Species
+

Ferraria crispa Burm.

Black Flag, Black Spiderlily, Crispy Spiderlily, Spider Lily

Climate known 74 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.

Summary

Ferraria crispa is a species of monocotyledonous flowering plant in the family Iridaceae. It is native to South Africa.

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

About the genus · Ferraria

Ferraria is a genus of monocotyledonous flowering plants in the family Iridaceae, native to tropical and southern Africa. They are herbaceous corm-bearing plants growing to 30–45 cm tall. Some species have an unpleasant scent similar to rotting meat and are pollinated by flies, while others have a pleasant scent. More on Wikipedia ›

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

Family
Iridaceae
Described by
Burm.
Native to
Cape Provinces
Wild records
1042 in range· 219 open

At a glance

Warmest month
24°C
Feb, mean day; nights 17 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
532mm/yr
9 wet months · peak Jul 77 mm (CHELSA)
Light
16–53DLI
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 Ferraria, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a winter growing season, October to April in the northern hemisphere (April to October at the habitat, southern). Habitat rain 532 mm a year, wettest July at 77 mm, driest February at 20 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 16 to 53 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 Ferraria crispa subsp. crispa; Ferraria crispa subsp. nortieri M.P.de Vos; Ferraria crispa subsp. nortieri M.P.deVos; Ferraria ensiformis Mill.; Ferraria major Eckl. and 6 more.

Cultivation

Grouped as a bulb, tuber or caudex by the genus Ferraria, 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, October to April in the northern hemisphere (April to October at the habitat, southern).

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 (407 mm of 532 mm) falls in April to October, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 14.7 °C against a yearly mean of 16.7 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: October to April.

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 532 mm a year, wettest July at 77 mm, driest February at 20 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

532 mm a year at the habitat, 407 mm of it April to October. Wettest month July at 77 mm, driest February at 20 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 315 mm to 991 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: 16 to 53 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 16 to 53 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 15, the highest 90th-percentile month 54).

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 5.9 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 29.5 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 9.7 °C in July (across the envelope cells 5.5 °C to 12.2 °C), warmest day 24.2 °C in February (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: 59 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 16 °C in Jul to 24 °C in Feb; mean night from 10 °C in Jul to 17 °C in Feb. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest night. 532 mm of rain a year, most in Jul. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 307 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 5.9 °C and the 99th-percentile day 29.5 °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°29.5° 99th-percentile day (undated)5.9° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200mm rainDLI 16–53RH 59–62 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 307 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 °C24 / 20–3024 / 20–3023 / 19–2821 / 18–2519 / 17–2117 / 16–1816 / 15–1716 / 15–1818 / 16–2020 / 17–2321 / 18–2623 / 19–28
Night °C17 / 15–1817 / 16–1916 / 15–1814 / 12–1613 / 9–1411 / 6–1310 / 6–1210 / 6–1211 / 8–1313 / 10–1414 / 12–1616 / 14–17
Rain mm24 / 7–4120 / 7–3728 / 11–5058 / 25–8256 / 37–12570 / 36–15977 / 40–16964 / 40–13543 / 28–9539 / 16–7029 / 12–5624 / 10–47
DLI53 / 47–5447 / 41–4938 / 33–4027 / 25–2920 / 18–2116 / 15–1818 / 17–1923 / 22–2531 / 30–3341 / 38–4349 / 45–5152 / 48–54
RH %59 / 52–6360 / 52–6461 / 52–6562 / 54–6461 / 54–6359 / 55–6159 / 55–6161 / 56–6161 / 56–6260 / 55–6259 / 54–6259 / 53–63

Each figure is the median across the 307 grid cells holding the 1002 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 2446:3967 (-32.325, 18.375). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 5.9 °C, 1st-percentile night 8.0 °C, 99th-percentile day 29.5 °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 307 distinct grid cells holding the 1002 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2446:3967 (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 -32.50_18.125, lapse-corrected +6 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 53 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· introduced: Baleares, Portugal, Spain, Canary Is., Madeira, Norfolk Is., South Australia, Victoria, Western Australia
Kew's description“tuberous geophyte” · “subtropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-33.769, 18.451 · in the densest population, 904 records (87% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1042 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 219 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 20 km away. 301 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 40 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 of the 1042 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Ferraria crispaFerraria crispaFerraria crispaFerraria crispaFerraria crispaFerraria crispaFerraria crispaFerraria crispa

Photographs: (c) Jeremy Gilmore, some rights reserved (CC BY) (7); (c) Tom Lloyd Evans, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA).

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

A new Betaflexivirus species in Ferraria crispa plants
Rob J. Dekker, Wim C. de Leeuw, Marina van Olst, Wim A. Ensink (2024) · bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)
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
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Ferraria crispa Burm.
Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (2026) · DiSSCo
Ferraria crispa Burm.
Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (2026) · DiSSCo
Ferraria crispa Burm.
Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (2026) · DiSSCo
Ferraria crispa Burm.
Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (2026) · DiSSCo
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.

Other Ferraria 17 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (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 30 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.