Species
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Drimiopsis maculata Lindl. & Paxton

African false hosta, Leopard plant, Little white soldiers

Climate known 50 photographs
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

Drimiopsis maculata, also known by the common names little white soldiers, African false hosta, leopard's ears, African hosta, leopard plant, and Injoba is a flowering plant species in the genus Drimiopsis. It is the type species of its genus. It occurs from Tanzania to South Africa.

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

About the genus · Drimiopsis

Drimiopsis is a genus of African bulbous perennial herbs in the family Asparagaceae, subfamily Scilloideae, native to sub-Saharan Africa. Sometimes species are placed under the genus Ledebouria.

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

Family
Asparagaceae
Described by
Lindl. & Paxton
Native to
Tanzania, Mozambique, Cape Provinces +3
Wild records
389 in range· 183 open

At a glance

Warmest month
26°C
Jan, mean day; nights 19 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
861mm/yr
11 wet months · peak Jan 127 mm (CHELSA)
Light
21–40DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: a summer growing season, April to September in the northern hemisphere (October to March at the habitat, southern). Habitat rain 861 mm a year, wettest January at 127 mm, driest June at 24 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 21 to 40 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 7.6 °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 Drimia petiolata K.Koch & C.D.Bouché; Drimiopsis minor Baker; Ledebouria petiolata J.C.Manning & Goldblatt.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, April to September in the northern hemisphere (October 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 (633 mm of 861 mm) falls in October to March, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 21.6 °C against a yearly mean of 19.3 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: April 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 861 mm a year, wettest January at 127 mm, driest June at 24 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

861 mm a year at the habitat, 633 mm of it October to March. Wettest month January at 127 mm, driest June at 24 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 630 mm to 1095 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: 21 to 40 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 21 to 40 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 17, the highest 90th-percentile month 48).

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 7.6 °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 7.6 °C, the absolute minimum 5.1 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 34.8 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 10.8 °C in July (across the envelope cells 2.9 °C to 15.9 °C), warmest day 26.1 °C in January (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 7.6 °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: 55 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

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 21 °C in Jul to 26 °C in Jan; mean night from 11 °C in Jul to 19 °C in Feb. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest night. 861 mm of rain a year, most in Jan. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 265 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 5.1 °C and the 99th-percentile day 34.8 °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°34.8° 99th-percentile day (undated)5.1° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125150mm rainDLI 21–40RH 55–62 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 265 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 °C26 / 24–3026 / 24–3025 / 23–2924 / 21–2723 / 19–2521 / 16–2321 / 17–2321 / 18–2423 / 19–2624 / 20–2724 / 21–2825 / 23–29
Night °C19 / 15–2319 / 15–2318 / 13–2216 / 10–2114 / 7–1911 / 3–1611 / 3–1612 / 5–1713 / 9–1815 / 11–1917 / 13–2018 / 14–22
Rain mm127 / 57–146111 / 49–14294 / 61–11955 / 34–8235 / 13–6624 / 8–6028 / 3–5337 / 6–6549 / 17–8581 / 50–115106 / 66–134114 / 57–137
DLI40 / 36–4837 / 35–4233 / 31–3627 / 26–3223 / 20–2821 / 17–2522 / 19–2726 / 24–3231 / 29–3934 / 31–4137 / 34–4540 / 36–48
RH %62 / 57–6662 / 57–6662 / 56–6561 / 54–6458 / 51–6155 / 50–5955 / 48–5957 / 47–6160 / 47–6261 / 52–6461 / 55–6562 / 56–65

Each figure is the median across the 265 grid cells holding the 385 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 2480:4059 (-34.025, 22.975). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 5.1 °C, 1st-percentile night 7.6 °C, 99th-percentile day 34.8 °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 265 distinct grid cells holding the 385 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2480:4059 (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_23.125, lapse-corrected -234 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 115 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.
NativeTanzania, Mozambique, Cape Provinces, KwaZulu-Natal, Swaziland, Northern Provinces· introduced: Canary Is.
Kew's description“bulbous geophyte” · “desert or dry shrubland”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-29.375, 31.125 · in the densest population, 238 records (61% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 389 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 183 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 170 km away. 107 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 4 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 389 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Drimiopsis maculataDrimiopsis maculataDrimiopsis maculataDrimiopsis maculataDrimiopsis maculataDrimiopsis maculataDrimiopsis maculataDrimiopsis maculata

Photographs: (c) Mahomed Desai, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Margaret Burger, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (2); no rights reserved · CC0 (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 Drimiopsis maculata, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Antibacterial activity and QSAR of homoisoflavanones isolated from six Hyacinthaceae species
Karen du Toit, E.E. Elgorashi, Sarel F. Malan, Dulcie A. Mulholland (2007) · South African Journal of Botany
Total Synthesis of Naturally Occurring 5,7,8-Trioxygenated Homoisoflavonoids
Sangil Kwon, Sanha Lee, Myunghoe Heo, Bit Lee (2020) · ACS Omega
Xanthones from Drimiopsis maculata
Dulcie A. Mulholland, Chantal Koorbanally, Neil R. Crouch, Péter Sándor (2004) · Journal of Natural Products
Scillascillin-type homoisoflavanones from Drimiopsis maculata (Hyacinthaceae)
Chantal Koorbanally, Neil R. Crouch, Dulcie A. Mulholland (2001) · Biochemical Systematics and Ecology
Extractives from the Hyacinthaceae.
Chantal Koorbanally (2000) · ResearchSpace (University of KwaZulu-Natal)
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility

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.

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (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 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; 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 25 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.