Uncarina stellulifera, Atsimo-Andrefana, MG-TL, MG

Uncarina stellulifera Humbert

Pedaliaceae

Climate known 56 photographs

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 · Uncarina

Uncarina, also called succulent sesame, mousetrap plant, or local names include farehitra or farehitsy, is a genus of semi-succulent flowering plants in the Pedaliaceae found in Madagascar. As most species within the genus are inhabitants of dry, semi-arid or seasonally-dry regions, many mature into water-storing pachycauls, or "caudiciformes"—a common colloquial term to describe plants that normally inhabit drier climates and develop a large, woody base, or "foot", known as a caudex. In these species, a plant's lower half gradually accumulates and stores water ; over time, the caudex changes shape, swelling to an often impressive size, as it adds to its own moisture "reservoir" for future periods of drought.

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

Family

Pedaliaceae

Described by

Humbert

Native to

Madagascar

Wild records

131 in range· 81 open

At a glance

Warmest month

32°C

Nov, mean day; nights 22 °C (CHELSA)

Rain

471mm/yr

4 wet months · peak Jan 139 mm (CHELSA)

Light

27–48DLI

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 summer growing season, June to September in the northern hemisphere (December to March at the habitat, southern). Habitat rain 471 mm a year, wettest January at 139 mm, driest August at 4 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 27 to 48 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

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 (370 mm of 471 mm) falls in December to March, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 27.4 °C against a yearly mean of 24.9 °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 471 mm a year, wettest January at 139 mm, driest August at 4 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

471 mm a year at the habitat, 370 mm of it December to March. Wettest month January at 139 mm, driest August at 4 mm; 1 month under 5 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 410 mm to 914 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 48 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 27 to 48 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 25, 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 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 12.4 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 36.2 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 16.6 °C in July (across the envelope cells 14.6 °C to 18.2 °C), warmest day 31.9 °C in November (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: 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

day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 40 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

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
Day °C	31 / 30–33	31 / 30–32	32 / 30–33	31 / 29–32	29 / 27–29	27 / 25–27	27 / 25–27	28 / 26–28	30 / 27–31	31 / 28–32	32 / 29–33	32 / 29–33
Night °C	24 / 22–25	24 / 22–25	24 / 22–25	22 / 20–23	20 / 17–21	17 / 15–19	17 / 15–18	17 / 15–19	18 / 17–20	20 / 19–22	22 / 20–23	23 / 22–24
Rain mm	139 / 110–273	95 / 82–240	56 / 49–120	22 / 17–37	13 / 11–22	8 / 3–14	7 / 5–12	4 / 3–9	9 / 7–12	14 / 10–31	24 / 19–70	80 / 62–149
DLI	44 / 40–45	42 / 39–43	40 / 39–40	35 / 33–36	29 / 28–30	27 / 25–28	28 / 26–29	33 / 32–34	41 / 39–41	46 / 45–46	48 / 46–49	47 / 43–48
RH %	62 / 59–64	61 / 59–64	59 / 58–63	57 / 57–61	57 / 56–60	56 / 54–59	56 / 54–58	55 / 52–59	54 / 51–60	56 / 54–61	57 / 56–61	59 / 58–63

Each figure is the median across the 40 grid cells holding the 67 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 2269:4475 (-23.475, 43.775). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 12.4 °C, 1st-percentile night 14.6 °C, 99th-percentile day 36.2 °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 40 distinct grid cells holding the 67 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2269:4475 (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 -23.50_43.750, lapse-corrected -2 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 95 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

Kew's description“tree” · “desert or dry shrubland”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here

Map marker-23.506, 43.759 · in the densest population, 120 records (92% of those in range)

Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 131 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 81 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 2 km away. 1 record outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 64 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 131 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Photographs: (c) amantedarmanin, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4); (c) martin ingemansson, some rights reserved (CC BY) (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 Uncarina stellulifera, 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

Uncarina stellulifera Humbert

Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin (2025) · DiSSCo

Occurrence Download

GBIF.org User (2025) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility

Occurrence Download