Species
+

Dipcadi erythraeum Webb & Berthel.

Asparagaceae

Climate known 24 photographs Bulb, tuber or caudex
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.

About the genus · Dipcadi

Dipcadi is a genus of bulbous flowering plants in the family Asparagaceae, subfamily Scilloideae. It is widely distributed, occurring in southern Europe, most of Africa and the Middle East through to the Indian subcontinent.

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

Family
Asparagaceae
Described by
Webb & Berthel.
Native to
Egypt, Afghanistan, Iran +8
Wild records
161 in range· 11 open

At a glance

Warmest month
35°C
Jul, mean day; nights 21 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
125mm/yr
2 wet months · peak Jan 30 mm (CHELSA)
Light
21–51DLI
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 bulb, tuber or caudex by the genus Dipcadi, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a winter growing season, December to March in the northern hemisphere (December to March at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 125 mm a year, wettest January at 30 mm, driest June at 0 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 21 to 51 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 1.9 °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 Dipcadi unicolor (Stocks) Baker; Ornithogalum erythraeum (Webb & Berthel.) J.C.Manning & Goldblatt; Uropetalon erythraeum (Webb & Berthel.) Boiss.; Uropetalon unicolor Stocks; Uropetalum unicolor Stocks.

Cultivation

Grouped as a bulb, tuber or caudex by the genus Dipcadi, 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, December to March in the northern hemisphere (December to March at the habitat, northern).

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 (100 mm of 125 mm) falls in December to March, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 13.7 °C against a yearly mean of 20.9 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: June 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 125 mm a year, wettest January at 30 mm, driest June at 0 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

125 mm a year at the habitat, 100 mm of it December to March. Wettest month January at 30 mm, driest June at 0 mm; 5 months under 5 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 41 mm to 213 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern 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: 21 to 51 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 21 to 51 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 20, the highest 90th-percentile month 53).

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 1.9 °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 1.9 °C, the absolute minimum -3.0 °C, 34 frost nights in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 41.0 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 7.1 °C in January (across the envelope cells 5.6 °C to 9.2 °C), warmest day 35.2 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 1.9 °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: 46 to 55% 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 Jan to 35 °C in Jul; mean night from 7 °C in Jan to 22 °C in Aug. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 125 mm of rain a year, most in Jan. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 55 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -3.0 °C and the 99th-percentile day 41.0 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-10°10°20°30°40°50°frost41.0° 99th-percentile day (undated)-3.0° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0102030405060mm rainDLI 21–51RH 46–55 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 55 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 °C17 / 15–1918 / 16–2121 / 20–2626 / 25–3231 / 29–3834 / 31–4035 / 33–4235 / 33–4233 / 31–3829 / 28–3423 / 21–2619 / 17–21
Night °C7 / 6–98 / 6–1010 / 8–1413 / 12–1916 / 15–2419 / 18–2721 / 20–2722 / 20–2720 / 19–2417 / 16–2013 / 11–159 / 7–11
Rain mm30 / 6–5127 / 5–4523 / 5–347 / 3–121 / 1–40 / 0–10 / 0–10 / 0–10 / 0–15 / 1–1012 / 3–2420 / 6–37
DLI22 / 21–2828 / 27–3436 / 35–4045 / 43–4750 / 48–5151 / 50–5350 / 48–5147 / 45–4841 / 39–4332 / 31–3625 / 24–3021 / 20–26
RH %55 / 50–5753 / 46–5651 / 43–5647 / 40–5346 / 37–5448 / 32–5649 / 32–5751 / 35–5951 / 37–5951 / 40–5851 / 46–5554 / 50–56

Each figure is the median across the 55 grid cells holding the 159 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 1179:4294 (31.025, 34.725). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -3.0 °C, 1st-percentile night 1.9 °C, 99th-percentile day 41.0 °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 55 distinct grid cells holding the 159 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1179:4294 (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 31.00_35.000, lapse-corrected +31 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 302 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.
NativeEgypt, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Palestine, Sinai, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, India, Pakistan
Kew's description“bulbous geophyte” · “desert or dry shrubland”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker30.75, 35.05 · in the densest population, 146 records (91% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 161 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 11 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 1571 km away. 2 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 2 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 centre of the tenth-degree cell nearest the middle (no openly licensed record lies in the population, so no record's coordinates are published) of the densest 1° population of the 161 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Dipcadi erythraeumDipcadi erythraeumDipcadi erythraeumDipcadi erythraeumDipcadi erythraeumDipcadi erythraeumDipcadi erythraeumDipcadi erythraeum

Photographs: unknown, CC0, via GBIF (4); Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, CC BY, via GBIF; Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, CC0, via GBIF (3).

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 Dipcadi erythraeum, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

C-glycosyl flavonoids-rich extract of Dipcadi erythraeum Webb & Berthel. bulbs: Phytochemical and anticancer evaluations
Mona M. Marzouk, Ahmed Elkhateeb, Rasha R. Abdel Latif, El‐Sayed S. Abdel‐Hameed (2019) · Journal of Applied Pharmaceutical Science
Flavonoid constituents of Dipcadi erythraeum Webb. & Berthel.
Mona Osama El-Shabrawy, Mona M. Marzouk, Salwa A. Kawashty, Hassnaa Ahmed Hosni (2016) · Asian Pacific Journal of Tropical Disease
Cytogenetic Rationale for Probable Amphidiploid Origin ofDipcadi erythraeumWebb. & Berth. - A Rare and Endemic Plant of Indian Thar Desert
Deepika Rawat, Santosh Kumar Sharma, Arman Mahmoudi, Satyawada Rama Rao (2011) · Caryologia
Phytochemical Investigation of Dipcadi Ervthraeum
HADI A. AL-NAJJAR (2020) · The Medical Journal of Cairo University/˜The œMedical Journal of Cairo University
Evaluation of phytochemical variations in medicinal plants of Rajasthan
Pawan K. Kasera, Arti Soni, K. S. Daiya, Anupama Sagar (2018) · International Journal of Phytocosmetics and Natural Ingredients
A Review on Phytochemical Screening and Pharmacological Studies of the Plant Dipcadi erythraeum Webb and Berthel
Nema Ram, Yuvraj Singh Sarangdevot, Bhupendra Vyas (2024) · International Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Drug Research
Assessment of Genetic Diversity and Population Structure of Dipcadi erythraeum from Indian Thar Desert Using SCoT Markers
Rekha Rankawat, Bhuwnesh Goswami, B. R. Gadi, Satyawada Rama Rao (2023) · Plant Molecular Biology Reporter
Pharmacognosy, phytochemistry and pharmacological use of Dipcadi erythraeum: Noteworthy ethno medicinal plant of Indian Thar desert
Nema Ram, GK Singh, P.V. Desai, Ashwin Singh Chouhan (2021) · International Journal of Pharmacognosy and Life Science
Dipcadi erythraeum Webb & Berthel.
Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (2026)
Dipcadi erythraeum Webb & Berthel.
Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (2026) · DiSSCo
Dipcadi erythraeum Webb & Berthel.
Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (2026) · DiSSCo
Dipcadi erythraeum Webb & Berthel.
Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (2026) · DiSSCo

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 Dipcadi 40 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 nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild 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)
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 answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: api.gbif.org not asked: offline re-derivation
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 9 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.