kathi heller, CC BY-SA, via GBIF · observed growing wild

Dracaena angolensis (Welw. ex Carrière) Byng & Christenh.

Asparagaceae

Climate known 6 photographs Cactus or succulent

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

Dracaena angolensis, commonly known as African spear or the spear sansevieria, is a succulent plant native to Angola in Southern Africa. For years, it was placed within the genus Sansevieria (snake-plants), a specific name which is still used synonymously by some; in the 21st century, Sansevieria became part of Dracaena (dragon-trees), after improved testing methods, physical comparisons, and other analyses found sufficient commonalities between the two genera to warrant subsumption.

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

Family

Asparagaceae

Described by

(Welw. ex Carrière) Byng & Christenh.

Native to

Angola, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Wild records

6 in range· 5 open

At a glance

Warmest month

32°C

Oct, mean day; nights 19 °C (CHELSA)

Rain

590mm/yr

5 wet months · peak Jan 153 mm (CHELSA)

Light

30–45DLI

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 Dracaena angolensis specifically, which is the exception in its genus (archetype table). Rain rule: a summer growing season, June to September in the northern hemisphere (December to March at the habitat, southern). Habitat rain 590 mm a year, wettest January at 153 mm, driest July at 0 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 30 to 45 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 6.6 °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 Acyntha cylindrica (Bojer ex Hook.) Kuntze; Cordyline cylindrica (Bojer ex Hook.) Britton; Sansevieria angolensis Welw. ex Carrière; Sansevieria cylindrica Bojer; Sansevieria cylindrica Bojer ex Hook. and 3 more.

Cultivation

Grouped as a cactus or succulent by Dracaena angolensis specifically, which is the exception in its genus (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 summer growing season, June to September in the northern hemisphere (December 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 (482 mm of 590 mm) falls in December to March, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 24.4 °C against a yearly mean of 22.9 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-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 590 mm a year, wettest January at 153 mm, driest July at 0 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

590 mm a year at the habitat, 482 mm of it December to March. Wettest month January at 153 mm, driest July at 0 mm; 5 months under 5 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 297 mm to 871 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: 30 to 45 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 30 to 45 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 27, the highest 90th-percentile month 47).

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 6.6 °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 6.6 °C, the absolute minimum 0.8 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 36.8 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 10.7 °C in July (across the envelope cells 10.1 °C to 13.2 °C), warmest day 32.1 °C in October (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 6.6 °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: 44 to 61% 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

day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 6 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

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
Day °C	29 / 27–31	29 / 27–32	29 / 27–32	29 / 27–32	27 / 27–30	25 / 24–28	24 / 24–28	28 / 27–29	32 / 29–32	32 / 29–34	32 / 29–33	30 / 28–31
Night °C	20 / 18–21	20 / 18–21	19 / 18–21	17 / 16–20	14 / 14–17	11 / 11–14	11 / 10–13	13 / 12–14	16 / 15–17	19 / 17–20	21 / 17–21	20 / 18–21
Rain mm	153 / 60–177	125 / 58–155	80 / 44–137	18 / 16–56	3 / 1–9	1 / 0–4	0 / 0–4	0 / 0–3	2 / 1–15	20 / 11–63	64 / 34–113	124 / 46–163
DLI	40 / 37–44	39 / 36–42	38 / 34–40	37 / 33–38	33 / 30–37	30 / 27–34	31 / 28–35	37 / 33–38	42 / 38–43	45 / 38–46	44 / 37–47	41 / 37–45
RH %	60 / 57–62	61 / 58–62	59 / 57–62	54 / 54–58	51 / 50–53	50 / 47–54	49 / 45–55	45 / 42–57	44 / 42–57	49 / 45–58	52 / 51–60	58 / 56–61

Each figure is the median across the 6 grid cells holding the 6 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 2045:3950 (-12.275, 17.525). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 0.8 °C, 1st-percentile night 6.6 °C, 99th-percentile day 36.8 °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 6 distinct grid cells holding the 6 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2045:3950 (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 -12.50_17.500, lapse-corrected -32 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 1338 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, Zambia, Zimbabwe· introduced: Central African Republic, Rwanda, Bangladesh, India, Thailand, Marianas, Florida, Jamaica, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Puerto Rico, Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuelan Antilles, Windward Is.

Kew's description“rhizomatous geophyte” · “seasonally dry tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here

Map marker-17.924, 25.857 · in the densest population, 3 records (50% of those in range)

Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 6 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 5 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 3 km away. 211 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. Under a dozen records: treat the map and the climate as indicative.

The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 6 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Photographs: Kevin Faccenda, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF (3); nebrooks, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF; Avery Fae, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF.

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

Natural cellulose fibers derived from Dracaena angolensis (Welw. ex Carrière) Byng & Christenh. demonstrate potential as a non-absorbable surgical suture biomaterial

Piyaporn Kampeerapappun, Scarlett Desclaux, Kasem Rattanapinyopituk, Tanyalak Srisuk (2025) · Scientific Reports

Biological activity and phytochemistry of Dracaena angolensis Welw. ex Carrière

Whika Febria Dewatisari, Nelsiani To’bungan (2023) · Plant Science Today

Occurrence Download