Species
+

Brachylaena discolor DC.

Coast Silver Oak, Coast Silver-oak, Coastal Silver-Oak, Coastal Silverleaf

Climate known 74 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

Brachylaena discolor is a species of flowering plant in the aster family, Asteraceae. It is native to Africa, where it occurs in Mozambique, South Africa, and Eswatini. Its common names include coast silver oak and coastal silver oak.

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

About the genus · Brachylaena

Brachylaena is a genus of flowering plants in the aster, or composite, family, Asteraceae or Compositae. Several are endemic to Madagascar, and the others are distributed in mainland Africa, especially the southern regions.

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

Family
Asteraceae
Described by
DC.
Native to
Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana +5
Wild records
1602 in range· 388 open

At a glance

Warmest month
26°C
Jan, mean day; nights 18 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
862mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jan 125 mm (CHELSA)
Light
20–41DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: a summer growing season, April to September in the northern hemisphere (October to March at the habitat, southern). Habitat rain 862 mm a year, wettest January at 125 mm, driest June at 28 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 20 to 41 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 10.0 °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 Brachylaena natalensis Sch.Bip.; Brachylaena natalensis Sch.Bip. ex Walp.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, April to September in the northern hemisphere (October to March at the habitat, southern).

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 (619 mm of 862 mm) falls in October to March, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 21.2 °C against a yearly mean of 18.9 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: April to September.

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 862 mm a year, wettest January at 125 mm, driest June at 28 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

862 mm a year at the habitat, 619 mm of it October to March. Wettest month January at 125 mm, driest June at 28 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 600 mm to 1161 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: 20 to 41 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 20 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 17, 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 10.0 °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 10.0 °C, the absolute minimum 7.4 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 28.7 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 10.9 °C in July (across the envelope cells 3.6 °C to 15.3 °C), warmest day 25.9 °C in January (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 10.0 °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: 55 to 63% 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 20 °C in Jul to 26 °C in Jan; mean night from 11 °C in Jul to 19 °C in Feb. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest night. 862 mm of rain a year, most in Jan. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 599 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 7.4 °C and the 99th-percentile day 28.7 °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°28.7° 99th-percentile day (undated)7.4° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200mm rainDLI 20–41RH 55–63 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 599 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 °C26 / 23–2826 / 24–2825 / 23–2724 / 21–2622 / 19–2420 / 16–2220 / 16–2221 / 18–2323 / 18–2623 / 20–2724 / 21–2725 / 22–28
Night °C18 / 15–2219 / 15–2318 / 14–2216 / 11–2014 / 7–1812 / 4–1611 / 4–1512 / 6–1613 / 9–1714 / 12–1816 / 13–2018 / 15–21
Rain mm125 / 43–159108 / 40–15791 / 54–13057 / 34–8236 / 12–7028 / 7–7032 / 3–5941 / 6–6949 / 15–8977 / 46–116107 / 58–142111 / 48–148
DLI41 / 37–4738 / 35–4233 / 31–3727 / 25–3223 / 20–2820 / 17–2621 / 18–2725 / 23–3231 / 29–3936 / 32–4239 / 35–4541 / 37–48
RH %62 / 57–6563 / 56–6663 / 56–6561 / 54–6458 / 51–6155 / 50–6055 / 48–5957 / 47–6160 / 47–6261 / 51–6361 / 54–6462 / 56–65

Each figure is the median across the 599 grid cells holding the 1597 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 2412:4207 (-30.625, 30.375). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 7.4 °C, 1st-percentile night 10.0 °C, 99th-percentile day 28.7 °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 599 distinct grid cells holding the 1597 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2412:4207 (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 -30.50_30.625, lapse-corrected +212 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 336 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.
NativeMozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Cape Provinces, KwaZulu-Natal, Free State, Swaziland, Northern Provinces
Map marker-30.125, 30.875 · in the densest population, 872 records (54% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1602 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 388 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 89 km away. 17 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 5 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 1602 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Brachylaena discolorBrachylaena discolorBrachylaena discolorBrachylaena discolorBrachylaena discolorBrachylaena discolorBrachylaena discolorBrachylaena discolor

Photographs: (c) linkie, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Henry de Lange, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Tony Rebelo, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA); no rights reserved · CC0 (2); (c) Fabrício Mil Homens Riella, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2).

Photographs: iNaturalist and Wikimedia Commons 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 Brachylaena discolor, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Medicinal plants used for the treatment of various skin disorders by a rural community in northern Maputaland, South Africa
H. De Wet, Sibongile Nciki, Sandy van Vuuren (2013) · Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine
Vegetation and habitat types of the Umkhanyakude Node
Theunis Morgenthal, Klaus Kellner, L. van Rensburg, Terry Newby (2006) · South African Journal of Botany
An Assessment of Morphological, Physiological and Biochemical Biomarkers of Industrial Air Pollution in the Leaves of Brachylaena discolor
Candyce Ann Areington, Boby Varghese, Syd Ramdhani, Sershen (2015) · Water Air & Soil Pollution
Antidiabetic potential of Brachylaena discolor
John J. Mellem, Himansu Baijnath, B. Odhav (2015) · African Journal of Traditional Complementary and Alternative Medicines
Effect of the methanolic extract of Brachylaena discolor in a streptozotocin-induced diabetic rat model
John J. Mellem (2013) · African Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmacology
Review of phytochemistry, biological activities and therapeutic potential of Brachylaena discolor
Alfred Maroyi (2020) · International Journal of Research in Pharmaceutical Sciences
Leishmanicidal activity of onopordopicrin isolated from the leaves of Brachylaena discolor
Julião Monjane, Diandra Capusiri, Alberto Giménez, Olov Sterner (2018) · Tropical Journal of Natural Product Research

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 2026-09-20 (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); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
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); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried 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 2026-09-20; 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 26 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.