Species
+

Cotyledon orbiculata L.

Pig Ears, Pig's Ear, cotyledon, pig's ears

Climate known 77 photographs Cactus or succulent
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

Cotyledon orbiculata, commonly known as pig's ear or round-leafed navel-wort, is a South African succulent plant belonging to the genus Cotyledon.

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

About the genus · Cotyledon

A cotyledon is a "seed leaf" – a significant part of the embryo within the seed of a plant – and is formally defined as "the embryonic leaf in seed-bearing plants, one or more of which are the first to appear from a germinating seed." Botanists use the number of cotyledons present as one characteristic to classify the flowering plants (angiosperms): species with one cotyledon are called monocotyledonous ("monocots"); plants with two embryonic leaves are termed dicotyledonous ("dicots"). Many orchids with minute seeds have no identifiable cotyledon, and are regarded as acotyledons. More on Wikipedia ›

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

Family
Crassulaceae
Described by
L.
Native to
Angola, Mozambique, Cape Provinces +6
Wild records
1229 in range· 348 open

At a glance

Warmest month
27°C
Jan, mean day; nights 16 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
465mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Oct 49 mm (CHELSA)
Light
18–49DLI
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 cactus or succulent by the genus Cotyledon, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (February and April to October in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 465 mm a year, wettest October at 49 mm, driest June at 29 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 18 to 49 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 8.0 °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 Adromischus mucronatus Lem.; Cotyledon ambigua Salisb.; Cotyledon ausana Dinter; Cotyledon canaliculata (Hook.fil.) Baker; Cotyledon decussata JacotGuill. and 40 more.

Cultivation

Grouped as a cactus or succulent by the genus Cotyledon, 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: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (February and April to October in the northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (343 mm of 465 mm) takes 8 months, October to April and August. Mean temperature moves 9.5 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: February and April to October.

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 465 mm a year, wettest October at 49 mm, driest June at 29 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

465 mm a year at the habitat, 343 mm of it October to April and August. Wettest month October at 49 mm, driest June at 29 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 230 mm to 947 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: 18 to 49 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 18 to 49 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 16, the highest 90th-percentile month 55).

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 8.0 °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 8.0 °C, the absolute minimum 6.0 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 28.5 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 6.1 °C in July (across the envelope cells 1.2 °C to 11.9 °C), warmest day 26.6 °C in January (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 8.0 °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: 53 to 59% 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 17 °C in Jul to 27 °C in Jan; mean night from 6 °C in Jul to 16 °C in Feb. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest night. 465 mm of rain a year, most in Oct. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 748 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 6.0 °C and the 99th-percentile day 28.5 °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°28.5° 99th-percentile day (undated)6.0° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125150mm rainDLI 18–49RH 53–59 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 748 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 °C27 / 22–3027 / 22–3025 / 21–2923 / 19–2620 / 17–2317 / 14–2017 / 14–2018 / 15–2120 / 16–2422 / 18–2624 / 19–2726 / 21–29
Night °C16 / 13–1816 / 13–1915 / 11–1813 / 8–1610 / 5–147 / 2–136 / 1–127 / 3–129 / 5–1311 / 8–1413 / 9–1615 / 11–17
Rain mm39 / 7–13036 / 8–11348 / 13–9646 / 21–7332 / 13–7529 / 9–8931 / 6–9938 / 8–8830 / 12–7149 / 14–9646 / 10–11541 / 9–122
DLI49 / 41–5543 / 37–4936 / 32–4127 / 25–3221 / 19–2718 / 16–2420 / 17–2624 / 23–3132 / 30–3840 / 35–4646 / 40–5249 / 42–55
RH %58 / 50–6459 / 51–6459 / 51–6457 / 51–6355 / 50–6254 / 49–6053 / 48–5955 / 47–6156 / 47–6257 / 49–6257 / 49–6358 / 50–63

Each figure is the median across the 748 grid cells holding the 1209 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 2486:4006 (-34.325, 20.325). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 6.0 °C, 1st-percentile night 8.0 °C, 99th-percentile day 28.5 °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 748 distinct grid cells holding the 1209 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2486:4006 (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_20.625, lapse-corrected +133 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 199 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.
NativeAngola, Mozambique, Cape Provinces, Lesotho, Namibia, KwaZulu-Natal, Free State, Swaziland, Northern Provinces· introduced: Baleares, France, Portugal, Spain, Tunisia, Canary Is., St.Helena, Tasmania, New Zealand North, New Zealand South, California, Dominican Republic
Kew's description“succulent subshrub” · “desert or dry shrubland”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-34.001, 18.552 · in the densest population, 804 records (65% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1229 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 348 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 250 km away. 485 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 20 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 1229 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Cotyledon orbiculataCotyledon orbiculataCotyledon orbiculataCotyledon orbiculataCotyledon orbiculataCotyledon orbiculataCotyledon orbiculataCotyledon orbiculata

Photographs: no rights reserved · CC0; (c) Kerry Paul, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Matt Berger, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Lisa Bennett, some rights reserved (CC BY) (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 Cotyledon orbiculata, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

The Antimicrobial and Anti-Inflammatory Effects of Silver Nanoparticles Synthesised from Cotyledon orbiculata Aqueous Extract
Caroline Tyavambiza, Abdulrahman M. Elbagory, Abram M. Madiehe, Mervin Meyer (2021) · Nanomaterials
Internal and external photoprotection in developing leaves of the CAM plant Cotyledon orbiculata
David Barker, George Seaton, Sharon A. Robinson (1997) · Plant Cell & Environment
Wax as a Mechanism for Protection against Photoinhibition — A Study of Cotyledon orbiculata
Sharon A. Robinson, Catherine E. Lovelock, C. B. Osmond (1993) · Botanica Acta
In vitro pharmacological evaluation and phenolic content of ten South African medicinal plants used as anthelmintics
Adeyemi O. Aremu, A.R. Ndhlala, Olaniyi Amos Fawole, M.E. Light (2010) · South African Journal of Botany
Indigenous plant species used by Bapedi healers to treat sexually transmitted infections: Their distribution, harvesting, conservation and threats
Sebua Silas Semenya, M.J. Potgieter, Lourens Johannes Christoffel Erasmus (2013) · South African Journal of Botany
Anticonvulsant activity of Cotyledon orbiculata L. (Crassulaceae) leaf extract in mice
G.J. Amabeoku, I. Green, Joseph Kabatende (2007) · Journal of Ethnopharmacology
Isolation of endophytic fungi from South African plants, and screening for their antimicrobial and extracellular enzymatic activities and presence of type I polyketide synthases
Muna Ali Abdalla, Abimbola Obemisola Aro, Dorcas A. Gado, Ajit Kumar Passari (2020) · South African Journal of Botany
The Antioxidant and In Vitro Wound Healing Activity of Cotyledon orbiculata Aqueous Extract and the Synthesized Biogenic Silver Nanoparticles
Caroline Tyavambiza, Mervin Meyer, Adedoja Dorcas Wusu, Abram M. Madiehe (2022) · International Journal of Molecular Sciences
In vitro propagation and antibacterial activity in Cotyledon orbiculata: a valuable medicinal plant
Aloka Kumari, P. Baskaran, Johannes Van Staden (2015) · Plant Cell Tissue and Organ Culture (PCTOC)
Water use efficiency of two succulents with contrasting CO2 fixation pathways
B. M. Eller, Stephen F. Ferrari (1997) · Plant Cell & Environment
Bufadienolide glycosides of the Crassulaceae. Structure and stereochemistry of orbicusides A—C, novel toxic metabolites of Cotyledon orbiculata
Pieter S. Steyn, Fanie R. van Heerden, Robert Vleggaar, Lourens A. P. Anderson (1986) · Journal of the Chemical Society Perkin Transactions 1

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 Cotyledon 17 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); 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 49 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.