Species
+

Kalanchoe daigremontiana Raym.-Hamet & H.Perrier

Alligator Plant, Devil's Backbone, Devil's backbone (EN); Brutblatt (DE); Espinazo del diablo (ES), Lengi di Kacho

Climate known 58 photographs Cactus or succulent
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

Kalanchoe daigremontiana, formerly known as Bryophyllum daigremontianum and commonly called mother of thousands, alligator plant or Mexican hat plant, is a succulent plant native to Madagascar. Like other members of Bryophyllum, it can propagate vegetatively from plantlets that develop on its leaf margins, as well as through upshoots from lateral roots, and seeds. All parts of this species contain a very toxic steroid known as daigremontianin.

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

About the genus · Kalanchoe

Kalanchoe, , is a genus of about 125 species of tropical, succulent plants in the stonecrop family Crassulaceae, mainly native to Madagascar and tropical Africa. A Kalanchoe species was one of the first plants to be sent into space, sent on a resupply to the Soviet Salyut 6 space station in 1979.

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

Family
Crassulaceae
Described by
Raym.-Hamet & H.Perrier
Native to
Madagascar
Wild records
13 in range· 5 open

At a glance

Warmest month
32°C
Nov, mean day; nights 21 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
675mm/yr
7 wet months · peak Jan 172 mm (CHELSA)
Light
27–47DLI
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 the genus Kalanchoe, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a summer growing season, June to September in the northern hemisphere (December to March at the habitat, southern). Habitat rain 675 mm a year, wettest January at 172 mm, driest August at 4 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 27 to 47 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 12.8 °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 Bryophyllum daigremontianum (Raym.-Hamet & H.Perrier) A.Berger.

Cultivation

Grouped as a cactus or succulent by the genus Kalanchoe, 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 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 (528 mm of 675 mm) falls in December to March, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 27.3 °C against a yearly mean of 24.6 °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 675 mm a year, wettest January at 172 mm, driest August at 4 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

675 mm a year at the habitat, 528 mm of it December to March. Wettest month January at 172 mm, driest August at 4 mm; 1 month under 5 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 454 mm to 1407 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: 27 to 47 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 27 to 47 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 24, the highest 90th-percentile month 49).

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 12.8 °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 12.8 °C, the absolute minimum 10.3 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 37.7 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 14.8 °C in July (across the envelope cells 10.0 °C to 16.8 °C), warmest day 32.2 °C in November (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 12.8 °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: 54 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 27 °C in Jul to 32 °C in Nov; mean night from 15 °C in Jul to 23 °C in Jan. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest night. 675 mm of rain a year, most in Jan. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 11 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 10.3 °C and the 99th-percentile day 37.7 °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°40°37.7° 99th-percentile day (undated)10.3° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 27–47RH 54–62 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 11 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 °C32 / 25–3232 / 25–3232 / 25–3231 / 24–3229 / 22–2927 / 20–2727 / 19–2728 / 20–2930 / 23–3132 / 25–3232 / 26–3332 / 26–33
Night °C23 / 17–2523 / 17–2522 / 17–2420 / 15–2218 / 13–2016 / 11–1815 / 10–1716 / 10–1717 / 11–1919 / 13–2121 / 15–2222 / 16–24
Rain mm172 / 138–350135 / 93–27377 / 53–20130 / 19–5414 / 11–257 / 5–87 / 6–94 / 4–1112 / 8–1525 / 11–6248 / 23–134144 / 77–268
DLI43 / 37–4442 / 36–4339 / 35–4035 / 32–3529 / 27–3027 / 24–2728 / 25–2833 / 30–3440 / 37–4145 / 41–4647 / 43–4946 / 41–48
RH %62 / 60–6461 / 60–6559 / 58–6458 / 56–6357 / 55–6256 / 54–6255 / 53–6254 / 52–6154 / 51–5955 / 53–5857 / 55–5960 / 58–62

Each figure is the median across the 11 grid cells holding the 12 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 2264:4478 (-23.225, 43.925). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 10.3 °C, 1st-percentile night 12.8 °C, 99th-percentile day 37.7 °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 11 distinct grid cells holding the 12 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2264:4478 (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 -23.00_43.750, lapse-corrected -5 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 236 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.
NativeMadagascar· introduced: Baleares, Corse, Portugal, Sardegna, Spain, Italy, Sicilia, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Canary Is., Cape Verde, Madeira, Senegal, Kenya, Zimbabwe, St.Helena, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Niue, New Caledonia, Cook Is., Texas, Alabama, Florida, Mexico Southwest, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Bahamas, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Argentina Northeast
Kew's description“succulent subshrub or shrub” · “desert or dry shrubland”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-23.217, 43.933 · in the densest population, 9 records (69% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 13 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 5 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 119 km away. 776 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 1 in-range record is placed to worse than 10 km and stays 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 13 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Kalanchoe daigremontianaKalanchoe daigremontianaKalanchoe daigremontianaKalanchoe daigremontianaKalanchoe daigremontianaKalanchoe daigremontianaKalanchoe daigremontianaKalanchoe daigremontiana

Photographs: (c) Tony Rebelo, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA); (c) Jay Pruett, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Sandino Guerrero, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) karla daniel de faria, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (3); (c) Ryan Donnelly, some rights reserved (CC BY).

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

Characterization of Tn904 insertions in octopine Ti plasmid mutants of Agrobacterium tumefaciens
G. Ooms, P. M. Klapwijk, J A Poulis, R. A. Schilperoort (1980) · Journal of Bacteriology
Identification of a new virulence locus in Agrobacterium tumefaciens that affects polysaccharide composition and plant cell attachment
Michael F. Thomashow, Joyce E. Karlinsey, Jon Marks, Ronald E. Hurlbert (1987) · Journal of Bacteriology
Is a Low Internal Conductance to CO2 Diffusion a Consequence of Succulence in Plants with Crassulacean Acid Metabolism?
Kate Maxwell, Susanne von Caemmerer, John R. Evans (1998) · Australian Journal of Plant Physiology
The phylogenetic distribution of sterols in tracheophytes
William R. Nes, Kenneth Krevitz, John Joseph, William David Nes (1977) · Lipids
Phenolic acid content, antioxidant and cytotoxic activities of four Kalanchoë species
Anna Bogucka‐Kocka, Christian Zidorn, Małgorzata Kasprzycka, Grażyna Szymczak (2016) · Saudi Journal of Biological Sciences
Green synthesis of Ag nanoflowers using Kalanchoe Daigremontiana extract for enhanced photocatalytic and antibacterial activities
Gustavo A. Molina, Rodrigo Esparza, J. Luis López‐Miranda, A.R. Hernández-Martínez (2019) · Colloids and Surfaces B Biointerfaces
Cloning and Characterization of Oxidosqualene Cyclases from Kalanchoe daigremontiana
Zhonghua Wang, Trevor H. Yeats, Hong Han, Reinhard Jetter (2010) · Journal of Biological Chemistry
Blood–Brain Barrier Permeability Study of Potential Neuroprotective Compounds Recovered From Plants and Agri-Food by-Products
José David Sánchez-Martínez, Alberto Valdés, Rocío Gallego, Zully J. Suárez-Montenegro (2022) · Frontiers in Nutrition

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 Kalanchoe 13 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 98 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.