 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.