Species
+

Lotus berthelotii Masf.

Parrot's Beak Lotus Vine, coral gem, coralgem, parrot's beak

Climate known 8 photographs
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

Lotus berthelotii is a flowering plant endemic to the Canary Islands of Spain, in the genus Lotus of the pea family Fabaceae. Among its common names are lotus vine flower, parrot beak, pelican beak, and coral gem. This plant is widely cultivated but is either extinct in the wild or persists as a few individuals. In 1884 it was already classed as "exceedingly rare" and plant collection probably hastened its decline.

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

Family
Fabaceae
Described by
Masf.
Native to
Canary Is.
Wild records
32 in range· 16 open

At a glance

Warmest month
23°C
Aug, mean day; nights 19 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
425mm/yr
7 wet months · peak Dec 76 mm (CHELSA)
Light
22–49DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: a winter growing season, November to March in the northern hemisphere (November to March at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 425 mm a year, wettest December at 76 mm, driest July at 3 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 22 to 49 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 13.8 °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 Heinekenia berthelotii (Masf.) G.Kunkel; Heinekenia peliorhyncha Webb; Heinekenia peliorhyncha Webb ex Christ; Heinekenia peliorhyncha var. subglabrata Christ; Lotus atrococcineus Heydt and 4 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a winter growing season, November to March in the northern hemisphere (November to March at the habitat, northern).

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 (320 mm of 425 mm) falls in November to March, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 15.2 °C against a yearly mean of 17.2 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: May 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 425 mm a year, wettest December at 76 mm, driest July at 3 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

425 mm a year at the habitat, 320 mm of it November to March. Wettest month December at 76 mm, driest July at 3 mm; 2 months under 5 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 356 mm to 527 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern 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: 22 to 49 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 22 to 49 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 50).

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 13.8 °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 13.8 °C, the absolute minimum 12.1 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 25.5 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 12.8 °C in January (across the envelope cells 5.8 °C to 15.9 °C), warmest day 23.3 °C in August (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 13.8 °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: 56 to 63% 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 Jan to 23 °C in Aug; mean night from 13 °C in Jan to 19 °C in Aug. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 425 mm of rain a year, most in Dec. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 27 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 12.1 °C and the 99th-percentile day 25.5 °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°25.5° 99th-percentile day (undated)12.1° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125mm rainDLI 22–49RH 56–63 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 27 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 °C16 / 10–1816 / 10–1817 / 12–1917 / 12–1918 / 14–2020 / 19–2223 / 21–2523 / 22–2522 / 20–2421 / 16–2319 / 13–2117 / 11–19
Night °C13 / 6–1613 / 6–1613 / 7–1614 / 7–1615 / 9–1717 / 12–1919 / 16–2119 / 16–2119 / 14–2118 / 11–2016 / 9–1914 / 7–17
Rain mm60 / 45–7262 / 54–7953 / 44–6125 / 19–3310 / 7–144 / 2–73 / 1–55 / 3–613 / 9–1745 / 35–6269 / 57–8476 / 65–105
DLI24 / 19–2730 / 26–3338 / 34–4043 / 41–4547 / 45–4849 / 47–5048 / 46–4945 / 43–4739 / 36–4132 / 28–3526 / 21–2822 / 17–25
RH %61 / 46–6362 / 46–6459 / 44–6361 / 45–6661 / 44–6760 / 39–6856 / 34–6758 / 36–6761 / 44–6763 / 49–6762 / 50–6462 / 49–65

Each figure is the median across the 27 grid cells holding the 31 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 1236:3270 (28.175, -16.475). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 12.1 °C, 1st-percentile night 13.8 °C, 99th-percentile day 25.5 °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 27 distinct grid cells holding the 31 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1236:3270 (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 28.00_-16.250, lapse-corrected +208 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 344 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.
NativeCanary Is.
Kew's description“subshrub” · “subtropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker28.383, -16.517 · in the densest population, 31 records (97% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 32 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 16 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 6 km away. 27 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 32 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Lotus berthelotiiLotus berthelotiiLotus berthelotiiLotus berthelotiiLotus berthelotiiLotus berthelotiiLotus berthelotii

Photographs: silvana raimondi, CC BY-SA, via GBIF; Bayo Ufano Misael, CC BY-SA, via GBIF; ForestFox, CC BY-SA, via GBIF; Besay Del Pino Mosegue, CC BY-SA, via GBIF; Pascal Host, CC BY-SA, via GBIF; Diego Alex, CC BY-SA, via GBIF; pericurric, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF.

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

The Macaronesian bird-flower element and its relation to bird and bee opportunists
Jens M. Olesen (1985) · Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society
Mesorhizobial strains nodulating Anagyris latifolia and Lotus berthelotii in Tamadaya ravine (Tenerife, Canary Islands) are two symbiovars of the same species, Mesorhizobium tamadayense sp. nov.
Martha-Helena Ramírez-Bahena, Mariano Hernández, Álvaro Péix, Encarna Velázquez (2012) · Systematic and Applied Microbiology
Seed Set in Lotus berthelotii Masferrer
S. J. Owens (1985) · Annals of Botany
Bird pollination of Canary Island endemic plants
Jeff Ollerton, Louise Cranmer, Ralph J. Stelzer, Steve Sullivan (2008) · Nature Precedings
First record of a new Frankliniella occidentalis (Pergande, 1895) (Thysanoptera: Thripidae) genetic lineage in Australia
Eyal Zeira, Isabel Valenzuela, Lixin Eow, Cherie Gambley (2025) · BioInvasions Records
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
Lotus berthelotii Masf.
Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (2026) · DiSSCo

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 Lotus 1 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 26 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.