Species
+

Crassula multicava Lem.

Cape Province Pygmyweed, Fairy Stonecrop, Fairy crassula, Rosarotes Dickblatt (DE); Crasula rosada (ES)

Climate known 45 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

Crassula multicava is a perennial succulent plant from the family Crassulaceae. It is also known under various English common names including the fairy crassula, pitted crassula and London pride. In Zulu, it is known as umadinsane, one of several plants known by this name.

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

About the genus · Crassula

Crassula is a genus of succulent plants containing about 200 accepted species, including the popular jade plant. They are members of the stonecrop family (Crassulaceae) and are native to many parts of the globe, but cultivated varieties originate almost exclusively from species from the Eastern Cape of South Africa.

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

Family
Crassulaceae
Described by
Lem.
Native to
Cape Provinces, KwaZulu-Natal
Wild records
279 in range· 59 open

At a glance

Warmest month
25°C
Feb, mean day; nights 18 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
735mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Nov 87 mm (CHELSA)
Light
17–44DLI
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 Crassula, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (March to October in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 735 mm a year, wettest November at 87 mm, driest June at 37 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 17 to 44 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 6.8 °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 Crassula multicava J.M.Wood & M.S.Evans; Crassula multicava subsp. multicava; Crassula quadrifida Baker fil.; Septimia multicava (Lem.) P.V.Heath.

Cultivation

Grouped as a cactus or succulent by the genus Crassula, 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 (March 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 (563 mm of 735 mm) takes 8 months, September to April. Mean temperature moves 7.1 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: March 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 735 mm a year, wettest November at 87 mm, driest June at 37 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

735 mm a year at the habitat, 563 mm of it September to April. Wettest month November at 87 mm, driest June at 37 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 617 mm to 1099 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: 17 to 44 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 17 to 44 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 52).

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 6.8 °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 6.8 °C, the absolute minimum 4.5 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 35.0 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 10.9 °C in July (across the envelope cells 5.4 °C to 13.7 °C), warmest day 24.8 °C in February (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 6.8 °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 64% 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 19 °C in Jun to 25 °C in Feb; mean night from 11 °C in Jul to 18 °C in Feb. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest night. 735 mm of rain a year, most in Nov. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 150 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 4.5 °C and the 99th-percentile day 35.0 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°20°30°40°35.0° 99th-percentile day (undated)4.5° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200mm rainDLI 17–44RH 55–64 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 150 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 °C25 / 22–2625 / 23–2724 / 22–2622 / 20–2421 / 18–2319 / 16–2119 / 16–2120 / 16–2220 / 17–2321 / 18–2422 / 20–2423 / 21–25
Night °C18 / 16–2118 / 16–2217 / 15–2115 / 12–1913 / 9–1712 / 6–1411 / 5–1411 / 7–1412 / 9–1614 / 11–1715 / 13–1817 / 15–20
Rain mm67 / 30–13558 / 26–12076 / 35–10259 / 42–8640 / 19–12037 / 18–15438 / 16–16957 / 27–13361 / 32–9879 / 48–11287 / 38–12276 / 33–130
DLI43 / 36–5240 / 34–4633 / 31–3826 / 25–2820 / 19–2417 / 16–2219 / 17–2324 / 23–2730 / 29–3237 / 32–4142 / 35–4944 / 36–52
RH %63 / 58–6764 / 58–6764 / 58–6662 / 57–6458 / 54–6255 / 51–6055 / 50–6058 / 54–6161 / 56–6262 / 58–6462 / 58–6563 / 58–66

Each figure is the median across the 150 grid cells holding the 273 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 2480:3971 (-34.025, 18.575). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 4.5 °C, 1st-percentile night 6.8 °C, 99th-percentile day 35.0 °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 150 distinct grid cells holding the 273 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2480:3971 (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 -34.00_18.750, lapse-corrected -180 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 29 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.
NativeCape Provinces, KwaZulu-Natal· introduced: Great Britain, Portugal, Spain, Azores, Canary Is., Madeira, Northern Provinces, Norfolk Is., Tasmania, New Zealand North, New Zealand South, Hawaii, California, Juan Fernández Is.
Kew's description“succulent subshrub” · “subtropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-33.988, 18.431 · in the densest population, 201 records (72% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 279 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 59 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 472 km away. 1333 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 6 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 4° block of the 279 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Crassula multicavaCrassula multicavaCrassula multicavaCrassula multicavaCrassula multicavaCrassula multicavaCrassula multicavaCrassula multicava

Photographs: (c) zebedeugalinha, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Andy McKay, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Lisa Bennett, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Michael Berardozzi, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Frank Ashwood, 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 Crassula multicava, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Selected southern African medicinal plants with low cytotoxicity and good activity against bovine mastitis pathogens
P. Sserunkuma, Lyndy J. McGaw, I.V. Nsahlai, J. Van Staden (2017) · South African Journal of Botany
Anatomical adaptations of four Crassula species to water availability
LaurenceR Jones (2011) · Bioscience Horizons The International Journal of Student Research
REGENERATION IN CRASSULA MULTICAVA
Ilda McVeigh (1938) · American Journal of Botany
Induction of anthocyanins accumulation by methyl jasmonate in shoots of Crassula multicava Lam.
M. Saniewski, Marcin Harbowicz, Jerzy Puchalski (2012) · Acta Agrobotanica
Regeneration in Crassula Multicava
Ilda McVeigh (1938) · American Journal of Botany
Carbon dioxide uptake by succulents
Michael J. Holdsworth (1971) · Canadian Journal of Botany
APUNTES COROLÓGICOS SOBRE NEÓFITOS DE LA FLORA VALENCIANA
Daniel Guillot Ortiz (2003) · Flora montibérica/Flora montiberica
28. Wilhelm Figdor: Zur Kenntnis des Regenerationsvermögens von Crassula multicava Lem
(1918) · Berichte der Deutschen Botanischen Gesellschaft
Inhibition of anthocyanins accumulation in detached leaves of Crassula multicava LEM. around the infected spots caused by Pestalotia sp.
M. Saniewski, A. Saniewska, H. Urbánek (2008) · Zeszyty Problemowe Postępów Nauk Rolniczych
Preliminary studies on some chlorophyll fluorescence parameters in Crassulaceae species of different leaf characters under water stress
Tamás Rózsavölgyi, E. Lehoczki, Erzsébet Mihalik (2005) · Acta Biologica Szegediensis

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 Crassula 207 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 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)
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 45 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.