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Occurs in arid regions and brush/woodlands subject to periodic or seasonal drought conditions. Primary occurrence is at low elevations. Most below 500 m but it occurs at 750(-900) m in Bahia.

"...in Brazil, mostly in caatinga but entering cerrado and occasional on sandstone outcrops...weedy thickets in pastures and along highways, in n. South America in semi-deciduous forest and chaparral..."

- Barneby 1991


Distribution:

Separated occurrences throughout tropical North and South America.

Brazil (Northeastern Brazil; latitude 4-15^o S. "locally abundant from Ceará and Rio Grande do Norte to s.-e. Piauí and interior Bahia, there reaching the Contas valley e. of the central highlands and in the S. Francisco basin to Espigão Mestre and the frontier of Minas Gerais, perhaps disjunct (pending confirmation) in far e. S. Paulo (Campos da Bocaina, leg. Glaziou, P!)."

Colombia (North-eastern Colombia: Guajira Peninsula)

Venezuela (Interior; Aragua, Cojedes, Guárico, Lara, Zulia.)

Mexico (Chiapas and Oaxaca: Pacific lowlands.)

El Salvador (Pacific slope; arid valleys)

Honduras (Pacific slope; arid valleys)

    - Barneby 1991