Gethyllis lanuginosa Marloth
Woolly Kukumakranka
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
Gethyllis lanuginosa is a perennial geophyte belonging to the genus Gethyllis. The species is endemic to the Northern Cape and the Western Cape.
Text from Wikipedia, “Gethyllis lanuginosa”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.
About the genus · Gethyllis
Gethyllis, commonly called Kukumakranka, Koekemakranka, or Kroekemakrank, is a genus of bulbous plant in the amaryllid family with some 33 accepted species. It is native to the Cape Provinces, the Northern Provinces and the Free State of South Africa, as well as Botswana and Namibia.
Text from Wikipedia, “Gethyllis”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.
At a glance
Cultivation
Grouped as a bulb, tuber or caudex by the genus Gethyllis, 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 March in the northern hemisphere (April to September 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 (182 mm of 246 mm) falls in April to September, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 13.8 °C against a yearly mean of 17.0 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: October to March.
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 246 mm a year, wettest July at 39 mm, driest January at 6 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
246 mm a year at the habitat, 182 mm of it April to September. Wettest month July at 39 mm, driest January at 6 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 149 mm to 503 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: 20 to 55 mol/m²/day.
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
Open sky over the habitat: 20 to 55 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 57).
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 1.0 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
This species’ habitat figures, with their source.
Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 1.0 °C, the absolute minimum -1.9 °C, about 1 frost night a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 39.3 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 6.1 °C in July (across the envelope cells 4.1 °C to 9.5 °C), warmest day 30.5 °C in February (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 1.0 °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.
Relative humidity at the habitat: 50 to 53% 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
Figures by month
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day °C | 30 / 24–32 | 31 / 25–32 | 29 / 23–30 | 25 / 21–27 | 21 / 18–23 | 17 / 16–20 | 17 / 15–20 | 19 / 16–21 | 22 / 18–23 | 25 / 20–26 | 27 / 21–28 | 29 / 23–30 |
| Night °C | 15 / 14–17 | 16 / 15–17 | 15 / 14–16 | 13 / 11–14 | 10 / 8–12 | 7 / 5–10 | 6 / 4–10 | 7 / 5–10 | 8 / 7–11 | 10 / 9–13 | 12 / 11–14 | 14 / 13–16 |
| Rain mm | 6 / 4–13 | 7 / 4–13 | 14 / 8–22 | 23 / 16–38 | 32 / 18–65 | 37 / 19–84 | 39 / 19–90 | 31 / 16–61 | 20 / 10–49 | 15 / 10–28 | 11 / 7–19 | 11 / 5–20 |
| DLI | 55 / 54–56 | 50 / 48–51 | 41 / 39–43 | 31 / 28–34 | 23 / 20–26 | 20 / 17–22 | 21 / 19–24 | 27 / 24–30 | 36 / 33–39 | 45 / 43–47 | 52 / 50–54 | 55 / 54–57 |
| RH % | 51 / 47–60 | 51 / 47–61 | 50 / 48–61 | 51 / 49–61 | 52 / 49–60 | 53 / 50–59 | 52 / 50–58 | 53 / 50–60 | 52 / 49–61 | 51 / 48–60 | 51 / 48–59 | 52 / 48–60 |
Each figure is the median across the 58 grid cells holding the 62 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 2412:3967 (-30.625, 18.375). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -1.9 °C, 1st-percentile night 1.0 °C, 99th-percentile day 39.3 °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 58 distinct grid cells holding the 62 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2412:3967 (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 -30.50_18.125, lapse-corrected +103 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 762 m (cell mean).
Natural habitat
Photographs
Photographs: (c) Charleen Brunke, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) James Deacon, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (3); (c) Matt Berger, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Sam McCarren, some rights reserved (CC BY); no rights reserved · CC0 (2).
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 Gethyllis lanuginosa, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.
Related
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.
Lachenalia violacea Karoo Viooltjie
Ceropegia mammillaris Apocynaceae
Dimorphotheca sinuata African beauty
Massonia bifolia Pagoda Lily Trachyandra patens Asphodelaceae
Hessea breviflora Match SambreeltjieOther Gethyllis 30 in the reference
Gethyllis afra Amaryllidaceae Gethyllis barbarae Amaryllidaceae
Gethyllis barkerae Amaryllidaceae
Gethyllis britteniana Sandveld Kukumakranka
Gethyllis campanulata Bokkeveld Kukumakranka Gethyllis cavidens Amaryllidaceae
Gethyllis ciliaris Common Kukumakranka Gethyllis fimbriatula Amaryllidaceae
Gethyllis grandiflora Shavingbrush Kukumakranka
Gethyllis gregoriana Amaryllidaceae
Gethyllis hallii Amaryllidaceae Gethyllis heinzeana Amaryllidaceae all 31 ›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 answeredgbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zamclimate answeredwikidata 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: skippedinat.taxon not askedinat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skippedinat.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 answeredopenalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skippedEvery upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 3 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.








