Brunsvigia orientalis (L.) Aiton ex Eckl.
Chandelier Lily, Chandelier Plant, King Candelabra, candelabra lily
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
Brunsvigia orientalis, commonly known as the candelabra flower, red candelabra flower, king candelabra, chandelier lily, chandelier plant and sore-eye flower, is a geophyte belonging to the Amaryllidaceae family. The species is endemic to the Western Cape.
Text from Wikipedia, “Brunsvigia orientalis”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.
About the genus · Brunsvigia
Brunsvigia is a genus of African flowering plants in the family Amaryllidaceae, subfamily Amaryllidoideae. It contains about 20 species native to southeastern and southern Africa from Tanzania to the Cape Provinces of South Africa.
Text from Wikipedia, “Brunsvigia”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.
At a glance
Also known as Amaryllis multiflora D.Dietr.; Amaryllis nobilis Salisb.; Amaryllis orientalis L.; Brunsvigia gigantea Heist.; Brunsvigia multiflora W.T.Aiton and 6 more.
Cultivation
Grouped as a bulb, tuber or caudex by the genus Brunsvigia, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). The table holds no figure for this group, which spans too much for one minimum; the cold floor is the habitat's alone, and no prose comes from the table.
Its year Rain rule: a winter growing season, October to April in the northern hemisphere (April to October at the habitat, southern).
This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.
The rain rule reads a winter growing season: 70% of the year's rain (383 mm of 518 mm) falls in April to October, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 14.7 °C against a yearly mean of 16.8 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: October 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 518 mm a year, wettest July at 65 mm, driest February at 23 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
518 mm a year at the habitat, 383 mm of it April to October. Wettest month July at 65 mm, driest February at 23 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 340 mm to 926 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: 16 to 50 mol/m²/day.
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
Open sky over the habitat: 16 to 50 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 15, the highest 90th-percentile month 54).
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 7.3 °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 7.3 °C, the absolute minimum 4.9 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 32.0 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 9.6 °C in July (across the envelope cells 6.2 °C to 12.2 °C), warmest day 24.2 °C in February (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 7.3 °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: 59 to 62% 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 | 24 / 21–30 | 24 / 21–30 | 23 / 20–28 | 21 / 19–24 | 19 / 17–21 | 17 / 16–18 | 16 / 15–18 | 17 / 15–18 | 18 / 16–20 | 20 / 17–23 | 21 / 18–26 | 23 / 20–28 |
| Night °C | 17 / 16–18 | 17 / 16–19 | 16 / 15–18 | 14 / 13–16 | 13 / 10–15 | 10 / 7–13 | 10 / 6–12 | 10 / 7–12 | 11 / 8–13 | 13 / 11–14 | 14 / 13–16 | 16 / 15–17 |
| Rain mm | 25 / 8–54 | 23 / 8–44 | 29 / 12–59 | 60 / 27–83 | 51 / 37–113 | 61 / 35–144 | 65 / 41–157 | 62 / 44–126 | 42 / 29–86 | 42 / 16–79 | 32 / 13–68 | 26 / 11–57 |
| DLI | 50 / 47–54 | 44 / 41–48 | 36 / 33–40 | 26 / 25–29 | 19 / 18–21 | 16 / 15–17 | 18 / 17–19 | 23 / 22–24 | 31 / 30–32 | 39 / 37–43 | 47 / 44–50 | 50 / 47–54 |
| RH % | 59 / 53–64 | 60 / 54–65 | 61 / 54–65 | 62 / 56–64 | 61 / 57–63 | 59 / 56–61 | 59 / 56–61 | 61 / 58–62 | 61 / 58–62 | 60 / 56–62 | 59 / 54–63 | 59 / 54–63 |
Each figure is the median across the 373 grid cells holding the 1301 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 2489:3988 (-34.475, 19.425). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 4.9 °C, 1st-percentile night 7.3 °C, 99th-percentile day 32.0 °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 373 distinct grid cells holding the 1301 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2489:3988 (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 -34.50_19.375, lapse-corrected -23 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 108 m (cell mean).
Natural habitat
Photographs
Photographs: (c) magriet b, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (5); no rights reserved · CC0 (3).
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 Brunsvigia orientalis, 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.
Ferraria crispa Black Flag
Ceropegia mixta Apocynaceae
Colchicum eucomoides Green Men-in-a-Boat
Trachyandra ciliata Common Capespinach
Bulbine annua Asphodelaceae
Lachenalia punctata Dotted ViooltjieOther Brunsvigia 18 in the reference
Brunsvigia bosmaniae Fragrant Candelabra
Brunsvigia comptonii Dainty Candelabra
Brunsvigia elandsmontana Swartland Candelabra Brunsvigia gariepensis Gariep Candelabra
Brunsvigia grandiflora Giant Candelabra
Brunsvigia gregaria Albany Candelabra
Brunsvigia herrei Desert Candelabra
Brunsvigia josephinae Josephine's-lily Brunsvigia kirkii Amaryllidaceae
Brunsvigia litoralis Surfers Candelabra
Brunsvigia marginata False Firelily
Brunsvigia namaquana Dwarf March Lily all 19 ›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 answeredgbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zamclimate answeredwikidata 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: skippedinat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skippedinat.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 answeredopenalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; 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 9 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.








