Species
+

Kalanchoe pinnata (Lam.) Pers.

'Oliwa Ka Kahakai, 'oliwa ku kahakai, Air plant, Cathedral bells

Climate known 43 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 pinnata, commonly known as cathedral bells, air plant, life plant, miracle leaf, and love bush, is a succulent plant native to Madagascar. It is a popular houseplant and has become naturalized in tropical and subtropical areas. The species is distinctive for the profusion of miniature plantlets that form on the margins of its leaves, a trait it has in common with some other members of Bryophyllum.

Text from Wikipedia, “Kalanchoe pinnata”, 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
(Lam.) Pers.
Native to
Madagascar, Cook Is.
Wild records
28 in range· 24 open

At a glance

Warmest month
29°C
Dec, mean day; nights 23 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1564mm/yr
9 wet months · peak Jan 345 mm (CHELSA)
Light
31–43DLI
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 sharp rainy season, December to March at the habitat (not shifted); the temperature curve is flat (3.4 °C of range), so no growing season is inferred. Habitat rain 1564 mm a year, wettest January at 345 mm, driest July at 15 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 31 to 43 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 18.6 °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 Baumgartenia sobolifera Tratt.; Bryophyllum calcicola (H.Perrier) V.V.Byal; Bryophyllum calycinum Salisb.; Bryophyllum germinans Blanco; Bryophyllum pinnatum (Lam.) Asch. & Schweinf. and 25 more.

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 sharp rainy season, December to March at the habitat (not shifted); the temperature curve is flat (3.4 °C of range), so no growing season is inferred.

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a sharp season: 70% of the year's rain (1158 mm of 1564 mm) falls in December to March. The temperature curve is flat, 3.4 °C between the warmest and coldest month, so the growing-season rule does not infer a growing season from it. Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; with a flat temperature curve there is no season to reverse, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

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 1564 mm a year, wettest January at 345 mm, driest July at 15 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1564 mm a year at the habitat, 1158 mm of it December to March. Wettest month January at 345 mm, driest July at 15 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1166 mm to 2667 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: 31 to 43 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 31 to 43 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 22, the highest 90th-percentile month 45).

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 18.6 °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 18.6 °C, the absolute minimum 16.8 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 35.4 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 18.5 °C in July (across the envelope cells 12.8 °C to 22.8 °C), warmest day 28.6 °C in December (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 18.6 °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: 60 to 67% 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 25 °C in Aug to 29 °C in Dec; mean night from 19 °C in Jul to 23 °C in Feb. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest night. 1564 mm of rain a year, most in Jan. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 25 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 16.8 °C and the 99th-percentile day 35.4 °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°35.4° 99th-percentile day (undated)16.8° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 31–43RH 60–67 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 25 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 °C28 / 26–3128 / 26–3028 / 26–3128 / 25–3227 / 23–3226 / 21–3025 / 20–3025 / 21–3126 / 23–3228 / 24–3329 / 25–3329 / 26–32
Night °C23 / 20–2523 / 20–2623 / 20–2622 / 18–2621 / 16–2519 / 13–2419 / 13–2319 / 13–2320 / 14–2321 / 16–2422 / 18–2523 / 19–25
Rain mm345 / 279–493320 / 264–412234 / 169–36399 / 50–22635 / 11–20224 / 1–12815 / 1–17823 / 2–11332 / 5–12062 / 20–155116 / 43–210259 / 186–333
DLI36 / 33–4334 / 33–3936 / 34–3836 / 29–3733 / 24–3431 / 22–3232 / 23–3236 / 28–3740 / 35–4243 / 39–4543 / 41–4540 / 38–44
RH %67 / 65–7167 / 65–7166 / 63–7163 / 59–7062 / 54–6960 / 52–6861 / 51–6761 / 51–6662 / 52–6562 / 54–6662 / 56–6765 / 62–69

Each figure is the median across the 25 grid cells holding the 28 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 2067:4577 (-13.375, 48.875). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 16.8 °C, 1st-percentile night 18.6 °C, 99th-percentile day 35.4 °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 25 distinct grid cells holding the 28 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2067:4577 (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 -13.50_48.750, lapse-corrected -169 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 43 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, Cook Is.· introduced: Azores, Canary Is., Cape Verde, Madeira, Benin, Gambia, The, Ghana, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Central African Republic, Congo, Gabon, Gulf of Guinea Is., Rwanda, Zaïre, Chad, Ethiopia, Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Angola, Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, KwaZulu-Natal, Swaziland, Ascension, St.Helena, Chagos Archipelago, Comoros, Mauritius, Réunion, Rodrigues, Seychelles, China South-Central, China Southeast, Nansei-shoto, Ogasawara-shoto, Taiwan, Assam, Bangladesh, East Himalaya, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, West Himalaya, Andaman Is., Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Borneo, Cocos (Keeling) I., Jawa, Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Maluku, Philippines, Sulawesi, Sumatera, New Guinea, Solomon Is., Norfolk Is., Queensland, Kermadec Is., Fiji, Gilbert Is., Nauru, Niue, New Caledonia, Samoa, Tokelau-Manihiki, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, Line Is., Marquesas, Society Is., Tuamotu, Tubuai Is., Caroline Is., Marcus I., Marianas, Marshall Is., Wake I., Hawaii, Florida, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Southwest, Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Bahamas, Bermuda, Cayman Is., Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Puerto Rico, Southwest Caribbean, Turks-Caicos Is., Trinidad-Tobago, Windward Is., Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Galápagos, Peru, Brazil West-Central, Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast, Brazil North, Brazil South, Argentina Northeast, Paraguay
Kew's description“succulent subshrub” · “seasonally dry tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-12.367, 49.35 · in the densest population, 18 records (64% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 28 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 24 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 450 km away. 1569 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 2° block of the 28 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Kalanchoe pinnataKalanchoe pinnataKalanchoe pinnataKalanchoe pinnataKalanchoe pinnataKalanchoe pinnataKalanchoe pinnataKalanchoe pinnata

Photographs: (c) Alejandro Alfredo Aguirre, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4); no rights reserved · CC0 (4).

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

Ethnomedicines used in Trinidad and Tobago for urinary problems and diabetes mellitus
Cheryl Lans (2006) · Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine
Hepatoprotective activity of leaves of Kalanchoe pinnata Pers.
Narayan Prasad Yadav, V. K. Dixit (2003) · Journal of Ethnopharmacology
The antileishmanial activity assessment of unusual flavonoids from Kalanchoe pinnata
Michelle Frazão Muzitano, Luzineide W. Tinoco, Catherine Guette, Carlos R. Kaiser (2006) · Phytochemistry
Anti-tumor Promoting Activity of Bufadienolides from Kalanchoe pinnata and K. daigremontiana × butiflora
Unang Supratman, Tomoyuki Fujita, Kohki Akiyama, Hideo Hayashi (2001) · Bioscience Biotechnology and Biochemistry
Quercitrin: An Antileishmanial Flavonoid Glycoside fromKalanchoe pinnata
Michelle Frazão Muzitano, Elaine A. Cruz, Ana Paula de Almeida, Silvia A. G. Da-Silva (2006) · Planta Medica
Wound healing potential of ethanolic extract of Kalanchoe pinnata Lam. leaf--a preliminary study.
B. Shivananda Nayak, Julien R. Marshall, G. N. Isitor (2010) · PubMed
Immunomodulatory pretreatment with Kalanchoe pinnata extract and its quercitrin flavonoid effectively protects mice against fatal anaphylactic shock
E.A. Cruz, Silvia A. G. Da-Silva, Michelle Frazão Muzitano, P.M.R. Silva (2008) · International Immunopharmacology
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

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 155 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.