Species
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Photographs: iNaturalist and GBIF media did not answer when this page was built. Not a statement that none exist.

Lapeirousia littoralis Baker

Spider Kabong

Climate known Photographs not checked 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

Lapeirousia littoralis is a perennial geophyte belonging to the genus Lapeirousia. The species is native to Angola, Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe. In South Africa, the plant occurs in northern Namaqualand and Bushmanland.

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

About the genus · Lapeirousia

Lapeirousia is a genus in the plant family Iridaceae. It is endemic to sub-Saharan Africa, about a third of the species occurring in fynbos.

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

Family
Iridaceae
Described by
Baker
Native to
Angola, Botswana, Cape Provinces +3
Wild records
35 in range· 27 open

At a glance

Warmest month
33°C
Jan, mean day; nights 17 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
95mm/yr
no wet month · peak Apr 15 mm (CHELSA)
Light
23–57DLI
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 Lapeirousia, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: no rainy season to read (95 mm a year); the temperature rule's cooler six months are November to April in the northern hemisphere. Habitat rain 95 mm a year, wettest April at 15 mm, driest August at 4 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 23 to 57 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 1.0 °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 Lapeirousia burchellii Baker; Lapeirousia caudata subsp. burchellii (Baker) Marais & Goldblatt; Lapeirousia littoralis subsp. littoralis; Lapeirousia ramosissima Dinter; Lapeirousia streyi Suess.

Cultivation

Grouped as a bulb, tuber or caudex by the genus Lapeirousia, 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: no rainy season to read (95 mm a year); the temperature rule's cooler six months are November to April in the northern hemisphere.

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

Rain at the habitat is 95 mm a year (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Under 120 mm the rain rule reads no rainy season, and the growing-season rule infers nothing from it. The temperature rule reads the cooler six months as May to October. Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: November 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 95 mm a year, wettest April at 15 mm, driest August at 4 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

95 mm a year at the habitat. Wettest month April at 15 mm, driest August at 4 mm; 2 months under 5 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 62 mm to 346 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: 23 to 57 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 23 to 57 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 58).

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.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 1.0 °C, the absolute minimum -1.4 °C, about 1 frost night a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 41.6 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 5.6 °C in July (across the envelope cells 4.6 °C to 8.9 °C), warmest day 33.0 °C in January (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.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 44 to 49% 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 19 °C in Jun to 33 °C in Jan; mean night from 6 °C in Jul to 17 °C in Feb. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest night. 95 mm of rain a year, most in Apr. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 33 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -1.4 °C and the 99th-percentile day 41.6 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-10°10°20°30°40°50°frost41.6° 99th-percentile day (undated)-1.4° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075mm rainDLI 23–57RH 44–49 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 33 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 °C33 / 30–3533 / 30–3431 / 28–3326 / 25–3023 / 21–2619 / 17–2319 / 17–2322 / 20–2526 / 23–2828 / 26–3030 / 28–3232 / 30–34
Night °C17 / 16–2017 / 16–2016 / 15–1914 / 12–1610 / 9–136 / 5–96 / 5–97 / 6–1010 / 8–1213 / 10–1414 / 12–1616 / 14–18
Rain mm8 / 4–7514 / 7–7514 / 9–5515 / 10–296 / 3–155 / 1–95 / 0–84 / 0–64 / 2–107 / 4–236 / 3–317 / 3–43
DLI56 / 49–5751 / 45–5143 / 40–4434 / 33–3727 / 26–3323 / 22–3025 / 24–3131 / 30–3740 / 39–4348 / 46–4954 / 51–5557 / 52–58
RH %45 / 42–5145 / 43–5146 / 45–5047 / 45–5047 / 43–5049 / 43–5048 / 41–5046 / 40–5045 / 39–4945 / 41–4944 / 41–4945 / 42–51

Each figure is the median across the 33 grid cells holding the 35 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 2382:3982 (-29.125, 19.125). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -1.4 °C, 1st-percentile night 1.0 °C, 99th-percentile day 41.6 °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 33 distinct grid cells holding the 35 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2382:3982 (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 -29.00_19.375, lapse-corrected -70 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 706 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.
NativeAngola, Botswana, Cape Provinces, Caprivi Strip, Namibia, Northern Provinces
Kew's description“tuberous geophyte” · “seasonally dry tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-29.125, 18.375 · in the densest population, 22 records (63% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 35 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 27 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker in the same place.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 35 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Lapeirousia littoralis, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

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
Lapeirousia littoralis Baker
Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (2026)
Lapeirousia littoralis Baker
Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (2026) · DiSSCo
Lapeirousia littoralis Baker
Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (2026) · DiSSCo
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

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 Lapeirousia 27 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 nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
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 did not answerapi.gbif.org not asked: offline re-derivation
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 5 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.