Species
+

Monanthes polyphylla Haw.

Crassulaceae

Climate known 72 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.

About the genus · Monanthes

Monanthes is a genus of small, succulent, subtropical plants of the family Crassulaceae. Most species in the genus are endemic to the Canary Islands, with one species also endemic to the Savage Islands and another to the High Atlas mountains of Morocco. Its center of diversity is Tenerife, with seven species occurring on this island. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Monanthes”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Crassulaceae
Described by
Haw.
Native to
Canary Is.
Wild records
135 in range· 26 open

At a glance

Warmest month
23°C
Aug, mean day; nights 21 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
465mm/yr
7 wet months · peak Dec 105 mm (CHELSA)
Light
21–49DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a cactus or succulent by the genus Monanthes, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a winter growing season, November to March in the northern hemisphere (November to March at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 465 mm a year, wettest December at 105 mm, driest July at 2 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 21 to 49 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 14.6 °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.

Cultivation

Grouped as a cactus or succulent by the genus Monanthes, 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, 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 (363 mm of 465 mm) falls in November to March, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 16.5 °C against a yearly mean of 18.3 °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 465 mm a year, wettest December at 105 mm, driest July at 2 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

465 mm a year at the habitat, 363 mm of it November to March. Wettest month December at 105 mm, driest July at 2 mm; 3 months under 5 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 340 mm to 677 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: 21 to 49 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 21 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 14.6 °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 14.6 °C, the absolute minimum 13.0 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 26.5 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 14.9 °C in February (across the envelope cells 11.4 °C to 16.5 °C), warmest day 22.8 °C in August (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 14.6 °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 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 Feb to 23 °C in Aug; mean night from 15 °C in Feb to 21 °C in Aug. The cold quarter, Jan to Mar, is the three months around the coldest night. 465 mm of rain a year, most in Dec. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 51 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 13.0 °C and the 99th-percentile day 26.5 °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°26.5° 99th-percentile day (undated)13.0° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125150mm rainDLI 21–49RH 60–63 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 51 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 / 13–1816 / 13–1817 / 14–1917 / 14–1918 / 16–1920 / 19–2122 / 21–2323 / 22–2422 / 21–2321 / 18–2319 / 16–2118 / 14–20
Night °C15 / 11–1715 / 11–1715 / 12–1716 / 12–1717 / 14–1818 / 16–2020 / 18–2221 / 19–2221 / 18–2220 / 16–2118 / 14–2016 / 13–18
Rain mm60 / 45–8767 / 51–10256 / 38–7626 / 17–3910 / 5–154 / 1–52 / 0–33 / 2–611 / 6–1946 / 33–7575 / 56–107105 / 67–150
DLI23 / 19–2729 / 25–3337 / 34–3943 / 41–4547 / 46–4849 / 47–5048 / 46–4945 / 43–4639 / 36–4131 / 28–3425 / 20–2821 / 17–24
RH %60 / 55–6360 / 54–6460 / 52–6361 / 56–6462 / 55–6563 / 50–6761 / 42–6761 / 44–6763 / 52–6663 / 57–6761 / 57–6461 / 58–64

Each figure is the median across the 51 grid cells holding the 129 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 1231:3269 (28.425, -16.525). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 13.0 °C, 1st-percentile night 14.6 °C, 99th-percentile day 26.5 °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 51 distinct grid cells holding the 129 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1231:3269 (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 28.50_-16.250, lapse-corrected -26 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 153 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“succulent subshrub” · “subtropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker28.158, -17.161 · in the densest population, 135 records (100% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 135 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 26 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 10 km away. 2 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 6 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay 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 135 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Monanthes polyphyllaMonanthes polyphyllaMonanthes polyphyllaMonanthes polyphyllaMonanthes polyphyllaMonanthes polyphyllaMonanthes polyphyllaMonanthes polyphylla

Photographs: no rights reserved · CC0 (2); (c) Rosario Douglas, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) William Stephens, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) amantedarmanin, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4).

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Monanthes polyphylla, 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
Monanthes polyphylla subsp. amydros Nyffeler
Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (2026)
Monanthes polyphylla subsp. amydros Nyffeler
Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (2026) · DiSSCo
Monanthes polyphylla subsp. amydros Nyffeler
Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (2026) · DiSSCo
Monanthes polyphylla Haw.
Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (2026)
Monanthes polyphylla Haw.
Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (2026)
Monanthes polyphylla Haw.
Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (2026)
Monanthes polyphylla Haw.
Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (2026)
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 Monanthes 12 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 nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
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: filled 2026-09-20
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 11 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.